astrangerenters (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
astrangestorm) wrote2011-05-01 12:04 pm
astrangestorm) wrote2011-05-01 12:04 pm
Entry tags:
Cloudbusting, 6/6
PART SIX: TALE AS OLD AS TIME
He'd been waiting all day. Monitoring the house day and night, looking for a sign of the strange dirigible. He'd seen Nino with his own eyes - he called the automaton an "abomination." Taking Becky's father had initially been a means for him to draw Becky out of hiding. Now he had an even more interesting tale to tell - abominations were living in the Western Wood.
He'd tethered one of his giant horses behind the rainbow house, and he'd forced her to ride before him all the way back to Sora. "It would be a very interesting topic with my father," he said to her as the horse galloped along. "Men made of metal. Just think of it. Metal men serving on patrol in Sora. I say, nobody would dare cross us. If they possess the ability to man an airship, surely a bit of intimidation training and battle strategy would make them ready to keep tabs on the town."
"You would make Sora into your own little kingdom, Alaric?" she asked, despising the way he held the reins in one hand and kept hold of her with the other. Her hand had been in Aiba's earlier that day - held with affection. Alaric held her with nothing but possession and greed in his heart.
"Of course. The king's power is weakening, and the other towns will gobble one another up. It tips the scales in our favor if we have something they don't."
She saw the town loom larger and larger before her. "And what do you intend to do with my father? He hasn't hurt anyone. He hasn't been in the Western Wood..."
"My darling, you're not seeing the full story. Your father was to lure you. And you will lure them."
She shook her head. There was no way she'd tell Alaric about the automatons' weaknesses. He probably just thought they were mindless beings, capable of being programmed any way he'd like. "They won't come for me," she argued. "And you won't turn them to your side. That much I believe."
"But they'll be missing the most exciting event in town if they don't at least pay a visit."
"What event is that?" she asked, feeling the horse grow more and more exhausted under their combined weight and Alaric's insistence on forcing it to gallop faster.
"Our wedding of course," he said, and she could feel the barrel of the revolver push against her spine. "We're to be wed in the town square in two nights, just in time for my big day. Oh, you haven't heard, have you? Ah, of course you haven't since you've been hiding out in the Western Wood like a criminal. My father is stepping down. The night you become my bride is the night I become Sora's mayor."
"And my father?"
"Will be released to play with his potions. I don't much care about his silly magic. Just a crazy old man."
Her father would be safe. Alaric was getting everything he wanted - power and a bride to possess fully so long as her father was alive. She said nothing in reply. There was nothing that could be said.
They arrived at the Gastons' mansion, and she was immediately ushered in by several brutish fellows - family bodyguards. She was brought upstairs to a bedroom and the door locked. She thought of the castle, how happy she'd been there. Now she'd be miserable - miserable with Alaric, miserable without her friends and without Masaki. But her father would go free, and hopefully Masaki could be cured. It was the only way.
The hours passed. She slept fitfully that night and was forced into a rather strange breakfast with Alaric and his parents the following morning. Becky got the impression that Mayor and Mrs. Gaston had little idea of their son's ambitions or even that Maurice Vaughn had been imprisoned. It was all Alaric's doing, and she behaved herself at the meal. To protest meant that her father's freedom could all too easily be snatched away.
Time ticked away, and there were dress fittings and meetings with Alaric's other relatives. She felt like a doll, sitting quietly while the women gossiped and laughed, wondering aloud how Alaric had come to choose such a small little wife with "such plain features." She let them poke and prod at her as they decided on a wedding gown, on a wedding veil. They tsk'ed and sighed at her hips - "how will she bear any strong, sturdy Gaston children?" They sighed at her heritage - "the daughter of a useless charlatan, selling his vials of poison." They complained and criticized right in her face, and Becky could say nothing at all in her defense.
Sunset came and went. As Nino was most likely touching down in the wildflower field, Becky was practicing a walk down the aisle at the old stone church in the town square.
Alaric gripped her hand tightly as they stood at the altar together. "Your father's gone home. I've seen to that."
Her eyes widened in alarm. "Just like that? Without even letting me see him?"
He squeezed enough to send shockwaves of pain through her wrists and up her arms. "Quiet now. We're in the house of the gods, after all. I have what I wanted. There was no need for him to be wasting space in my jail."
But if Maurice was released, she thought with a surge of happiness, perhaps Nino had found him. Maybe Nino had flown him back to the castle and to safety. She'd done her mission in a backwards way, but at the very least, her father was safe and out of Alaric's clutches.
That night, Becky dreamed of Snow Lake - of Aiba sitting at the edge and looking down at her sadly as she sank down, down, down all the way to the bottom, her fingers outstretched to a surface she could no longer reach.
--
She sat before the mirror in Alaric's mansion, staring at a person she could barely recognize. The ladies' maids had scrubbed her clean and curled her hair, painting her face with so much makeup she had a hard time seeing what she truly looked like underneath. Her dress was a stark white with short lace sleeves and embroidered with tiny white flowers. She could only think of the flowers at the rainbow house and her gardens at the castle.
Her body had gotten used to days without being confined by corsets, and the readjustment was making every breath a challenge. The maids had shown little mercy in lacing her up, chuckling about how "delightful" it would be for Alaric to "unwrap" her later. They placed a gaudy tiara on her head and attached the veil Alaric's relatives had selected on her behalf before walking her out to the carriage that was waiting to take her to the church and to a life forever at the mercy of Alaric Gaston. She thought with hope of her father working side by side with Masaki in his workshop. Between her father's faith and Aiba's odd genius, they'd surely be able to brew something up.
Earlier that day, in a ceremony she had not been required to attend, Alaric's father had officially stepped down as Mayor of Sora as the town cheered the succession of his son. The whole town was abuzz about the sudden wedding, the maids had been whispering to one another. It was now early evening - there'd be a quick wedding ceremony and a grand banquet back at the mansion for the town's captains of industry and leading citizens.
The carriage made its way over the cobblestones of the Sora streets. Alaric, his father, and the guests were awaiting her arrival, and she tried not to cry as her new life was about to start. It was her own wedding day, and her father was not invited (though she wanted him as far from Sora as possible). She'd be escorted down the aisle by Alaric's father as one last insult to her family line and one last reminder of the power Alaric now held over her.
The carriage turned the corner and was almost to the square when the horses suddenly protested noisily, the carriage coming to a sudden stop. That was when she heard the hum. She tore the veil and tiara off her head, the maids accompanying her in the carriage screeching at her insolence as she flung open the carriage door, bunching her long white gown in her hands and hopping down into the street.
All the well-wishers who'd gathered to celebrate the wedding were now staring in shock as the dirigible from the west, far smaller than any dirigible at the air station, flew past the spires of town and began its descent into the square. As it landed, she started to run, her shoes ridiculously tight and for the sort of women who didn't run around in the mud or muck about in the garden the way she did. But she didn't care about it hurting - all she knew was that they'd come too far. Nino had come too far from the castle.
There was a clamor at the church, and she saw Alaric, his father, and his private little army emerge onto the steps. They were opposite the direction she was coming from, with the landing dirigible in between them. "Arrest him! Arrest the pilot!" Alaric was screaming as the crowd started to panic.
The gondola didn't touch the ground before the door slid open, and she was startled at the sight of a bright red jacket. "Becky!" Sho cried out for her, using her nickname for the very first time. "Becky, come on!"
She could see Nino at the controls, and Sho at the door holding open his arms. The crowd screamed at the sight of Sho's metal body. "A machine!" "What kind of armor is that?" "Is the town being attacked?" But Becky did her best to run forward, trying not to trip over her gown.
Alaric was ordering his men to fire, but they'd come running out of the church - they had no weapons on them at all. Their master was not as concerned about having a weapon on sacred ground. Alaric pulled out his revolver from inside his suit jacket, leveling it at the gondola and firing. The glass shattered just as she grabbed hold of Sho's hands, letting him haul her up and into the gondola.
"Nice dress, Breeches!" Nino shouted over the noise and chaos in the town square. "Sho, get the door!"
"I know, I know!" the other automaton complained, slamming it shut.
She ducked down, shoes crunching on broken glass as Nino sent the dirigible into the air. "My father?" she asked, running out of breath. "Nino, what about my father?"
"He's at the castle. He's safe. Satoshi took him into the forest. They're probably even fishing," Nino admitted.
Sho cleared away the glass from the floor, and wind whipped into the gondola from the outside as they sailed back over Sora. "Jun and Aiba are prepping the castle. Your friend there will surely follow us back."
She nodded, hardly believing what was happening. They'd rescued her, flown all the way to Sora for her, and she could only shake. "Thank you," she muttered. "I don't know why, but thank you."
Sho sat down on the bench, gripping it tightly in his metal fingers. "Fly faster, Nino. If you don't mind?"
Nino sighed. "You see what happens, Becky? They wouldn't let me go alone. We didn't know where you'd be so they sent this ridiculous person with me for backup."
"I'm not ridiculous," Sho protested.
"You're afraid of heights, and we're in a dirigible."
"It's fine if I don't look out the window!"
She smiled, her happiness returning slightly the further they got away from the grime and misery of Sora. The houses below turned to green fields. Soon they'd be to the rainbow house and then in another hour, Matsumoto Castle. But it wasn't long before the automatons' bickering quieted down.
