Chapter Seventeen – Erase/Rewind

(Hi! GGs, Goji, Assassins, Koji, Onishima are not © me, they belong to Sega, as if you didn't know. Everyone else is © me. Banshee, if you're reading this, there's a kiss about halfway through but it's only one sentence long so don't worry. Oh…and this is the last chapter. Enjoy! PS Some of you may feel my knowledge of time travel, engineering, etc, is kind of…patchy. It is. I'm sorry.)

Garam lurked in a corridor somewhere in the Rokkaku building, sulking.

He was dead. He'd broken up with his girlfriend who had been sleeping around behind his back. He was trapped in a parallel universe where everything had gone hideously wrong. And all the GGs thought he was a killer.

Well, they're right, his brain muttered. You are. You shot all those cops.

I want to change the past. I want to not have done it.

He started to run down the corridor, past blank-faced Rokkaku staff, breath sobbing in his throat. I want to be different. I want to be not me. I want to get out of this life.

There was a wall rushing up in front of him. He didn't stop.

And he slid through it –

And there was Tokyo-to, a huge patch of scorched ground, and there was him rushing towards it –

The air stung his face. His eyes watered.

This'll kill me, he thought.

Then – well, good.

And he landed.

There was a faint echo of pain in his legs, but nothing more.

Horror rang in his ears. Of course. He was a ghost. He couldn't die. He would never die. He'd be around here forever now. Knowing what he'd done. Knowing he couldn't do anything to change it.

He shuddered, shuddered all over. Knowing all the bad stuff. It wrapped around him like a snake, brushing his arms and back. He wanted to claw it off and he couldn't because that would mean ripping chunks out of his brain.

This was what Cube had felt like?

But it was okay for her to feel like that, she tortured all those people, she laughed at them, I just got the job done, just got the job done, just got it done…

I'm as bad as she is.

A flood of horror smashed through his mind, engulfed him, and he shivered, gritting his teeth. Then he couldn't stop.

Sooner or later you have to pay. Sooner or later everyone will find out what you did.

Why can't I go back? Why can't I change it? There's got to be a way, there's got to.

Well, there's one chance. He pictured Past Gum, but the thought of her made him shudder again. She'd seen what he was. What he and Cube were. Why should she want to save them now?

Gum…you were my friend…

So I can't. So it's all happened – only it hasn't really, only in my head. No. That's not any better. Cos I know I can do it. And I don't want to. I want to have thrown down the gun. I mean, thrown it down earlier. Why didn't I? Sure, I couldn't kill Mew, but…I shouldn't have…shouldn't have been able to kill anyone…

And I did.

And it's done. I kidded myself all that time that it wasn't bad, because of what she did. I was never as bad as her.

I was still bad.

"Help me," he yelled. "Someone, help me!"

His voice rang out through the emptiness. Nobody came.

So this was it?

He'd caught a snatch of conversation from Combo and Cube. We walk the earth together.

That's not my fate. I get to walk it all on my own. This is where it ends, Garam man. Just you, and a seriously smashed-up Tokyo, and the dead. They're dead.

All dead.

How many had there been? He couldn't remember. Hadn't been so difficult to do and now they were all dead.

All dead.

Ghostly GGs who could walk through walls.

And he was the deadest of all.

***

Past Gum kicked the wall for the fourth time, and her foot sank through it.

She felt mean. She hadn't meant to get to Garam like that. The words had just leapt out of her mouth, and then she'd felt backed into a corner…and Future Gum being so damn self-righteous had really pissed her off…

Well, it wasn't like they needed her. They had the sensible Gum. Yo-Yo liked her future self better anyway. Gum felt tears rise in her throat.

They don't want me around. Fine. I'll just go. I'll just go and they'll never have to see me again.

They need you.

Gum glowered at the voice in the back of her brain. They do not.

You're the only one who can save them here. You're the only one who can go back to the right time.

Well…well, why the hell should I? It's not like they're making me want to save them. Her lungs felt choked with rage. I wish they'd just quit getting at me!

You got at Garam.

"Oh, shut up!" she yelled.

She carried on walking, stamping her feet into the shiny floor. But memories were rising through her brain like smoke. Memories of the GGs. Tab. Beat. Cube. Combo. Piranha. Slate. Mew. Garam.

And Yo-Yo.

Her friends.

