So this is a new story I've been planning for a while. I'm hoping you all like it, but of course the first chapter is just setting the environment and how everything happened.

I hope you'll enjoy the story!

And sis will hopefully update Shattered Wings soon! She's busy with work right now, but hopefully soon.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"She... She can't really die... can she?" Fuyuki asked worriedly. "This... This is just going all too fast."

"Ku ku ku. I'm afraid she will... We've tried everything. It's either death or this. So... either way, you'll have to say good-bye to your sister," Kululu told the young boy.

Tears went down Fuyuki's face as he sobbed his eyes out. But there was nothing he could do.

This was the only hope for Natsumi to live.

Never order space food from a sketchy company.

That was the terrible lesson Keroro learned one day when he ordered some space take-out from a very cheap company after being forced to actually do his work on his own. He was tired, hot and sweaty and just wanted to sit down and enjoy a nice meal.

"Thanks for the meal!" He paid the delivery boy and skipped back to the table to eat.

Fuyuki wasn't home when Keroro was nibbling on his noodles, he was instead at Momoka's, and the only Pekoponian present was Natsumi Hinata. This made the environment perfect for Keroro to play with his food as much as he wanted, sculpting his noodles into Platoon mates' heads and eating them.

Natsumi was fanning herself with a fan, overcome by the heat when she slumped down in a chair next to him. "What's that?" she asked, seeing the unusual noodles Keroro was nibbling on. They looked unique and new, but the smell was what drew her closer. They smelled like a rare delicacy. Like forbidden fruit, bathed in a sweet savory aroma. Like they were calling her.

To Keroro, they just tasted like junk food, though.

"Space take-out," Keroro answered simply, making a slurping sound as he devoured another noodle. Natsumi awkwardly watched him eat.

Keroro tensed up eventually. He knew what she wanted. It was his food! Natsumi was always a glutton for what she thought was special food. "Um... would you like some?" Keroro asked after a moment of annoyance at Natsumi just watching him. She wouldn't have taken it from him, but he knew she'd be mad if he didn't offer her any.

"YES!" Natsumi eagerly agreed, taking his box and digging in.

"That... That was my meal..." Keroro whined, looking down sadly as Natsumi ate all of his special food. He shed a tear, but said it quietly enough that she wouldn't maim him.

Finally, when Natsumi was done, she handed Keroro the last scraps of the meal. "Thanks, stupid frog! That was surprisingly good!"

Keroro just cried at his lost meal.

After having eaten such a nice treat, Natsumi went out to help some various sports teams at school, like normal. She wasn't in any of them, but they constantly asked for her help anyway.

Kicking the soccer ball across the field was easy enough, but the more she moved, the more tired her body got. This wasn't normal for her. Usually she had boundless energy. But her legs were feeling heavier and heavier, and as she kicked the last soccer ball into the goal she collapsed onto the field, sweating profusely and feeling hazy, like her mind couldn't stick to reality.

"NATSUMI!" Koyuki yelled at the top of her lungs, rushing up to her. She put her hand on the top of the girl's head to feel her temperature. "She's got a bad fever... Oh dear..."

"Does that mean Natsumi can't play anymore?" one of the girls asked. Koyuki didn't even respond. She just dragged Natsumi up and put her arm around her shoulder.

"I need to take her home." Her ninja remedies would only go so far. She didn't even know what Natsumi had at the moment. Right now, what she needed was alien frogs.

"I-I'm fi-fine... I can still play..." Natsumi shivered. She could barely keep her eyes open. She felt her mind growing hazy, like she was going to faint. Koyuki shushed her.

"We're taking you home, right now," she said. Natsumi just had to go along with what Koyuki wanted.

Laying Natsumi down on a lab table, Natsumi could barely move to plead with Koyuki not to get Kululu's help. Her mind was growing hazier and hazier and she could barely hear all the voices all around her. Everything felt like it was spinning.

"Tell me what's wrong with her," Koyuki begged Kululu. "She can't move. She can't even talk. She's just sweating. It's no sickness I recognize."

"Well, she's obviously sick. I can tell you that much. Ku, ku, ku. Even the great Natsumi Hinata, I suppose, can be taken down by germs." Kululu did a few scans on her body, inserting a needle in her arm to draw some blood. After a few seconds, he began rapidly typing after getting the results.

"Wha-what's..." Wrong with me? Natsumi wanted to say, but her eyelids were closing before she could finish her statement.

"Koyuki. You'll want to bring the rest of the platoon down and her brother immediately. It seems to be more serious than an average germ... She has a space virus which is very deadly to Pekoponians," Kululu reported. "She... She might be dying."