She got up, sitting beside Sho on the bench. "Sho, are you alright? Are you really that scared of heights?"
"Yes," he said, and his voice sounded more like an fading echo. "But we couldn't let Masaki leave. And it's Jun's castle, so he's dead set on defending it."
She tangled her fingers with his metal ones and squeezed. "Thank you."
"Miss Vaughn, it's been an absolute pleasure."
She laughed. "You're talking like this is the end. But it's the beginning, don't you see? My father will surely find a cure and..." Her hand had apparently squeezed too hard, and she gasped as Sho's fingers detached from his hand.
Nino adjusted a dial, checked the altimeter. "You're falling apart, old man," he said quietly.
Sho's voice sounded even more distant. "Well, it was my fault all those years ago, and I guess I couldn't hold up forever. I was reckless. I kept trying to go back to Sora. I was the mayor, after all. I thought they needed me. I guess they did alright without me."
Sho's metal body was weakening. They still had an hour in the sky, and already the tether holding the automaton Sho to his physical self in the tank at the castle was severing. She could feel him slipping away before her eyes, seeing the way his feet were shaking, almost like the bolts holding him together were loosening.
"No," she murmured, desperately trying to push his fingers back on, only for the rest of his hand to crumble. "Oh Sho, no, this can't be happening."
"Miss Vaughn," Sho whispered. "Don't you worry about me."
"Nino, can't you do something? she asked.
He didn't move. "It's taking everything I've got to fly you back, Breeches. Don't you cry on me now. I can't stand it when girls cry."
The minutes ticked away as they flew over the Western Wood, the distance shortening between them and the castle. She sat there in her unwanted wedding dress, longing to be reunited with her father. Longing to be reunited with Masaki. But the damage had already been done.
"Sho?" she asked when he'd finally stopped speaking. "Sho?"
The automaton sat there on the bench, dressed in its fine red coat. The automaton didn't move again. She got up, moving to the panel in her haste. "Nino, can't I help you?" she begged him, tears in her eyes. What had happened to Sho? Had his soul vanished? Where had he gone? "Please, maybe you should rest and concentrate, let me do some of this for you."
"Masaki would never forgive me if I didn't get you back. Sho and I both knew what it meant to get on this dirigible today, so sit down and let me fly."
She couldn't sit. She couldn't bear to sit on the bench beside Sho's empty body, knowing that this only happened because she'd been captured. Instead she stared out the window, longing to see the red and white towers on the horizon. But the skies behind them were not as empty as they'd been minutes earlier.
"We've got company," Nino announced, turning the wheel suddenly, jolting the dirigible and sending off his right arm below the elbow.
"Nino!"
"Don't worry," he assured her. "I'm left-handed."
She could see from the size and quickly gaining position of the ship behind them that Alaric had managed to commandeer a vessel from the air station. It would catch them soon. Nino descended as low as he dared, the bottom of the gondola nearly skimming the tops of the trees. She could hear metal crumbling behind her, knowing it was Sho's metal body, and she refused to look. Instead she remained at Nino's side, focusing on all the gauges and dials.
The other ship was right on their tail when they flew over the castle walls, Nino cutting the engine suddenly so they dropped down into the courtyard in a sudden free fall. He brought the two of them down to the floor, covering her with his metal body as they descended. "Sorry for the rough landing," he apologized, and she squeezed her eyes shut and clung to him, her stomach in knots as the gondola landed on the cobblestones with a heavy crunch.
When she finally opened her eyes, she knew. She was perfectly unharmed, but Nino's armor was in pieces all around her, and all she was holding onto was the breastplate of his metal body. Both Sho and Nino were gone. Where had they gone? How could she get them back?
But there was no time to ponder it as she heard the noisy pop and hiss above her. Alaric and his brutes had shot and popped the dirigible's balloon, and if she didn't get out of the gondola before it deflated all around, she'd be trapped. She felt awful leaving what had once been Sho and Nino behind, but they'd sacrificed themselves to get her to the castle. It would not be in vain.
She could hear Jun in the courtyard, screaming for her. She raced to the door, having to tug on it to get it open after the crash landing. He was holding a sword and shield skillfully, though it wouldn't last long against the musket and revolver fire coming from the airship above them. The other dirigible seemed to be circling the courtyard, looking for a place to set down. Both drawbridges were up, so there was no way in from the outside, but the vessel Alaric had taken was far too large to land there in the courtyard.
Jun hurried over to her. "Your father's safe! He's safe! He's with Satoshi, away from the castle!"
Hopefully not too far away, she thought in her worry. Jun seemed to be waiting for two more figures to follow her out of the dirigible, his shoulders slumping when none did so. She was almost glad he didn't have a human face at that moment - she wasn't sure she could bear the true sight of his grief at the loss of his friends.
"Let's get you inside," Jun ordered, standing in front of her and blocking her from Alaric's sights. "Hurry!"
"Where is Masaki?"
"Where do you think he is?" Jun cried, holding up the shield just as a gunshot ricocheted from the skies.
The workshop. "Take me there."
"No, you're safer inside. There's a secret compartment in my study..."
"Jun please, take me to..."
One of the muskets fired, and Jun wasn't fast enough. She screamed as the shot sent his metal body flying back against her, nearly knocking her down. A smoking hole had already torn through his purple jacket to the center of his breastplate. "Go then," he said, "go to the workshop and bolt the door."
"Come with me..."
"This is my castle," the automaton said. "I won't give up without a fight. Now go on, see if Masaki's come up with something that can blast them out of the sky." He gave her a shove. "Go, damn it!"
She fumbled her way along the castle wall, out of Alaric's range. She could hear Jun clomping around the courtyard, using his own body to draw their fire. She could see one of Alaric's men open the gondola door of the large airship, setting out a long rope ladder. She pounded on the door of the workshop. "Masaki!" she cried. "Masaki, it's me!"
"Becky!" she heard him shout from inside, and he unbolted the door, opening it. "Becky, where are the others? Where are..." He looked just past her, seeing Jun fighting alone in the courtyard as Alaric approached with his revolver. "Inside," he said quickly. "Inside with me."
He pulled her into the workshop, bolting the door and hurriedly pushing one of his worktables against it. Finally he turned around, looking at her. She was breathing heavily, feeling almost faint from the way the maids had contorted and twisted her body to fit their ideal image. He stared at her. "You got married?"
She shook her head, trying to catch her breath. "Almost. But not quite."
He nodded. "Good. That's good. I think."
He scratched at his fuzzy hair, looking around the workshop. He pushed past her, picking up various jars and beakers. Aiba had never fought before. She could tell by the confusion in his face, the panic in his large, trembling hands as he wandered around looking for some way to defend them.
"This...this could burn through...well, it'll burn through flesh but we'd have to throw it on him." He picked up a hammer. "Or I could...well, I guess I could hit him with this if it came down to it. I don't know...um, what if I just scratched him? Oh! Oh wait, maybe it's easier if I just wait until he's out of bullets and punch him in the face?"
She hurried forward, throwing her arms around him and holding him tight. His body was the same kind of comforting warm it had been that day in the forest when he'd carried her. She laid awake in Alaric's house the past two nights, trying to remember what it had felt like, but nothing compared to the real thing. She never wanted to let him go. Even if he had a snout and maybe a tail (she still hadn't asked), she wanted to be by his side.
"Becky," he whispered, stroking her hair.
"Masaki, I..."
Alaric slammed his body against the door with all his might, enough to jolt the worktable. Aiba pushed her behind him, picking up one of his screw-turners from the table. "I won't let him get near you again," he vowed, holding out the tool in front of him.
Becky couldn't hear anyone outside but Alaric. Had Jun managed to fend off the other attackers? Alaric screamed, battering the workshop door again and again in his fury. Eventually the noise quieted.
"He hasn't given up," she said, looking around. That's when she saw the large shadow outside the glass windows near the ceiling. He'd managed to scale the wall. "Masaki, look out!"
The glass shattered, and Alaric dropped several feet to the ground, his suit torn up and his face sporting slashes from the glass. But the revolver in his hand was steady, even as he met Aiba's eyes. "A metal army. Clearly it had to be the work of some kind of freak."
"I am what I am," Aiba replied calmly, but standing behind him, Becky could feel him shaking.
"And it talks too! Rebecca, step away from this monster. As the mayor of Sora, I order you to..."
"Don't you know her at all?" Aiba interrupted with a chuckle, holding out the screw-turner. "She doesn't listen to anyone."
And then Masaki was pushing her, ducking them both behind the worktable as Alaric fired his revolver. How many shots had he fired at the dirigible? How many in the courtyard? "Stay down," Aiba whispered.
Alaric leapt onto the table, raising the revolver once more, and Masaki sprang into sudden action, meeting Alaric halfway. They rolled off of the worktable and onto the floor on the other side. Becky could hear them struggling, could hear Alaric's cursing and Masaki's almost ferocious roars. She spied the hammer at the edge of the table, desperately stretching her fingers as she crawled along the floor. She could help him. If Masaki couldn't do it, then damn it, she could.
But then she heard the gunshot and Alaric's groan.
She got to her feet, clambering over the workbench to see Alaric rolling off of Masaki's prone form, the revolver falling from his grasp and skittering across the floor. He let out one last breath in surprise, screw-turner protruding from his heart. Alaric Gaston was dead.