Who were all in deep shit right now.

"All right," she said at last. "All right."

And she turned, and started to retrace her steps.

***

Tab slumped against one of the laboratory walls, feeling his shoulders sink into it, and watched Camilla working. She'd started off looking nervous, glancing at the Assassins, fingers clenched on her tools, but now she'd relaxed. Now she looked like she'd been released back into her own wild.

That couldn't be good.

The other GGs were sprawled around the room in twos and threes, looking uneasily at Camilla. Tab tried not to realise that this could be the last time he ever saw them.

"You okay?"

He turned as Beat dropped down next to him.

"Yeah. Just a bit tense, on account of the whole impending death thing."

"You think she'll do it?"

"Dunno. But if she does, things'll immediately pop back to what they were before."

"Huh?"

"Look. We'll be in the lab after Camilla erased us in the other timeline. Goji will be dead. The Assassins will be in jail."

Beat frowned; his standard I-don't-get-it look. Tab felt a warm ache in his heart – he'd missed that look.

Reluctantly he dragged his mind back to the situation as Beat said, "But surely Goji's figured that out."

"Yeah, but he'll have to bring us back if he wants to kill us. I imagine it's gonna take some real neat timing, though. If as soon as we come alive again, we get shot, I think he might actually manage to keep himself safe."

"That's not good."

"You're telling me."

Bullets of rain rattled in the distance.

"We might get back," Beat said. "They mightn't manage to shoot us – I mean, they don't know what's gonna happen either, right?"

"And if we do? Either we'll be erased again, and come here, and then unerased, and come there, and erased again, and come here, and just keep doing that for the rest of eternity, or we'll live out all those fun lives Camilla was telling us about."

And in a week's time, you'll be dead.

He didn't want to think about it. It couldn't happen. It couldn't. It would be…it would be wrong for him to die now. It wouldn't be fair.

His throat tightened, and he quickly focused on the lights above them, trying to stay calm.

"We'll get out of this," Beat said. "I know we will."

"How? How the hell are we gonna do that? Everyone in every reality wants us out. It's just –"

Beat cut him off with a kiss.

"Stop it," he said at last. "We can do it. We gotta believe that. Even if we're gonna die, Past Gum's still around and if she gets back, she'll save us. All of us."

"Yeah. If she gets back."

"And even if she don't, we know what's in store for us, so we can try and avoid it. Like, I won't slit my wrists or whatever Camilla said I do. And then you won't need to throw yourself off a bridge."

"Sounds good to me."

Camilla was leaning across the table now, reaching into the heart of the machine. Tab could see how interested she looked. Sure, you say it's evil, he thought, but come on, you just want to see if you can do it, don't you? After all, we're just a bunch of street punks. It doesn't matter what happens to us.

"Well?" Goji demanded. "Can you do it?"

"I think so." Camilla gave him a cool stare. "Where's the guy who worked on this thing?"

"I'll fetch him," Goji said. "But can you get rid of them?" He indicated the GGs.

"I can try."

"Thanks a bunch," Yo-Yo said.

Camilla ignored him. Maybe she couldn't see them any more. She certainly looked less miserable now.

Tab gazed at the machine, and shivered. Say what you like, he thought, I'm no Einstein, I'm just a dumb kid who happens to remember useless information. I can't do anything against Miss Brainiac. I can't do anything, full stop.

But Beat's right. We got to keep hoping. Got to.

If not…

Kogane River, here I come.

***

The day passed. No one really noticed. The laboratory had no windows, and the central heating was working fine.

***

Mew drew her knees up against her chest, and wished something would happen. This waiting was slowly tearing into her sanity.

And Isas had forgotten her.

No, not forgotten. He didn't know her because there was no one to know. The kissing, the way he'd stroked her hair, his nervousness, his rage, they'd never happened. If he saw her, he'd see a stranger.

Maybe he was with some other girl right now – she doubled over a little, her forehead brushed her knees, she hadn't expected the thought to hurt so much.

Maybe he was injured.

Maybe he was dead.

She heard herself sob a little, and bit savagely down on her trembling lip. Get a life, she told herself. Get a life and stop being so stupid! You have to be strong here.

But I can't be. I can't, Isas, I wish you were here…

She rested her head on her knees again as her eyes pooled with tears.