Koyuki was shocked, but nodded. She needed to place her trust in the Keronians to save Natsumi's life now. She hoped they'd be able to.

"FIX HER," Giroro growled, pushing Kululu against a wall after hearing the news. The remaining three frogs, along with Fuyuki, Angol Mois, and Aki, all watched in horror at the news about Natsumi.

"I... I'm looking! Okay?" Kululu hissed. "Now let me go so I can try to make a cure."

Giroro reluctantly dropped Kululu and ran back to Natsumi's side. "How'd she get this virus? I thought it was super rare!"

"Found it in her gut. She must have ingested something bad for Pekoponians; I'd just try to do an operation to get her to throw it up. However, the virus has spread to the rest of her body in mere seconds. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu continued typing.

"Umm... Oops." Keroro quietly told himself. He knew the thing she must have ingested was his space food. I shouldn't have let her eat it, he realized. He might have been immune to whatever was in it, but Natsumi was in major trouble.

Giroro screamed in desperation as Fuyuki stood in the background in pure shock. Fuyuki walked forward to grab his sister's hand, to tell her it would be all right, but Kululu stopped him.

"It might be contagious," he told him. "Right now, only Keronians should touch her. I already scanned Koyuki, and she seemed to be lucky enough not to contract the virus, but... you might not be."

"So I can't even squeeze my sister's hand to show her support?" Fuyuki asked, horrified.

"I'll squeeze her hand for you. She'll feel your support in her spirit. She's strong. She'll make it through this. Don't worry," Giroro promised Fuyuki.

"Just being strong won't be enough for her to make it through this, though. I'm assuming you don't have any Cerberus livers on you?" Kululu asked Giroro, glancing at him.

Giroro shook his head. "If I had a space ship fast enough I could try to go to their planet and kill another one though... That would save her life, right?" He looked hopeful.

"Uhhh... about that..." Kululu was quiet for a moment. "Space Cerberuses are an extinct race now. Their home planet seems to be completely gone."

Angol Mois gave an awkwardly bashful smile and a nervous giggle. Giroro, Fuyuki, Aki, and Keroro glared at her.

"You'll have to stop paying attention to Mois, and do everything in your power to help Natsumi. I don't know what. try to get some medicine or something!" Kululu yelled.

All of them dispersed, desperate to get something for the girl.

They tried everything they could, not sleeping a wink in the next 24 hours. But everything they tried did nothing to help Natsumi. Natsumi's eyes sometimes opened, glazing a bit, and eventually someone would have to force them closed so she didn't get dust in them. Her heartbeat was weak, and her breathing was shallow. Everybody was frightened for the poor girl.

Some of them cried. Some of them, like Giroro, didn't stop moving, trying to do anything in his power to save Natsumi.

But it just wasn't enough. Human bodies just weren't meant to survive the disease she contracted.

A loud beeping noise hurt all of their ears, as Mois switched Natsumi's liquid in her IV bag. Kululu launched himself across the floor in his wheely chair, pushing himself off his desk to see what was wrong with her.

"CRAP!" Kululu yelled, scanning her vitals.

"What's that? What's happening to Natsumi?" Giroro clutched her hand and felt her pulse. His warrior princess couldn't die. She needed to be strong! They all knew she would be strong!

"It's taking a turn for the worse. Her time's running out. Every cell in her body is dying! At this rate, she only has five minutes left. Ku," Kululu said, his voice blunt about the harshness of the situation.

"WHAT?" everybody yelled out. Five minutes was too little time. Instead of staying by Natsumi's side, they hurried around the room, desperately looking for something that might save her. None of them knew when to give up.

Koyuki brought in herbs of all kind, but nothing did the trick, and soon, enough her life was down to two minutes. Kululu was trying to type and brainstorm quickly, but he knew that nothing could be done for the girl.

"Kululu... You've got to save her!" Fuyuki begged, "Please... you have to!"

"I'm doing everything I can!" Kululu retorted. After a moment of thinking, he swirled around in his chair to face the panicking Keronians and crying Pekoponians. "There... might be a way to save her, but it's risky."

"Do it, then!" Giroro yelled. "No matter what, even if my own life is lost in the process, I'll do anything for Natsumi to live. I'd give an arm and a leg for her!"

"We could wait, then," Kululu spoke calmly, but quickly, as he quickly built some sort of fluid. "Stop her moments before death, seconds before she expires. Put her into suspended animation to be comatose, and wait for her body to fight off the infection on its own. It would take a while... centuries, millennial. But she'd live... eventually," he told them. "You'd all never see her again, of course, but at least she'd be alive. Ku, ku, ku. I know I wouldn't be damaged, but I'm sure some of you would be against the idea of knowing she'd wake up to a world where she'd be alone, perhaps the only remnants of some of you being your descendants." He glanced at Fuyuki, thinking of the possible Nishizawa kids the guy could have.