And Aiba was laying there gasping, the white dress shirt the automatons had insisted he wear turning red with blood. Alaric's shot hadn't missed. "No!" she cried, falling to her knees and pulling Masaki's furry head into her lap and stroking his face. "What happened to waiting for him to run out of bullets?" she chided him, seeing his large hand come up to cover his wound. "You were going to wait!"
He coughed, almost laughing. "Nino...Nino always says I don't think things through. And I thought...I thought getting glass in my hand was rough..."
She couldn't stop crying, desperately begging for him to hang on. "My father," she muttered. "We can go get my father. He's with Satoshi in the forest..."
"I...I don't think this is something..." He winced. "...something he can fix with leaves and twigs, Becky."
"You don't know that," she said, seeing the special Masaki spark dimming in his eyes. Blood was staining her dress, bright red on pure white. She remembered her muddy boots stomping through the clean snowfall at Snow Lake. "He's pretty good with twigs."
Masaki laughed. "Becky, don't cry. You're more beautiful when you smile, don't you know that? I love your smile," he said with a weak grin. "I love you."
And with one last wheeze, his brown, human eyes fluttered closed, and she was alone in the workshop. She squeezed his hand, begging for him to return to her. "You can't go," she cried. "Masaki, you can't run away. Not now. Not when I haven't gotten to tell you!"
His face was at peace, the pain of one hundred years in a body that wasn't his own fading away. But it wasn't fair. It simply was not fair. She looked up, staring out through the broken window glass and seeing nothing but the darkening sky as the summer sunset faded.
"What do you need me to do?" she screamed with everything she had. "What more do you want from him? I love him! Can you hear me? Are you even out there any more?" She looked for a sign, for any change in the sky, even for a storm cloud. The Rain Goddess had to be out there.
She cradled Aiba's body against hers. "Listen to me! Please! I love him! Isn't that all it takes? Isn't that enough to turn him back? Are you listening? I love him!" Becky looked down, putting her fingers to Aiba's lips. "I love him."
"My goodness, you're a noisy one."
Becky looked up, seeing a woman with striking auburn hair and a tight dress walking nonchalantly around the workshop. She held her breath - it was the Rain Goddess herself. She'd come after one hundred years. She watched the Goddess give a tug to the cloth that covered the four tanks in the workshop, hearing her laugh strangely. Becky had only had a glimpse before, but now she could see the four men clearly. Still in clothes and with faces that had appeared in her dream - Satoshi in a simple blue dress shirt and black trousers, Sho in red, Jun in purple. And at the end of the line in a golden yellow shirt and knee-length brown breeches was Nino. She'd guessed correctly.
"He did very well, keeping them alive and preserved like this," the Goddess remarked, almost as if she was attending a zoo exhibition. "I suppose I misjudged the boy, seeing how hard he's worked."
Becky said nothing. She didn't know what she could say without getting on her hands and knees and begging for the woman to restore them all.
"There aren't too many men like your father, Rebecca," she continued, tapping Satoshi's glass like a fish tank. "I've been watching him, guiding him for many years now. I suppose you could say I awakened his curiosity about the Western Wood. Sometimes we make decisions in haste, don't we? I didn't want to take back all I'd done to your friends here. Much as I feel like I overreacted, undoing punishments isn't usually my style, but seeing your father's faith, seeing your own curiosity, Rebecca. I suppose I could take credit for all that's happened here."
The Goddess had accused Masaki of hubris. If anyone possessed arrogance, it was the Goddess herself, but Becky decided not to say anything about that. She looked down at Masaki's calm face. "You're saying it was destiny for me to meet him?"
"Was it?" the Goddess mused. "Was it destiny for that brutish lout to die with a common tinkerer's tool sticking out of his chest? Maybe so. I stick to the weather more than anything, you see. But I like you, Rebecca. And I like your father. The more people who forget me, the more my powers fade in time. You can't possibly understand."
"I suppose I couldn't."
The Goddess knelt down at her side, resting a strangely cold hand on her shoulder. It reminded her of the chill at Snow Lake despite the summer warmth. "But I think our boy's learned his lesson. And it was getting so tiring watching him shove food in his mouth like a stray dog." The Goddess placed her hand over Masaki's chest, and Becky was nearly blinded by the bright light that shone from her hand. She looked away until the Rain Goddess got to her feet.
When she looked down, there was no snout, no fur. Just a man with the same frizzy brown mess of hair, but shorter. He had full lips that quirked up a bit at the edges, a long if normal nose, and the same almond-shaped eyes. This was Masaki. The real Masaki. She sat there, unable to speak in her surprise as his eyes opened, blinking in confusion. He reached out a hand, a normal human hand with a large palm and thin fingers.
"Have a long and happy life, Rebecca. Take care of him. He seems to need you for that," the Rain Goddess said, having walked back to the tanks. She knocked on Satoshi's again. "Glug glug!"
It happened in an instant. The Goddess vanished into thin air and the four tanks shattered, spilling out torrents of water as the four men within coughed and spat, falling out of the tanks and onto the floor. The tears she'd cried in agony were replaced with tears of happiness. She had them back - all five of them.
Masaki looked up at her and smiled. No more fangs. It was the most perfect smile she'd ever seen. "Hey," he said quietly.
"Hey," she said back, feeling his hand come up to cup her cheek. She pressed her fingers over his own, leaning in to his gentle touch. He was handsome in an almost peculiar way - maybe she'd just grown used to him with the snout. He couldn't stop smiling, and her cheeks started to ache - she couldn't stop smiling back at him.
"Hey! Stop making moony eyes and get up!" she heard Nino complain, and she helped get Aiba to his feet.
The four former automatons stood there shaking, soaked to the bone after a hundred years floating in a tank. She saw Satoshi's gentle smile for the first time, Sho's kind eyes, Jun's haughty grin, and Nino's wicked expression.
"Masaki," Jun grumbled, shaking his head and sending droplets of water flying. "What in the world have you done to my castle?"
She felt Aiba's arm wrap around her shoulder tightly. "Ah, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
Satoshi's eyebrows nearly shot up into his hairline. "Oh wait! Your father!" And off Satoshi ran, shoving the table out of the way and unbolting the door. "He's probably so confused!" she heard him shouting as he took off into the courtyard and off to the forest, Sho on his heels grumbling and fussing.
Jun and Nino walked around the table, squelching in the water. Nino toed at Alaric's body with his foot. "Think we've got some cleaning up to do. He was the mayor, you know."
Jun grinned. "Well it's a good thing we have a replacement ready. Come on, let's get him out of here." The two men hoisted the body, complaining about how much easier it had been to do heavy lifting when they were metal.
That left her and Masaki alone in the workshop, the water still trickling around. He was still tall, but he seemed a lot smaller without all the hair. She could hardly believe it, looking from head to toe, that he'd been like an animal for one hundred years. Becky was suddenly seized with laughter.
He was confused, studying her face and holding her by the shoulders. "What's wrong? Did she give me a third eye? A third nipple? Am I a girl now? Was it something I said? Wait, I haven't really said anything yet! Is it my face? Is my face funny? Do you not like me in my real body?" He looked down at his arm, still rambling. "What if I grew some more hair, would that help? I can get hairy, Becky, I swear. I can mix up a potion. Or do you not like hairy guys? Hair no good? I can cut it! Eyes no good? I'll get some glasses..."
She shook her head. Some things about Aiba were unchangeable. "Oh, would you quiet down already? I'm just realizing that I never asked you."
"Asked me what?"
She blushed. "I never asked if you had a tail. You know, before."
His mouth dropped open slightly before he let out a goofy laugh, no different from the strange breathy noises he'd made while he'd been cursed. He pulled her against him, hugging her so tight she could barely breathe. "Becky, Becky, Becky," he murmured, lips against her hair. "I guess you'll just never know."
--
THREE MONTHS LATER
--
She tore through the armoire, frowning. "I don't have any nice cloaks!" Becky grumbled, hearing Nino sigh behind her.
"Well, I've got an umbrella, you know," he complained. "When I looked like a scrap heap, you didn't seem to care what you wore."
"Today is a special day," she shot back, slamming the armoire door closed. "You were a lot nicer when I couldn't see your face."
"What a lady you are," he grumbled. "Just hurry up, Breeches. I'll be in the courtyard."
The castle was empty, save for her and Nino. Masaki, Jun, and Satoshi had gone ahead with the finally completed machine, upside down dials and all. They were taking the path through the woods for the demonstration, and Nino was waiting for her to pick a cloak so they could fly to the rainbow house. Mayor Sakurai would be coming from Sora - it seemed that the Rain Goddess had not been particularly fond of the Gaston family, finding some way to poison the town's minds against them. Sho had gone to town and gotten swept straight into the vacuum left behind. Sora was clearly in better hands now.
The others had spent the time restoring the castle, repairing the dirigible, and finally finishing the machine that Aiba had worked so tirelessly to complete. Of course, it was October and the harvest had just come and gone, but Masaki was nothing if not stubborn. He wanted to show what his Cloudbuster could do before winter came.
She finally settled on a bright green rain jacket, going with practical need over appearance. She couldn't wait for Jun's disappointment in her. She hurried down the stairs to the courtyard, seeing Trouble and Sunshine romping around in the garden. Becky boarded the dirigible, and they flew to the rainbow house.