***

Past Gum finally reached the laboratory, where Camilla, hair tied back with a rubber band, face smeared with oil, and eyes gritted with determination, was in fierce conference with four other Rokkaku scientists.

The GGs were slumped around the room, dozing. Gum glanced at her watch, remembered it was wrong, and turned to the clock on the wall. It was 11:55 – at night? She guessed so.

She sank down on the floor, away from the others, wishing she was back in 2000, where the GGs were safe and Tokyo was whole and none of this had happened. Laughing herself stupid with her gang. Paint on her fingers. Eating pizza when it was dark outside.

"Hey."

She turned to see Yo-Yo drop down next to her.

"What?" she asked.

"You look stressed." He wrapped an arm round her shoulders, and she tried to relax into it. It wasn't easy.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked.

"Don't worry," he said. "We're gonna get back. I was talking to Beat, he was talking to Tab, the timing's tricky but we could make it. You know what to tell Beat if you get back to him okay?"

"Don't go to the meeting with the Love Shocker, and repair that crack in your skate."

"Sweet." Yo-Yo kissed her. Gum felt a jolt of lightning arch down to the bottom of her stomach, and bit her lip to stay in control. Think about what's at stake if this all goes wrong. Yo-Yo getting himself killed. You getting yourself killed. Everyone getting themselves killed.

If she didn't manage this, she'd have failed the GGs.

She was going to manage this. She gritted her teeth.

The Assassins stood straight against the walls, looking like they weren't quite human. Surely no human could have that much stamina.

Camilla flicked hair out of her eyes, reached over to the time machine, which had grown horribly since she'd started working on it, and said, "Okay. This should work."

Silence dropped over the room.

"Really?" Goji said at last.

"Really," Camilla said, and smiled.

Goji got to his feet, hurried over to her and hugged her. Then he said, "Right. Get rid of the ghosts."

The GGs sat up.

"But there's no data for them," Camilla said. "They don't exist."

"You said you could remove them!" Goji snarled.

"I can try."

"Can she remove us?" Gum hissed to Tab.

He shrugged.

"Hang on." Camilla began to type something into the machine. "Okay. I think I can find the branch-off point. Hang on…"

It was 11:58 now.

I've got to save them, Gum thought, staring round at the GGs, trying to memorise their faces. The lights flickered, and shadows ran down them like ink.

"Okay." Camilla frowned. "You generated the demon. And…yes, here they are…"

"What's she doing?" Gum asked Tab.

"I think she's finding the alternative future. I'm impressed."

"Okay. I'm going to reanimate them."

"Get ready to dodge, guys," Beat whispered.

Camilla's long fingers stepped from key to key.

It was 11:59. Time seemed to lengthen.

The clock stopped.

And the laboratory started to fade like a smoke picture.

Gum heard Goji yell, "Kill them!" Saw the Assassins raise machine guns. Camilla rushed forward. "No, you'll break it!"

Goji hit her, and she fell, hair flying out round her face. Tab rushed forward, started frantically typing something into the machine…

Bullets pinged around them…Mew stumbled back, red oozing from her forehead…Combo trying to shield Cube as blood speckled his ghetto-blaster…

The scene fading.

Gum dashed behind one of the tables, catching her hip on its corner as she did so. She yelped, and realised she was solid again.

Shit.

Tab ducked down behind the machine as Molotov fired at him. The bullet hit it. Camilla shrieked with fury, ran towards Molotov and tried to grab his gun.

Fading…fading not quick enough…

Piranha was screaming. Gum didn't want to hear it. Blood on Slate's jacket, and he'd been carrying Mari…

A moment later, the screaming stopped.

I won't look, Gum told herself, I won't, I won't…

Yo-Yo and Future Gum trying to crawl across towards her…

Fading…

The air was full of shots…

Gum wasn't sure which of them got hit first, suddenly they just both rolled over like crippled gymnasts…I can see myself getting shot, she thought, I can see myself dying…

"Gum!" Tab yelled. "You're going back! At each point you stop at, there's something you'll have to change! Good luck, and –"

"Tab, watch out –" Beat called.

And Tab doubled over the control panel as blood spouted from his throat.

"No!" Beat yelled.

"Yes," Molotov said, and shot him through the head.

Gum screamed, tried to run, to stop this, do something, screamed and screamed, but the laboratory melted away at last, and behind it there was nothing but darkness.