Giroro didn't have a moment to spare. "Do it," he ordered.

"She... She can't really die... can she?" Fuyuki asked worriedly. "This... This is just going all too fast."

"Ku ku ku. I'm afraid she will... We've tried everything. It's either death or this. So... either way, you'll have to say good-bye to your sister," Kululu told the young boy.

Fuyuki sobbed his eyes out, but this was the only way. He nodded.

"Please, Kululu," Aki begged. Kululu nodded and waited for the perfect moment. Moments before Natsumi would die. Then lightning fast, he inserted the needle into her with the fluid.

And Natsumi was preserved just as she was. Not breathing, but also not dying. Just suspended. Her cells were frozen. It was as if she, herself, were frozen in time.

Was she really living...? Or was this death itself, too?

"I'll build a chamber around her, no worries," Kululu said. "It should supply her the nutrients she needs and let her live, and keep her safe. She should have as comfortable a life as a sort-of-corpse possibly can."

Keroro nodded.

Who knew his space food could cause this much pain? He wiped some tears off his eyes with his arm. This whole situation just seemed surreal to him.

Eventually Natsumi was just a girl in a pod like coffin. Nobody could touch her, but they could all see her.

"We'll make a room in the base, so we can keep her safe and visit her. Don't worry," Keroro told them all, squeezing his platoon mates' hands. He stopped at Fuyuki and hugged the boy around his legs. That was all he could offer him for support, after all. Aside from Kululu's, all their eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"We... We should say some good-byes... She's not dead... But it's very likely we won't ever speak to her again," Dororo told them. "There's no reason to treat it like a funeral. We saved her life, but we should honor her memory."

"I agree with Dororo." Koyuki couldn't keep her voice from not cracking under the pressure of her tears. She didn't want to accept this, but she wanted to let Natsumi's memory be honored.

"Then... I'd like to say a few words first," Keroro volunteered. "I... I was the one responsible for this accident. I shouldn't have let her eat my food. And I swear I will be more responsible in the future... But that can't make up for my mistakes. I should have known." He cried.

"It wasn't your fault, Sarge." Fuyuki pat his back.

"She was like a sister to me. Our bickering was fun while it lasted. She was annoying, but also special... And I miss her already. I kind of half expect her to break out and yell out 'stupid frog' any second now... But I guess that isn't happening." Keroro seemed disappointed for once.

Everybody nodded as he stopped talking. Dororo handed him some flowers to leave on her pod.

"My... My Natsumi... was precious. This shouldn't have happened to her," Aki spoke. "I'm happy she's saved, but I'm scared she'll be alone when she wakes up. I... I don't know what to do..." Aki couldn't finish. She just started crying.

"She was my best friend. I want Natsumi back," Koyuki told everyone. "I want her back desperately."

Saburo, who had come just for the not-a-funeral-but kind-of-a-funeral, stood up. "She was a sweet girl. Nice, a little weird around me, but nice nonetheless. She was a good friend. And I have faith she'll pull through this in half the time that's predicted," he smiled. Half the time was still probably half a century, but maybe she could see them all again in their old age.

"She was my friend. I'll always miss her in our group of More Peach Summer Snow. I'll always remember her during the summer," Momoka told everyone.

"I'm sure I'll see you again eventually, Natsumi. I'll try to bring get well cards that everybody wrote." Mois didn't take the situation nearly as seriously, due to having a much longer lifespan than everyone else. Thousands and thousands of years later, she'd probably still be a teenager.

"I will defend Pekopon in your steed. Do not worry, no invasion will happen under my watch," Dororo vowed to her. "When you return. I hope you return to a beautiful Pekopon."

"Natchi, I hope you find happiness in the future!" Tamama wailed, crying childishly.

"Ku, ku, ku. I probably shouldn't say anything cuz it would ruin the mood. Umm... my invention saved your life? Good for me." Giroro punched Kululu so he himself could speak and get closer to Natsumi's coffin.

"I..." Giroro kept staring back at the coffin, not taking his eyes off of Natsumi's sickly, sleeping face. "I love you, Natsumi. You might never hear those words from me in person, but... I love you... And I'm sorry I couldn't tell it to your face." He turned to only her, trying to keep calm for at least a few moments so that he could finish speaking to her. "This isn't good-bye. I know you're strong. And I know I'll see you again. I'll visit you every day, my warrior princess... So please... fight and get well! I know you can. It's just like that pretty boy Saburo said... you can make it through this. I'll keep you in my mind and heart forever, my love. So please... Join me again in our battle, someday." Giroro put his hand up against the glass and tried not to show his platoon he was crying.