The valley and wildflower fields were teeming with residents of Sora as the dirigible landed just south of the house. Nino grabbed her wrist, pulling her through the crowds to see that Masaki had already started talking about the many benefits his Cloudbusting Machine would bring to the fields. Jun and Sho stepped aside with smiles, allowing Nino and Becky to stand at the front beside Satoshi and Maurice, seeing Aiba standing on the platform of his machine like a proud parent. She held her father's hand, and he squeezed tight.
"...and by the grace of the Rain Goddess herself, we'll be able to make it through a drought," Aiba explained cheerfully.
"Finally," Nino murmured. "Only took him a century to get it right."
The crowd cheered, and Sho issued a request for everyone to put up their umbrellas. Nino put up his own umbrella, holding it over both of their heads. Aiba twisted several knobs and the machine clanged and chugged its way on, pulling the molecules from the clouds overhead. He pulled several levers, reversing the process, and the crowd gasped and applauded as rain came shooting out of the metal tubes, splattering them all with water.
And in the center was Masaki Aiba, human again and standing on the platform of his machine. He stared up into the heavens, holding his arms up in gratitude and happiness as the rain fell, smiling and laughing as the droplets hit his skin. Nino elbowed her in the side. "Go on, it's his crowning moment," he teased.
She left Nino's side, tossing the hood off and dashing for the platform. Aiba cried out in surprise as she climbed up and rushed into his arms as the rain soaked them. "I'm so proud of you!" she said.
"What?" he cried, pointing at his ear. "The machine's really loud!"
She laughed, feeling the rain start to plaster her hair to her head. His hair was sticking in damp tendrils all around his face, his cheerful smile something she wanted to see every day for the rest of her life. He was beautiful and perfect and all hers. "I said I love you!" she shouted, giving him a playful shove.
He wrapped his arm around her and bent down, pressing his mouth to hers with all his might. She heard the crowd cheer as Aiba lifted her up into his arms. He kissed her again and again between his silly laughs as he twirled them in circles on the platform until all the water in the Cloudbuster Machine had fallen in the fields around Sora.
THE END
He'd been waiting all day. Monitoring the house day and night, looking for a sign of the strange dirigible. He'd seen Nino with his own eyes - he called the automaton an "abomination." Taking Becky's father had initially been a means for him to draw Becky out of hiding. Now he had an even more interesting tale to tell - abominations were living in the Western Wood.
He'd tethered one of his giant horses behind the rainbow house, and he'd forced her to ride before him all the way back to Sora. "It would be a very interesting topic with my father," he said to her as the horse galloped along. "Men made of metal. Just think of it. Metal men serving on patrol in Sora. I say, nobody would dare cross us. If they possess the ability to man an airship, surely a bit of intimidation training and battle strategy would make them ready to keep tabs on the town."
"You would make Sora into your own little kingdom, Alaric?" she asked, despising the way he held the reins in one hand and kept hold of her with the other. Her hand had been in Aiba's earlier that day - held with affection. Alaric held her with nothing but possession and greed in his heart.
"Of course. The king's power is weakening, and the other towns will gobble one another up. It tips the scales in our favor if we have something they don't."
She saw the town loom larger and larger before her. "And what do you intend to do with my father? He hasn't hurt anyone. He hasn't been in the Western Wood..."
"My darling, you're not seeing the full story. Your father was to lure you. And you will lure them."
She shook her head. There was no way she'd tell Alaric about the automatons' weaknesses. He probably just thought they were mindless beings, capable of being programmed any way he'd like. "They won't come for me," she argued. "And you won't turn them to your side. That much I believe."
"But they'll be missing the most exciting event in town if they don't at least pay a visit."
"What event is that?" she asked, feeling the horse grow more and more exhausted under their combined weight and Alaric's insistence on forcing it to gallop faster.
"Our wedding of course," he said, and she could feel the barrel of the revolver push against her spine. "We're to be wed in the town square in two nights, just in time for my big day. Oh, you haven't heard, have you? Ah, of course you haven't since you've been hiding out in the Western Wood like a criminal. My father is stepping down. The night you become my bride is the night I become Sora's mayor."
"And my father?"
"Will be released to play with his potions. I don't much care about his silly magic. Just a crazy old man."
Her father would be safe. Alaric was getting everything he wanted - power and a bride to possess fully so long as her father was alive. She said nothing in reply. There was nothing that could be said.
They arrived at the Gastons' mansion, and she was immediately ushered in by several brutish fellows - family bodyguards. She was brought upstairs to a bedroom and the door locked. She thought of the castle, how happy she'd been there. Now she'd be miserable - miserable with Alaric, miserable without her friends and without Masaki. But her father would go free, and hopefully Masaki could be cured. It was the only way.
The hours passed. She slept fitfully that night and was forced into a rather strange breakfast with Alaric and his parents the following morning. Becky got the impression that Mayor and Mrs. Gaston had little idea of their son's ambitions or even that Maurice Vaughn had been imprisoned. It was all Alaric's doing, and she behaved herself at the meal. To protest meant that her father's freedom could all too easily be snatched away.
Time ticked away, and there were dress fittings and meetings with Alaric's other relatives. She felt like a doll, sitting quietly while the women gossiped and laughed, wondering aloud how Alaric had come to choose such a small little wife with "such plain features." She let them poke and prod at her as they decided on a wedding gown, on a wedding veil. They tsk'ed and sighed at her hips - "how will she bear any strong, sturdy Gaston children?" They sighed at her heritage - "the daughter of a useless charlatan, selling his vials of poison." They complained and criticized right in her face, and Becky could say nothing at all in her defense.
Sunset came and went. As Nino was most likely touching down in the wildflower field, Becky was practicing a walk down the aisle at the old stone church in the town square.
Alaric gripped her hand tightly as they stood at the altar together. "Your father's gone home. I've seen to that."
Her eyes widened in alarm. "Just like that? Without even letting me see him?"
He squeezed enough to send shockwaves of pain through her wrists and up her arms. "Quiet now. We're in the house of the gods, after all. I have what I wanted. There was no need for him to be wasting space in my jail."
But if Maurice was released, she thought with a surge of happiness, perhaps Nino had found him. Maybe Nino had flown him back to the castle and to safety. She'd done her mission in a backwards way, but at the very least, her father was safe and out of Alaric's clutches.
That night, Becky dreamed of Snow Lake - of Aiba sitting at the edge and looking down at her sadly as she sank down, down, down all the way to the bottom, her fingers outstretched to a surface she could no longer reach.
--
She sat before the mirror in Alaric's mansion, staring at a person she could barely recognize. The ladies' maids had scrubbed her clean and curled her hair, painting her face with so much makeup she had a hard time seeing what she truly looked like underneath. Her dress was a stark white with short lace sleeves and embroidered with tiny white flowers. She could only think of the flowers at the rainbow house and her gardens at the castle.
Her body had gotten used to days without being confined by corsets, and the readjustment was making every breath a challenge. The maids had shown little mercy in lacing her up, chuckling about how "delightful" it would be for Alaric to "unwrap" her later. They placed a gaudy tiara on her head and attached the veil Alaric's relatives had selected on her behalf before walking her out to the carriage that was waiting to take her to the church and to a life forever at the mercy of Alaric Gaston. She thought with hope of her father working side by side with Masaki in his workshop. Between her father's faith and Aiba's odd genius, they'd surely be able to brew something up.
Earlier that day, in a ceremony she had not been required to attend, Alaric's father had officially stepped down as Mayor of Sora as the town cheered the succession of his son. The whole town was abuzz about the sudden wedding, the maids had been whispering to one another. It was now early evening - there'd be a quick wedding ceremony and a grand banquet back at the mansion for the town's captains of industry and leading citizens.
The carriage made its way over the cobblestones of the Sora streets. Alaric, his father, and the guests were awaiting her arrival, and she tried not to cry as her new life was about to start. It was her own wedding day, and her father was not invited (though she wanted him as far from Sora as possible). She'd be escorted down the aisle by Alaric's father as one last insult to her family line and one last reminder of the power Alaric now held over her.
The carriage turned the corner and was almost to the square when the horses suddenly protested noisily, the carriage coming to a sudden stop. That was when she heard the hum. She tore the veil and tiara off her head, the maids accompanying her in the carriage screeching at her insolence as she flung open the carriage door, bunching her long white gown in her hands and hopping down into the street.
All the well-wishers who'd gathered to celebrate the wedding were now staring in shock as the dirigible from the west, far smaller than any dirigible at the air station, flew past the spires of town and began its descent into the square. As it landed, she started to run, her shoes ridiculously tight and for the sort of women who didn't run around in the mud or muck about in the garden the way she did. But she didn't care about it hurting - all she knew was that they'd come too far. Nino had come too far from the castle.
There was a clamor at the church, and she saw Alaric, his father, and his private little army emerge onto the steps. They were opposite the direction she was coming from, with the landing dirigible in between them. "Arrest him! Arrest the pilot!" Alaric was screaming as the crowd started to panic.
The gondola didn't touch the ground before the door slid open, and she was startled at the sight of a bright red jacket. "Becky!" Sho cried out for her, using her nickname for the very first time. "Becky, come on!"