Darkness…Gum felt every feeling she'd ever known crush through her ears into her skull, misery, anger, fear, happiness, fury, pain, sadness, surprise, loneliness, disgust, lust, horror…she was drowning, couldn't think, Tab had killed her, he was dead, how dare he, the darkness was trying to come in…

And just as she thought she was going to die, light rushed up and punched her face.

Not much light. A Kogane street. Night time. A group of figures clustered round a torch, the light chopping their faces into shards of gold.

Someone crying.

Gum stepped a little closer. Behind her, she could hear the river lapping at its concrete bank. The air was thick with the smell of old fish. She tried not to breathe too deeply.

But Kogane-cho was here at least. She reached out and touched the wall next to her, and her hand lay flat against it and she could feel the roughness and the fading heat.

I'm alive, she thought, and began to shiver.

"Geez, quit whining." A girl's voice. "We just take your money and run."

"Let me go…"

A group of rudies. Four dressed in black from head to skates. Two girls, two boys, all dark-haired except for one girl, who had hair the colour of blood. The other figure, crouched against the wall, was a girl, in jeans, pink shirt, and white skates.

For a moment Gum thought it was Suki. But the face was different…the hair brown rather than black…the eyes wider.

"Why the hell should we?" hissed another girl. Her black hair was pinned up with two rusty skewers, and her face in the torchlight was furious. "You're a traitor to rudies, we know who you are!"

"Hey, Chiyo, cool it," one of the guys said.

"Don't you tell me to fucking cool it, Saburo."

"Guys, please," the red-headed girl said. "Come on. Saburo, have you got her valuables?"

"Yeah. But…"

He pushed the girl back against the wall, and kissed her.

Gum felt sick with fury as the girl struggled like a dying fish.

"Saburo!" the red-head said. "Lay off her!"

He looked up, breathing hard as if he'd just been for a swim. "It's all right, Jin. She doesn't mind."

"Like hell she doesn't," the other girl muttered.

"Kellaani…" Saburo shook his head. "Chill out, okay?"

He bent over the girl again like someone diving, Gum heard her sobs grow muffled under his mouth.

No one out on the streets.

Looked like she had to do something herself.

"Hey, punks, get away from her!" she yelled. It was cold out here, and the air stung her mouth.

The rudies turned.

"What do you want, bitch?" Jin demanded.

"I want you to tell your over-hormonal gang member to lay off that girl."

"Why the hell should we?" Chiyo spat. "She's a Keisatsu's kid. No – not just a Keisatsu. The Keisatsu. Onishima Mimi, who thinks she's a rudie and tells her daddy everything."

"I don't…" the girl sobbed, but Saburo kissed her again, eating her words.

"Let her go," Gum said. "Rape ain't nice no matter who the victim is."

Saburo sneered. Gum stared at him…Saburo…where had she heard that name before? Oh, well, didn't matter now.

"If you don't lay off her," she said, and took out a paint can, "I'm going to give you some colour in those black uniforms."

"Come on, Saburo," Jin said. "Get off her, okay? It's too late for a fight."

Chiyo slapped her. "This is one rudie. We'll be able to paint her."

"I'm giving you one more chance," Gum said. "You want to fuck up someone's life for something they can't help and get tagged in the process, let Saburo carry on. You want to stay rudies, let – her – go."

"Yeah," Kellaani said suddenly. "Get off her, Saburo."

Saburo looked up, face sulky. "Look, it's one rudie. Can't we –"

Kellaani thwacked him across the face with her paint can. Saburo stumbled back, clutching his bleeding nose, and swore.

Mimi, sobbing, began to scream, "Help! Help me, somebody!"

"Now you done it," Chiyo snapped, face contorted. She punched Mimi. "Will you keep your mouth shut!"

Gum heard sirens in the night, distorting the dark silence. A police car screeched to a halt next to them. The rudies scattered like black leaves – straight into the arms of the cops.

Kellaani looked back at Gum, and Gum felt an odd sense of – recognition – something – as their eyes met.

"Thanks," she called.

Onishima rushed over to Mimi, who dropped into his arms and began crying loudly. "Dad, I'm sorry, I just…I…"

"It's okay." Onishima hugged her, rather nervously, then his face contorted into the familiar Onishima scowl as he stared at Saburo. "What did he do to you?"