Fuyuki just sobbed. He couldn't even bring together words to speak.

It was a grim and sad day for all. Everybody knew they wouldn't recover from losing her, but they also knew that at least she was alive. So there was no reason to really be sad, right?

There was nothing to mourn except not seeing her. And they all visited her as much as they could, making a room in the base just for her to reside in.

Natsumi's eyes snapped open many, many years later. She was no longer in a pod, but a hospital bed.

She remembered the moments before her almost death a bit, although they were fuzzy. Her brother's tears, Giroro's desperate pleas to save her, and finally a needle being inserted into her arm so she would become comatose instead of dead.

She sat up with great difficulty and looked out the window. The architecture that greeted her was not any that she was familiar with. In fact, the huge skyscrapers, pipes, and bridges connecting these huge buildings made her feel like she was in a different time period entirely.

Even the hospital room she was in didn't have the gadgets she was used to. The machines surrounding her seemed new and alien.

Am I on Earth? she wondered. She hoped she wasn't. Because if she was, it would have taken centuries for her planet to change so much. She... She didn't want to think about having to make it on her own in a world where nobody remembered her.

If she was in the future, it was very likely that her friends, her family, they were all dead. She was the only one left.

She didn't want to cry, but she was frightened. She felt vulnerable, and young for once. Weak. She knew time had passed, many years, but her body still looked the same as it did when she went comatose. She didn't know where she was or even when she was. She wanted her home back, her life. But there was no way to get those things back.

Things had changed. But she hadn't.

After removing herself from some various medical equipment, she walked out of her room to wander around the halls, looking for a way out. She needed to find a way out.

"Oh! You're awake!" a human-looking nurse approached her, seeing that Natsumi was up.

Darn it. She's human. This must mean I am on Earth... She didn't want to be on Earth, though. She didn't want to be the last one alive of her family. Maybe the nurse just looked human?

Hopefully, she had been kidnapped by aliens during the first week of her coma, and she had waken up miraculously healed and only a week had passed.

That was what she was hoping for.

"Yeah. I'm awake." Natsumi gave an awkward smile.

"That's good, because we were just about to have to pull your plug and get rid of you... Your treatment fund has actually run out." The nurse smiled. "But now that you're awake, we can just let you leave."

My treatment fund? One of her old friends or her family must have paid for her to stay at this hospital, and the years having gone on and on, the fund must have run low after their death. She didn't want to think about which one of them was gone. But the treatment fund also meant her theory about being kidnapped must have been wrong.

Nodding at the nurse, she was lead out of the hospital, into the very futuristic city. She could see cars flying and hovering in the streets and space ships departing from stations and launching into the sky.

No... This can't be Earth. Unless we've discovered aliens and more about space in the thousands of years I was probably asleep... She wandered around the streets just in a constant daze, confusion clouding her mind.

She finally stopped and asked someone she was passing by about where she was.

"Am... Am I on Earth?" Natsumi asked, grabbing the man's arm and looking confused.

The man nodded, "You're on Earth," he told her. He looked closer at Natsumi's face, examining it. "Funny, you don't look like much of an alien, but yes, you're on earth. Did you get your directions wrong when you boarded a space train or something that dropped you off here?" he asked, wondering why she didn't know why she was there.

Natsumi frowned. So not only was she on Earth, this Newer Earth in the future knew about aliens.

They must have been discovered when I was gone... I wonder if Fuyuki was alive when that happened. She didn't know. The man turned away, ready to leave. "Wait!" Natsumi stopped him. "I... umm... Have you seen any Keronians around here?" she asked. She rephrased her question. "What do you know about Keronians?"

The futuristic cities, the knowing about aliens... She just wanted to make sure the frogs hadn't invaded her home after her near-death experience.

"Sorry, I'm no alien expert, so I don't know much about that species." The man tipped his hat. "I really need to go..." His eyes darted to the side, almost frightened.

"Are you okay?" Natsumi asked, seeing the man's concern.

"You should head home," he told her. "Just like I need to. The scouts for the Harvest are coming by later today and you don't want to be picked."

Natsumi frowned. The Harvest? What was that? "What's the Harvest?" she asked.

The man was walking away from Natsumi when she asked. He turned around to just look at Natsumi, his face very pale. "A nightmare." That was all he answered before running off.

Natsumi was just left confused.

Her world... Her home planet... It had changed a lot. And since it was the only thing she had left of her old life, she needed to make the best of it and protect it, as its defender.

That was her old life. And she desperately clung to it.

Please review! Tell me what you think of the fic?