She could see Nino at the controls, and Sho at the door holding open his arms. The crowd screamed at the sight of Sho's metal body. "A machine!" "What kind of armor is that?" "Is the town being attacked?" But Becky did her best to run forward, trying not to trip over her gown.
Alaric was ordering his men to fire, but they'd come running out of the church - they had no weapons on them at all. Their master was not as concerned about having a weapon on sacred ground. Alaric pulled out his revolver from inside his suit jacket, leveling it at the gondola and firing. The glass shattered just as she grabbed hold of Sho's hands, letting him haul her up and into the gondola.
"Nice dress, Breeches!" Nino shouted over the noise and chaos in the town square. "Sho, get the door!"
"I know, I know!" the other automaton complained, slamming it shut.
She ducked down, shoes crunching on broken glass as Nino sent the dirigible into the air. "My father?" she asked, running out of breath. "Nino, what about my father?"
"He's at the castle. He's safe. Satoshi took him into the forest. They're probably even fishing," Nino admitted.
Sho cleared away the glass from the floor, and wind whipped into the gondola from the outside as they sailed back over Sora. "Jun and Aiba are prepping the castle. Your friend there will surely follow us back."
She nodded, hardly believing what was happening. They'd rescued her, flown all the way to Sora for her, and she could only shake. "Thank you," she muttered. "I don't know why, but thank you."
Sho sat down on the bench, gripping it tightly in his metal fingers. "Fly faster, Nino. If you don't mind?"
Nino sighed. "You see what happens, Becky? They wouldn't let me go alone. We didn't know where you'd be so they sent this ridiculous person with me for backup."
"I'm not ridiculous," Sho protested.
"You're afraid of heights, and we're in a dirigible."
"It's fine if I don't look out the window!"
She smiled, her happiness returning slightly the further they got away from the grime and misery of Sora. The houses below turned to green fields. Soon they'd be to the rainbow house and then in another hour, Matsumoto Castle. But it wasn't long before the automatons' bickering quieted down.
She got up, sitting beside Sho on the bench. "Sho, are you alright? Are you really that scared of heights?"
"Yes," he said, and his voice sounded more like an fading echo. "But we couldn't let Masaki leave. And it's Jun's castle, so he's dead set on defending it."
She tangled her fingers with his metal ones and squeezed. "Thank you."
"Miss Vaughn, it's been an absolute pleasure."
She laughed. "You're talking like this is the end. But it's the beginning, don't you see? My father will surely find a cure and..." Her hand had apparently squeezed too hard, and she gasped as Sho's fingers detached from his hand.
Nino adjusted a dial, checked the altimeter. "You're falling apart, old man," he said quietly.
Sho's voice sounded even more distant. "Well, it was my fault all those years ago, and I guess I couldn't hold up forever. I was reckless. I kept trying to go back to Sora. I was the mayor, after all. I thought they needed me. I guess they did alright without me."
Sho's metal body was weakening. They still had an hour in the sky, and already the tether holding the automaton Sho to his physical self in the tank at the castle was severing. She could feel him slipping away before her eyes, seeing the way his feet were shaking, almost like the bolts holding him together were loosening.
"No," she murmured, desperately trying to push his fingers back on, only for the rest of his hand to crumble. "Oh Sho, no, this can't be happening."
"Miss Vaughn," Sho whispered. "Don't you worry about me."
"Nino, can't you do something? she asked.
He didn't move. "It's taking everything I've got to fly you back, Breeches. Don't you cry on me now. I can't stand it when girls cry."
The minutes ticked away as they flew over the Western Wood, the distance shortening between them and the castle. She sat there in her unwanted wedding dress, longing to be reunited with her father. Longing to be reunited with Masaki. But the damage had already been done.
"Sho?" she asked when he'd finally stopped speaking. "Sho?"
The automaton sat there on the bench, dressed in its fine red coat. The automaton didn't move again. She got up, moving to the panel in her haste. "Nino, can't I help you?" she begged him, tears in her eyes. What had happened to Sho? Had his soul vanished? Where had he gone? "Please, maybe you should rest and concentrate, let me do some of this for you."
"Masaki would never forgive me if I didn't get you back. Sho and I both knew what it meant to get on this dirigible today, so sit down and let me fly."
She couldn't sit. She couldn't bear to sit on the bench beside Sho's empty body, knowing that this only happened because she'd been captured. Instead she stared out the window, longing to see the red and white towers on the horizon. But the skies behind them were not as empty as they'd been minutes earlier.
"We've got company," Nino announced, turning the wheel suddenly, jolting the dirigible and sending off his right arm below the elbow.
"Nino!"
"Don't worry," he assured her. "I'm left-handed."
She could see from the size and quickly gaining position of the ship behind them that Alaric had managed to commandeer a vessel from the air station. It would catch them soon. Nino descended as low as he dared, the bottom of the gondola nearly skimming the tops of the trees. She could hear metal crumbling behind her, knowing it was Sho's metal body, and she refused to look. Instead she remained at Nino's side, focusing on all the gauges and dials.
The other ship was right on their tail when they flew over the castle walls, Nino cutting the engine suddenly so they dropped down into the courtyard in a sudden free fall. He brought the two of them down to the floor, covering her with his metal body as they descended. "Sorry for the rough landing," he apologized, and she squeezed her eyes shut and clung to him, her stomach in knots as the gondola landed on the cobblestones with a heavy crunch.
When she finally opened her eyes, she knew. She was perfectly unharmed, but Nino's armor was in pieces all around her, and all she was holding onto was the breastplate of his metal body. Both Sho and Nino were gone. Where had they gone? How could she get them back?
But there was no time to ponder it as she heard the noisy pop and hiss above her. Alaric and his brutes had shot and popped the dirigible's balloon, and if she didn't get out of the gondola before it deflated all around, she'd be trapped. She felt awful leaving what had once been Sho and Nino behind, but they'd sacrificed themselves to get her to the castle. It would not be in vain.
She could hear Jun in the courtyard, screaming for her. She raced to the door, having to tug on it to get it open after the crash landing. He was holding a sword and shield skillfully, though it wouldn't last long against the musket and revolver fire coming from the airship above them. The other dirigible seemed to be circling the courtyard, looking for a place to set down. Both drawbridges were up, so there was no way in from the outside, but the vessel Alaric had taken was far too large to land there in the courtyard.
Jun hurried over to her. "Your father's safe! He's safe! He's with Satoshi, away from the castle!"
Hopefully not too far away, she thought in her worry. Jun seemed to be waiting for two more figures to follow her out of the dirigible, his shoulders slumping when none did so. She was almost glad he didn't have a human face at that moment - she wasn't sure she could bear the true sight of his grief at the loss of his friends.
"Let's get you inside," Jun ordered, standing in front of her and blocking her from Alaric's sights. "Hurry!"
"Where is Masaki?"
"Where do you think he is?" Jun cried, holding up the shield just as a gunshot ricocheted from the skies.
The workshop. "Take me there."
"No, you're safer inside. There's a secret compartment in my study..."
"Jun please, take me to..."
One of the muskets fired, and Jun wasn't fast enough. She screamed as the shot sent his metal body flying back against her, nearly knocking her down. A smoking hole had already torn through his purple jacket to the center of his breastplate. "Go then," he said, "go to the workshop and bolt the door."
"Come with me..."
"This is my castle," the automaton said. "I won't give up without a fight. Now go on, see if Masaki's come up with something that can blast them out of the sky." He gave her a shove. "Go, damn it!"
She fumbled her way along the castle wall, out of Alaric's range. She could hear Jun clomping around the courtyard, using his own body to draw their fire. She could see one of Alaric's men open the gondola door of the large airship, setting out a long rope ladder. She pounded on the door of the workshop. "Masaki!" she cried. "Masaki, it's me!"
"Becky!" she heard him shout from inside, and he unbolted the door, opening it. "Becky, where are the others? Where are..." He looked just past her, seeing Jun fighting alone in the courtyard as Alaric approached with his revolver. "Inside," he said quickly. "Inside with me."
He pulled her into the workshop, bolting the door and hurriedly pushing one of his worktables against it. Finally he turned around, looking at her. She was breathing heavily, feeling almost faint from the way the maids had contorted and twisted her body to fit their ideal image. He stared at her. "You got married?"
She shook her head, trying to catch her breath. "Almost. But not quite."
He nodded. "Good. That's good. I think."
He scratched at his fuzzy hair, looking around the workshop. He pushed past her, picking up various jars and beakers. Aiba had never fought before. She could tell by the confusion in his face, the panic in his large, trembling hands as he wandered around looking for some way to defend them.
"This...this could burn through...well, it'll burn through flesh but we'd have to throw it on him." He picked up a hammer. "Or I could...well, I guess I could hit him with this if it came down to it. I don't know...um, what if I just scratched him? Oh! Oh wait, maybe it's easier if I just wait until he's out of bullets and punch him in the face?"
She hurried forward, throwing her arms around him and holding him tight. His body was the same kind of comforting warm it had been that day in the forest when he'd carried her. She laid awake in Alaric's house the past two nights, trying to remember what it had felt like, but nothing compared to the real thing. She never wanted to let him go. Even if he had a snout and maybe a tail (she still hadn't asked), she wanted to be by his side.
"Becky," he whispered, stroking her hair.
"Masaki, I..."
Alaric slammed his body against the door with all his might, enough to jolt the worktable. Aiba pushed her behind him, picking up one of his screw-turners from the table. "I won't let him get near you again," he vowed, holding out the tool in front of him.
