AWAFD II: Work To DO

"They're gone, all of them, my friends--every last one of them--"

"Gunsou--"

Keroro sat on the ground, defeated and suffering.  The Keroro ball lie forgotten at his side as he stared down at the blaze that was once a prison for him, his platoon, and who knows how many others.  Thanks to Kululu, he and Fuyuki were now safe atop a hill overlooking the ruin, but he didn't feel safe, he didn't feel grateful.

He felt cheated. Why did Kululu have to be smart, why did he have to have a back-up plan?  Why couldn't they all have just died there together and that would be the end? Instead, he lost everyone, including his childhood friends, the ones he cared about most.  At the moment, he couldn't register that being alive meant he could fix things, and that he wasn't alive alone.

Fuyuki wanted to say something, he wanted to comfort the Sergeant and help him feel that everything would be alright. But even he didn't feel like there was hope. It was just the two of them now, what were they going to do, what could he do?  He wasn't like his sister, Natsumi would know how to take action, she was strong and he wasn't.

The emptiness hit then...Natsumi- she was....

And suddenly, he knew how Keroro must feel, he had lost everyone.  The whole platoon had been in the house when they were suddenly ambushed and taken away.  There was no way they could have survived that explosion, was there?

He remained quiet for a moment, then he remembered, his mother hadn't been home!  Maybe there was a chance she was still alive and somewhere safe, or even if she had been kidnapped, they could still save her.

He looked at the Sarge, did he have the heart to break him out of his mourning though?

"Gunsou--?" He said, hesitantly.

Keroro was quiet for several moments longer before looking down at his hands,  "I- I couldn't do anything....Giroro was right, he always was, I'm...useless."

And he began to cry.

---

"Come on soldier, don't give up now."

Laden with the barely alive body of Kululu, Corporal Giroro trudged his way into the cover of the trees, trying to get away from the smoke and the flames.  He finally laid his burden down next to the body of Natsumi....no, not Natsumi.  It was only a corpse now that had once been filled with the life of the girl he loved.

He knew that it had been foolish to drag the lifeless remains from the burning building, he was a soldier, he knew death.  But, he couldn't bear to leave her behind to burn into nothing.  And besides, because he had saved her he had seen Kululu struggling to escape and had been able to rescue him.

Or what was left of him.

He tore some of the clothing of the deceased Hinata away to make bandages for the bloody pulps that had once been the Sergeant Major's hands.  And then, to wrap around the left side of his head.  He thought about removing the glasses, but the fire had singed them into his skin in some places and he worried that removing them would only further the damage.  Safe to say, his left eye was going to be useless, with the shattered glass that had become imbedded in it.

Kululu coughed a bit, barely conscious, "Kuku--we match..." He joked weakly, gesturing to his eye.

He was right, Giroro's already scarred left eye had completely lost vision at this point when the torturing had landed a blow to that particular eye.  It now no longer functioned, and Kululu's would never again either.

"Heh, guess so, but I think you're going to have a worse battle wound than I." He replied, finishing covering the others wounds. Sitting down to finally catch his own breath.

He sat in silence for awhile, the only sounds were the crumbling of the building and
Kululu's raspy breathing.  But after the mood had settled, the keronian spoke.

"So she's dead." He said, looking over at the beaten body of the girl.

Giroro didn't look over, "...yes, she was the first tortured...because she fought so defiantly, they didn't let her go easily--"

He recalled seeing this happen, how painful it had been to watch, but he couldn't deny that she had been so very brave.

Another long silence passed between the two, before Kululu sat up weakly, grunting with the effort.

"I wouldn't strain yourself--" Giroro started, before Kululu raised a bandaged arm to silence him.

"I was able--to get my invention before the explosion..." He said, nudging over a device he had been clutching in his arms before Giroro dragged him from the rubble.  "I want you to have it, use it--on the pekoponian."

Giroro looked down at it confused, he hadn't noticed it before, it was slightly triangular in shape and had a bright green oval in the center.

"Just put it on the back of her head, and she can become a weapon so you can fight back." the yellow keronian leaned back against a tree, "When you activate it, use the headpiece for yourself, you'll be able to control her--it wont revive her, I can't work those kind of miracles."

The corporal stared at the object then at Kululu, "How--how can this work--?"

"kuku--You'll just have to see for yourself--" he replied.

Giroro was somber, "You didn't originally make this for me...did you...who was it for? Why?"

Kululu looked away, "It doesnt matter, I make things for no reason, it's just something extra I had lying around.  Anyway, it'll work better on someone who's not living--" He coughed again, he wasn't going to tell the Corporal he was going to use it on himself, it didn't matter now.

"Thank you- but-"

"But what, you don't want someone else to do our job do you? And if you do nothing, then she, and everyone else, dies for nothing but a burning planet.  Ku~ unless you're the type that likes watching the worlds burn with no reward~"

He shot a glare at the Keronian, but he couldn't argue. He had a point, no, not just a point, he was absolutely right.  The invading aliens had to be stopped, before Pekopon was completely destroyed.

"You better hurry up and hide, take her too." Kululu said suddenly, sitting up more.

"What? Why-?" But he didn't have to ask, he could hear yelling as enemy survivers from the
blast were coming near their area, they'd all definitely be killed.

Kululu stood up slowly, peeking out from around the cluster of bushes they were concealed behind.

"What about you?" Giroro asked.

"I'll keep them occupied, but without my arms, I can't give you long so you'd better go now."

Kululu was sacrificing himself...for him? This was all too surreal, but then again, they were in a war-situation. "I can't just leave you."

His headphones popped open, long cords extending from them and going menacingly for the corporal, sparks of electricity flashing at the ends, he looked at him. "You can and you will. Now."

He wanted to protest, but everything was happening so fast, so quickly as he could, he grabbed Natsumi and got her away from there as quickly as he could.  Like Kululu said, he didn't get far before the yellow Keronian was overwhelmed, he watched from safety up in the trees a ways away.

He watched with gritted teeth as they yanked the cords out of his headphones.  But, instead of killing him, they grabbed him up and took him away.  The corporal was able to make out something like "hostage" and "headquarters", but that's all he needed to know.

Once they were long gone, he made his way further into the trees, setting Natsumi up against a rock.  He looked at the device for a long time, "....We'll come-- and find you." He said to himself, clicking the green button he placed the device on Natsumi.

It quickly took shape, and where her arms and legs had been almost destroyed, new robotic ones were formed.  And then there she was, standing before him--but as Kululu said, there was no life in her eyes.

She held out the head piece for him, frozen in place, waiting for her commands.  He took it and placed it on his head, along with the ear and mouth piece.  She had to be his soldier now, an extension of him.  And they'd stop the invaders, save the Sergeant Major--and anyone else that might need their aide.

It's what she would have wanted...

"Natsumi--we have work to do."

"Yes sir."