Becky couldn't hear anyone outside but Alaric. Had Jun managed to fend off the other attackers? Alaric screamed, battering the workshop door again and again in his fury. Eventually the noise quieted.
"He hasn't given up," she said, looking around. That's when she saw the large shadow outside the glass windows near the ceiling. He'd managed to scale the wall. "Masaki, look out!"
The glass shattered, and Alaric dropped several feet to the ground, his suit torn up and his face sporting slashes from the glass. But the revolver in his hand was steady, even as he met Aiba's eyes. "A metal army. Clearly it had to be the work of some kind of freak."
"I am what I am," Aiba replied calmly, but standing behind him, Becky could feel him shaking.
"And it talks too! Rebecca, step away from this monster. As the mayor of Sora, I order you to..."
"Don't you know her at all?" Aiba interrupted with a chuckle, holding out the screw-turner. "She doesn't listen to anyone."
And then Masaki was pushing her, ducking them both behind the worktable as Alaric fired his revolver. How many shots had he fired at the dirigible? How many in the courtyard? "Stay down," Aiba whispered.
Alaric leapt onto the table, raising the revolver once more, and Masaki sprang into sudden action, meeting Alaric halfway. They rolled off of the worktable and onto the floor on the other side. Becky could hear them struggling, could hear Alaric's cursing and Masaki's almost ferocious roars. She spied the hammer at the edge of the table, desperately stretching her fingers as she crawled along the floor. She could help him. If Masaki couldn't do it, then damn it, she could.
But then she heard the gunshot and Alaric's groan.
She got to her feet, clambering over the workbench to see Alaric rolling off of Masaki's prone form, the revolver falling from his grasp and skittering across the floor. He let out one last breath in surprise, screw-turner protruding from his heart. Alaric Gaston was dead.
And Aiba was laying there gasping, the white dress shirt the automatons had insisted he wear turning red with blood. Alaric's shot hadn't missed. "No!" she cried, falling to her knees and pulling Masaki's furry head into her lap and stroking his face. "What happened to waiting for him to run out of bullets?" she chided him, seeing his large hand come up to cover his wound. "You were going to wait!"
He coughed, almost laughing. "Nino...Nino always says I don't think things through. And I thought...I thought getting glass in my hand was rough..."
She couldn't stop crying, desperately begging for him to hang on. "My father," she muttered. "We can go get my father. He's with Satoshi in the forest..."
"I...I don't think this is something..." He winced. "...something he can fix with leaves and twigs, Becky."
"You don't know that," she said, seeing the special Masaki spark dimming in his eyes. Blood was staining her dress, bright red on pure white. She remembered her muddy boots stomping through the clean snowfall at Snow Lake. "He's pretty good with twigs."
Masaki laughed. "Becky, don't cry. You're more beautiful when you smile, don't you know that? I love your smile," he said with a weak grin. "I love you."
And with one last wheeze, his brown, human eyes fluttered closed, and she was alone in the workshop. She squeezed his hand, begging for him to return to her. "You can't go," she cried. "Masaki, you can't run away. Not now. Not when I haven't gotten to tell you!"
His face was at peace, the pain of one hundred years in a body that wasn't his own fading away. But it wasn't fair. It simply was not fair. She looked up, staring out through the broken window glass and seeing nothing but the darkening sky as the summer sunset faded.
"What do you need me to do?" she screamed with everything she had. "What more do you want from him? I love him! Can you hear me? Are you even out there any more?" She looked for a sign, for any change in the sky, even for a storm cloud. The Rain Goddess had to be out there.
She cradled Aiba's body against hers. "Listen to me! Please! I love him! Isn't that all it takes? Isn't that enough to turn him back? Are you listening? I love him!" Becky looked down, putting her fingers to Aiba's lips. "I love him."
"My goodness, you're a noisy one."
Becky looked up, seeing a woman with striking auburn hair and a tight dress walking nonchalantly around the workshop. She held her breath - it was the Rain Goddess herself. She'd come after one hundred years. She watched the Goddess give a tug to the cloth that covered the four tanks in the workshop, hearing her laugh strangely. Becky had only had a glimpse before, but now she could see the four men clearly. Still in clothes and with faces that had appeared in her dream - Satoshi in a simple blue dress shirt and black trousers, Sho in red, Jun in purple. And at the end of the line in a golden yellow shirt and knee-length brown breeches was Nino. She'd guessed correctly.
"He did very well, keeping them alive and preserved like this," the Goddess remarked, almost as if she was attending a zoo exhibition. "I suppose I misjudged the boy, seeing how hard he's worked."
Becky said nothing. She didn't know what she could say without getting on her hands and knees and begging for the woman to restore them all.
"There aren't too many men like your father, Rebecca," she continued, tapping Satoshi's glass like a fish tank. "I've been watching him, guiding him for many years now. I suppose you could say I awakened his curiosity about the Western Wood. Sometimes we make decisions in haste, don't we? I didn't want to take back all I'd done to your friends here. Much as I feel like I overreacted, undoing punishments isn't usually my style, but seeing your father's faith, seeing your own curiosity, Rebecca. I suppose I could take credit for all that's happened here."
The Goddess had accused Masaki of hubris. If anyone possessed arrogance, it was the Goddess herself, but Becky decided not to say anything about that. She looked down at Masaki's calm face. "You're saying it was destiny for me to meet him?"
"Was it?" the Goddess mused. "Was it destiny for that brutish lout to die with a common tinkerer's tool sticking out of his chest? Maybe so. I stick to the weather more than anything, you see. But I like you, Rebecca. And I like your father. The more people who forget me, the more my powers fade in time. You can't possibly understand."
"I suppose I couldn't."
The Goddess knelt down at her side, resting a strangely cold hand on her shoulder. It reminded her of the chill at Snow Lake despite the summer warmth. "But I think our boy's learned his lesson. And it was getting so tiring watching him shove food in his mouth like a stray dog." The Goddess placed her hand over Masaki's chest, and Becky was nearly blinded by the bright light that shone from her hand. She looked away until the Rain Goddess got to her feet.
When she looked down, there was no snout, no fur. Just a man with the same frizzy brown mess of hair, but shorter. He had full lips that quirked up a bit at the edges, a long if normal nose, and the same almond-shaped eyes. This was Masaki. The real Masaki. She sat there, unable to speak in her surprise as his eyes opened, blinking in confusion. He reached out a hand, a normal human hand with a large palm and thin fingers.
"Have a long and happy life, Rebecca. Take care of him. He seems to need you for that," the Rain Goddess said, having walked back to the tanks. She knocked on Satoshi's again. "Glug glug!"
It happened in an instant. The Goddess vanished into thin air and the four tanks shattered, spilling out torrents of water as the four men within coughed and spat, falling out of the tanks and onto the floor. The tears she'd cried in agony were replaced with tears of happiness. She had them back - all five of them.
Masaki looked up at her and smiled. No more fangs. It was the most perfect smile she'd ever seen. "Hey," he said quietly.
"Hey," she said back, feeling his hand come up to cup her cheek. She pressed her fingers over his own, leaning in to his gentle touch. He was handsome in an almost peculiar way - maybe she'd just grown used to him with the snout. He couldn't stop smiling, and her cheeks started to ache - she couldn't stop smiling back at him.
"Hey! Stop making moony eyes and get up!" she heard Nino complain, and she helped get Aiba to his feet.
The four former automatons stood there shaking, soaked to the bone after a hundred years floating in a tank. She saw Satoshi's gentle smile for the first time, Sho's kind eyes, Jun's haughty grin, and Nino's wicked expression.
"Masaki," Jun grumbled, shaking his head and sending droplets of water flying. "What in the world have you done to my castle?"
She felt Aiba's arm wrap around her shoulder tightly. "Ah, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
Satoshi's eyebrows nearly shot up into his hairline. "Oh wait! Your father!" And off Satoshi ran, shoving the table out of the way and unbolting the door. "He's probably so confused!" she heard him shouting as he took off into the courtyard and off to the forest, Sho on his heels grumbling and fussing.
Jun and Nino walked around the table, squelching in the water. Nino toed at Alaric's body with his foot. "Think we've got some cleaning up to do. He was the mayor, you know."
Jun grinned. "Well it's a good thing we have a replacement ready. Come on, let's get him out of here." The two men hoisted the body, complaining about how much easier it had been to do heavy lifting when they were metal.
That left her and Masaki alone in the workshop, the water still trickling around. He was still tall, but he seemed a lot smaller without all the hair. She could hardly believe it, looking from head to toe, that he'd been like an animal for one hundred years. Becky was suddenly seized with laughter.
He was confused, studying her face and holding her by the shoulders. "What's wrong? Did she give me a third eye? A third nipple? Am I a girl now? Was it something I said? Wait, I haven't really said anything yet! Is it my face? Is my face funny? Do you not like me in my real body?" He looked down at his arm, still rambling. "What if I grew some more hair, would that help? I can get hairy, Becky, I swear. I can mix up a potion. Or do you not like hairy guys? Hair no good? I can cut it! Eyes no good? I'll get some glasses..."
She shook her head. Some things about Aiba were unchangeable. "Oh, would you quiet down already? I'm just realizing that I never asked you."
"Asked me what?"
She blushed. "I never asked if you had a tail. You know, before."
His mouth dropped open slightly before he let out a goofy laugh, no different from the strange breathy noises he'd made while he'd been cursed. He pulled her against him, hugging her so tight she could barely breathe. "Becky, Becky, Becky," he murmured, lips against her hair. "I guess you'll just never know."
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THREE MONTHS LATER
--
She tore through the armoire, frowning. "I don't have any nice cloaks!" Becky grumbled, hearing Nino sigh behind her.
"Well, I've got an umbrella, you know," he complained. "When I looked like a scrap heap, you didn't seem to care what you wore."
"Today is a special day," she shot back, slamming the armoire door closed. "You were a lot nicer when I couldn't see your face."
"What a lady you are," he grumbled. "Just hurry up, Breeches. I'll be in the courtyard."
The castle was empty, save for her and Nino. Masaki, Jun, and Satoshi had gone ahead with the finally completed machine, upside down dials and all. They were taking the path through the woods for the demonstration, and Nino was waiting for her to pick a cloak so they could fly to the rainbow house. Mayor Sakurai would be coming from Sora - it seemed that the Rain Goddess had not been particularly fond of the Gaston family, finding some way to poison the town's minds against them. Sho had gone to town and gotten swept straight into the vacuum left behind. Sora was clearly in better hands now.
The others had spent the time restoring the castle, repairing the dirigible, and finally finishing the machine that Aiba had worked so tirelessly to complete. Of course, it was October and the harvest had just come and gone, but Masaki was nothing if not stubborn. He wanted to show what his Cloudbuster could do before winter came.
She finally settled on a bright green rain jacket, going with practical need over appearance. She couldn't wait for Jun's disappointment in her. She hurried down the stairs to the courtyard, seeing Trouble and Sunshine romping around in the garden. Becky boarded the dirigible, and they flew to the rainbow house.
The valley and wildflower fields were teeming with residents of Sora as the dirigible landed just south of the house. Nino grabbed her wrist, pulling her through the crowds to see that Masaki had already started talking about the many benefits his Cloudbusting Machine would bring to the fields. Jun and Sho stepped aside with smiles, allowing Nino and Becky to stand at the front beside Satoshi and Maurice, seeing Aiba standing on the platform of his machine like a proud parent. She held her father's hand, and he squeezed tight.
"...and by the grace of the Rain Goddess herself, we'll be able to make it through a drought," Aiba explained cheerfully.
"Finally," Nino murmured. "Only took him a century to get it right."
The crowd cheered, and Sho issued a request for everyone to put up their umbrellas. Nino put up his own umbrella, holding it over both of their heads. Aiba twisted several knobs and the machine clanged and chugged its way on, pulling the molecules from the clouds overhead. He pulled several levers, reversing the process, and the crowd gasped and applauded as rain came shooting out of the metal tubes, splattering them all with water.
And in the center was Masaki Aiba, human again and standing on the platform of his machine. He stared up into the heavens, holding his arms up in gratitude and happiness as the rain fell, smiling and laughing as the droplets hit his skin. Nino elbowed her in the side. "Go on, it's his crowning moment," he teased.
She left Nino's side, tossing the hood off and dashing for the platform. Aiba cried out in surprise as she climbed up and rushed into his arms as the rain soaked them. "I'm so proud of you!" she said.
"What?" he cried, pointing at his ear. "The machine's really loud!"
She laughed, feeling the rain start to plaster her hair to her head. His hair was sticking in damp tendrils all around his face, his cheerful smile something she wanted to see every day for the rest of her life. He was beautiful and perfect and all hers. "I said I love you!" she shouted, giving him a playful shove.
He wrapped his arm around her and bent down, pressing his mouth to hers with all his might. She heard the crowd cheer as Aiba lifted her up into his arms. He kissed her again and again between his silly laughs as he twirled them in circles on the platform until all the water in the Cloudbuster Machine had fallen in the fields around Sora.
THE END
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How absolutely wonderfully delightful *claps hands delightedly* - I have to tell you that Beauty and the Beast of the '2nd Generation' Disney films (Bambi, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Fox and Hound are first gen, and Snow White in a class of it's own) (2nd Gen, are Little Mermaid, Mulan, etc) So as I was saying Beauty and the Beast is my Favourite. My absolute favourite. The other coincidence is that I only saw Becky yesterday (rather, earlier this morning on a rock concert on tv) And I've seen a few becky and aiba fics kicking around. I'm a terrible fangirl in that I've never actually seen anything with the both of them in. But you got me hooked with Beauty and the Beast. - Yes I know I'm quite verbose, I do apologise.
But here's the real thing. This is a thing of beauty. No pun intended. The language is just so, that it remains a story told and unfolded tight enough, But not so simple that there isn't any meat to it. A balnce finely tuned. A story told well enough that it held (and even made me teary in some places), nuanced with atmosphere and enough wonder of fairy tales of old. It actually brings to mind THIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Queen_(2002_film)) rendering of 'The Snow Queen'. Do see it if you can get a hold of it. It's not a piece of remarkable filmaking, nor did it garner many, if any, awards. But is simpy a tale well told just for the telling. (if any of that makes sense)
But like I said this is a tale well told and I might even read it to my children. They love Aiba, and the idea of Nino as a cantankerous batsman to Aiba will make them squeal with delight and clap their hands too! ^_^
Once again thank you very much for a wonderful story, thank you for giving this to the fundraiser and thank you to the original prompter for coaxing this out of you. This really is a brilliant told story and so well written, and there are too few of those of late.
(uhmm can you tell ... I like this, no I love this ... a lot) ^_^
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Beauty and the Beast is my favorite too! I was 7 when it first came out in the theater - 20 years ago LOL! So I was totally all "Wah, I love Belle! She's so pretty and she likes books!" My nerdy little girl self was all about Belle forever, so when I got the opportunity to tell this story and tell it again with some of my favorite people forever, aka Arashi + Becky, I did many happy little dances LOL!!
And I have an Aiba/Becky tag since I've written them before. Feel free to check those out :)
And Aiba and Nino's friendship is one of my favorite things, and even when a story isn't centered around Nino, he finds his way in to poke and make his comments, haha! Thank you again, I was thrilled to get this review :)
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Plus Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie! I loved how cozy and really fairy tale-esque the imagery was; I don't know how to say it, but from your words it felt like a wonderful movie. Seeing everything from Becky's point, where everything is so new but she is bright and curious so none of this is too overwhelming to admit defeat; you've got me thinking about how Becky is the perfect princess. Totally not the point of the story, but uh.
I loved how Aiba gets turned into a beast not of pride or arrogance but because he genuinely wants to help people. And then the rest of the four are loyal to him throughout his pain and loneliness and sorrow, honestly hoping for better times just to see him happy again. It seems very in-character (even though they're all robots... how do you make that work?), and it was very nice to see Becky come to appreciate them all for both their individual strong points and the fact that she can sense their strong bond together.
Also: Alaric. Creeper. D: You got me to hate him within like 5 words of his description. Thank you for not holding out on a grisly end for him!
And you end this with them kissing in the rain! But not actual rain that they're originally in, but rain he made . What, like the sweetest ending I could ask for. And Sho's mayor again, what. My heart is given for this fic.
I loved this, I really did :D
(ugh, super long comment. and I didn't even request this. sorry!)
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And Kara/my winning bidder asked that Aiba be more Cowardly Lion than Beastly Beast, so I definitely thought that was an interesting twist and a good change from Disney. And I wasn't really in the mood for talking furniture - I already wanted Aiba to be an inventor, not a prince, so I thought taking it in a steampunk direction would be fun too. Turns out I'm not much of an engineer but it was still fun to have RoboArashi :)
And I was so excited to get to that ending scene, hahahaha. I finally decided on it and I was all "WELL DUH" - had to bring it all full circle
Thank you so much, I love long comments :)
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I adore the twists on the original. I like that Aiba was not a prince but an inventor. I like that they turned into automatons. I like that this was set on a steampunk universe.
I also like the friendship and the banter between your characters.I like the dimension added to Maurice.And Gaston is as sinister as ever.
I grew up with Disney movies and I still know the songs especially for this one. Using them as chapter titles had me humming XD
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And the Arashi and Becky friendship was almost as important as the Aiba/Becky relationship, so I'm glad that came across well!
I grew up with Disney movies too! I was 7 when Beauty and the Beast first came out hahaha :)
Thank you!!
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PS: *on a more fangirl-y note* I TOTALLY ADORE YOUR NINO HERE. Asldkjdslkfjff. Snarky, brutally honest and a sucker for his friends. Oh, you really had me flailing at the first mention of "Breeches" nickname. XDD
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I'm so glad you liked the steampunk/automaton/inventor Aiba change up to the story. I didn't want to just have Lumiere and Cogsworth with Arashi names.
Writing that ending made me all XD so I'm glad you liked it :) :)
Thanks so much!!!
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You gave me like, the best prompt of all time (OF ALL TIME!)
I knew when I was writing the prologue and hit over 2000 words that I was in big trouble LOL
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What made me attached to Aiba here (apart from the very obvious A no Arashi that he is) is that he tries so hard to preserve his friends and even blames himself for what's happened. Somehow, that's very Aiba to me and the friendship of those five just seemed more realistic, despite this being based on a fairytale. How Arashi can stay in character even in AUs, I'll never understand.
Nino's snarks and comments lol, so accurate. When I first read where this was based on, I already anticipated what kind of a character he'll be. And you had him meet Becky first and call her Breeches throughout the story. I just love the way you write Nino, because he's kinda elusive in fics. I saw none of that here. :3
Lol at Jun so protective of his castle, Ohno for still fishing with Becky's dad while something was already amiss, and Sakumiya arguing about Sho's fear of heights. Somehow, that made the situation a little lighter. Arashi can really brighten up even the worse situations. (Wedding scene kinda reminded me of Shrek, but this is supposed to be Disney so I dismissed the idea.)
Overall this was very entertaining, and I read through it as if I was reading a printed copy of Beauty and the Beast. :)
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And Nino, despite not being the main character, always seems to act like he is. Which is obviously something I love about him a lot since I let him get away with it in every story I write ;)
Shrek in the wedding scene? Interesting! I haven't seen it in so long that I honestly can't say that inspired me. I was really inspired by Kate Middleton's wedding dress LOL!!!
Thanks so much :)
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From the beginning, how you chose steampunk and robots and science, well, I was already hooked! Aiba the inventor, his assistant Nino, Mayor Sakurai, Count Jun and Butler Ohno, every character was perfect. Even Becky as a writer and Alaric Gaston, which I told you was perfectly named with a brutish name like that. Alaric was truly horrible just like the real Gaston, I really didnt like him.
I adore your writing and I tell you that too much that you have a case to get a restraining order on me probably but I really do.
You are creative, imaginative, smart, funny and great with words!
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Stuff that I adored: forced socializing!, the food and the snowball part which you kept but made a different version of, I was all awwwww, THEIR FRIENDSHIP AND LOYALTY, how Aiba was not mad but sad because he blamed himself, Nino and his naked self, Ohno and cooking, polite Sho and how he still cared about Sora till the end and Aristocratic Jun and his defending of his castle. But what I loved the most was that they all cared for each other till the end.
I laughed, I cried, I read the whole thing and I know that I will definitely reread.
Thank you to hatenaimirai_e for donating! This was lovely. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
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Every moment of this was perfect! Thank you so much for sharing! :D
(Btw, I love Beauty and the Beast! The Disney movie came out when I was just a toddler and I've loved it since! I'm a nerd for books just like Belle too! XD)
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And I've always loved Belle 'cause she was strong, independent, had a mind of her own, and I think Becky fits that so well.
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And Belle was my favorite Disney heroine for those reasons, so it was fun to toss Becky in. It allowed me to be a bit flexible and give her a bit more of a sense of humor than Belle had :)
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such a great story from start to finish
thank you so much for sharing
LOVED IT!!!!!!
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*insert incoherent gush of awesomeness at fic here*
Thank you for a lovely story to rekindle that Disney spark.
And, i dunno, but the "The end" right at the end of the story seemed so fitting like how all disney's movies would have that two words as the screen goes black and everybody's still left breathless in awe at the past hour of story experience.
THANK YOU
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I'm so happy you liked it, thank you!!
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It was awesome in every way. thank you for this!
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Thanks!
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This just completely sucked me in and almost had me comment out loud, which is not a good idea in a student dorm in the middle of the night. It actually managed to keep me away from other websites (facebook, twitter and msn included - and I usually check those every minute or so) for almost 2 hours. By the end of chapter 5 I was reading like this " O.O NOOOOOOO".
I thought I sort of guessed from the context what a dirigible is, but when I actually looked it up it was completely different after all. Failure on my side.
You also made me want to buy breechers, dammit!
But yeah, I think this might be the best version of the story I know so far. A very good end to a not so brilliant day. Thank you so so much ^^
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I am honored that you heard about this through word of mouth, and I'm glad it was a good distraction for you, hee hee.
Sorry for any 'dirigible' confusion - I figured 'blimp' would sound too modern anyhow. Thank you for reading and commenting!!
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THIS. This piece. I can't even explain it in words because I've put this off this morning knowing it'd be epic and finished reading everything in one sitting and now I've been staring at this comment box for half an hour now, trying to make a coherent, constructive, non-too-flaily review. But just like how Aiba's swept Becky off her feet with his kindness and ingenuity and his being Aiba, the way you wrote this humongous fic has left me speechless. The tone, the manner of speaking, the characterisation -- so terrifically fitting and spot-on.
I'm not the requester but I'm so happy you offered to write a fic in exchange of aid. Totally going down to my faves and memories. Thanks for sharing your talent, and for a good cause!
P.S.: I cried when Sho 'died'. And then Nino. And then--oh gawd, I really thought it was just going to be Aiba and Becky having their happy ending but I love you and your love of Arashi. ♥
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I had a ridiculous amount of fun writing it because it was one of my favorite Disney movies + my favorite people FOREVER, so thank you very much. I'm so happy you enjoyed it!! I have a hard time writing angst for this pairing - there was no way it couldn't have a happy ending :)
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This is one story that I wish didn't have to end.
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I'm the first to admit I'm not a huge Het!Aiba fan, but I do love Becky (although I'm finding I don't know as much about her as I would like). The complexity of that you've pulled off while writing this is something to be commended. You created an entire world with characters that were fully imagined and each personality was so spot on, it was beautiful, really. Beauty and the Beast was never really my favorite, but Aiba as this scary looking, but absolutely lovable Lion-esque creature was absolutely perfect. Count Jun with his air of aristocracy and worrisome Mayor Sakurai who just wanted to help his people.
I loved every single bit of this story and just wanted to thank you for sharing, and what's even better is that it was done for an excellent cause! I may end up your stalker, be warned.
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I welcome all stalkers. I've got a lot of different crazy stories sitting around here :)
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I decided to read this fic before bed last night, AND OMG, I'M SO NOT DISAPPOINTED. I LOVED IT SO MUCH, I WANTED IT TO NEVER END. *cough* I couldn't stop reading, and like. It was so awesome, I just. Guh. ♥
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I'm so glad you enjoyed it, thank you!
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I only got introduced to steampunk because of an Arashi fic, and I'm glad to come across it again. It's a nice twist to Beauty and the Beast, not to mention that I instantly loved how Nino got described as the naked automaton...well, I literally cackled at my screen, actually. XD
I also find Aiba/Becky really cute, I've been looking for more fics of this pairing that's why I got here. Thank you for writing this lovely het fic about this lovely pair AND much Arashi friendship...I love that aspect the best. I could try listing down each and every thing I love about this fic, but I'd rather use the time to read it all over again, lol.
Thank you, really! Truly enjoyed reading this! ♥♥♥
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Aiba/Becky's one of my favorites and you'll find an increasing amount of it in my journal. Thanks so much, I'm happy you liked it!!
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The scene that stood out the most for me was Nino and Sho in the dirigible, saving Becky from Alaric. When Nino said they knew what getting on this dirigible meant, and he acted the same as ever, and they were just so heroic and brave and, ugh, I can't get the image out of my head. The image of Sho breaking away to nuts and bolts, and Nino letting go as Becky was holding him.
Secondly, the automatons. When they turned into automatons, I figured you would have them able to show emotions and facial expressions, due to the magic. But, they were just steel faces with no give. At first I didn't understand why, and found it quite odd. But you made it one of the loveable caricatures of the story. I always think of Ohno's blank automaton face, with his simple blue shirt, staring at Becky while she ate her breakfast.
And the coloured coats, save for the naked automaton. Priceless imagery ♥
But of course, the romance. You made me swoon a few times, I won't deny it. I like how it took time for them fall in love. That Aiba's love started as infatuation, and Becky's curiousity. Sometimes, when people have to "declare their love," I find myself questioning it, because sometimes it feels forced and out of place. But when Becky was screaming I love you's at the top of her lungs, I believed you. I believed her.
Sorry for gushing so much, but, you deserve all my rambles and more, so much more. This is the best AU's I have read in months. May be the best one I've ever read, to be honest. It's amazing, you did a fantastic job.
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The reason I didn't 'animate' the automatons was because I felt that would make it too 'Disney' if that makes any sense - the Disney version is one of my favorite movies and I wanted to kind of put my own spin on the story. That doesn't mean that Ohno isn't Mrs. Potts though ;)
And as much fun as writing the Aiba and Becky interaction was in this, I think Becky's friendship with Arashi and Arashi's friendship with one another was the most enjoyable for me. And as far as noisy love confessions go, I think they have to be earned LOL so I am happy you found it believable.
Really, thank you so much. A comment like this makes my day :)
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i'm so glad she did.
this story was just LOVELY. i like how instead of a flashback scene, you tell us what happens right in the beginning. i think it makes a story flow better that way. and i love how aiba-chan was an inventor and then a 'cowardly lion'-esque beast and the boys were steel-faced (pun unintended) automatons. it just makes showing their true selves are the more whimsical and beautiful and fantastic. becky was spot-on. everyone was spot-on in characterization. flawless, really. and i know someone else already said this, but i'm glad that becky and aiba-chan took time to fall in love. while i love disney movies, that's one flaw they have, i think.
when i reached the end, i felt a warmth engulf me. so thank you for writing and sharing this with everyone (and for a good cause, no less!). really, thank you. ♥
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i really love them and hope they go out in real life..
thanks for such a good fic..
waiting for new one!