"He…he was trying to…you know…but she saved me…" Mimi looked round, pointed at Kellaani, then at Gum, who shrank back into the shadows.

She waited for Onishima to yell "Get her!" but he just stared at her a moment, from her helmet to her skates, then shrugged, and led Mimi towards one of the cars.

Saburo stared out of the cop car window, eyes bulging with terror and fury, blood and tears covering his face.

And then the scene melted.

For a moment there was the crushing darkness – she couldn't see – she couldn't think –

And there was sunlight. Cold, bright, winter sunlight. And a woman, sitting, talking on a phone on a balcony overlooking Shibuya.

Camilla Rokkaku.

Gum gulped and stepped back into the shadows. What was she supposed to do now?

She didn't know what to do. And if she got this wrong…

Falling, blood on the floor, I can see myself dying…

"Yes…" Camilla said. "Yes, I see that. But come on. Time travel could be possible, right?" She laughed, flicked back her hair, which caught the light like a seal's back.

"Well, maybe I'll just –"

Gum stepped back a little further, and hit a small table with a delicate glass sculpture on. Which toppled, and hit the floor.

CRASH

"What the…look, I'll have to go," Camilla said. "See you around, all right?"

Shit, Gum thought. Well, that's blown it.

Camilla got up, and marched towards her.

Icy sweat prickled on the back of Gum's neck. I've failed, I've failed, and now I'm going to get caught again…

Piranha screaming and…oh, lord, her kid…

Suddenly she was whipped away, and the darkness struck again, crushing her, grinding her mind to pulp, I've failed, I've failed, and now I'll never get home –

And then a new view rushed up…and she saw herself, standing on a shadowy Shibuya street, approaching faster and faster and she rushed up through her own eyes into her brain, and spoke what she'd been about to say:

***

"Beat?" she called.

And this was home, this was the right place…the sense of familiarity was so strong it hurt her feet. The night air, lapping at her face. The tag blazing on the video rental shop some distance away. Jet Set Radio whispering in her ears at last.

"Beat, are you out here?"

Silence.

Fine. She should go…

***

Nuh-uh. Not now.

"Come on," she called. "Quit sulking, okay?"

Still nothing. Maybe he wasn't here. Well, then she'd search all of Tokyo-to till she found him.

"Look. If you don't come home now, you'll be arrested tomorrow. You should have fixed that crack in your skate, shouldn't you?"

There was movement in the shadow of the nearby building, the sort of movement caused by somebody bending down to check that their skate didn't have a crack in it, and then recoiling as they realised it did.

"You'll be arrested," Gum said. "Cube and Garam will become hired killers. Combo will go back to Grind City. Tab will join the Noise Tanks. Mew and me'll be captured. And Piranha will get pregnant, and she'll quit with Slate. And we won't have any GGs any more." I haven't fixed Piranha, she thought. Oh, well, maybe Mari is meant to happen after all. The streets might be safer now if Onishima won't be so crazy.

There was still silence.

"Oh, and Beat…I know about you and Tab."

There was a crash as a can of spray paint hit the ground.

"How the hell did you –" Beat stopped. "I mean, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Hey, I don't mind."

"But –"

"Let's just say I can read body language. Now please come on, it's cold out here."

"They don't want me back there."

"They will." Gum remembered Cube slipping out of sanity, tears filling Mew's eyes, Tab's throat exploding with blood…

"Trust me, they will."

Beat skated out of the shadows. His goggles glinted in the dim light. He looked suspicious, and angry, and paint-covered, and strong.

Gum threw her arms around him and hugged him, tears spiking her eyes.

"Hey, cool it, what's that for?"

"I – uh – I'm just really glad to see you. That's all."

"Gum, you saw me about an hour ago."

"No, I didn't, I…"

She stopped. She had, hadn't she? She'd come out to find him.

"So come home, right?" she said at last.

Futures trembled as she waited.

Monster…killer…schoolgirl rudie…hi-tech Benten crazy…

Crossroads.

"Okay. I guess so."

***

Gum followed Beat down the hill, back towards the garage. Man, it had been a pretty eventful night, and getting covered in paint was never cool. But at least she'd found him.

"What's with all that stuff you were spouting about people turning into hired killers?" Beat asked.

"Oh…I don't know."

But she did. Well, sort of. It was like a dream that caught in the back of her mind.

Maybe Yo-Yo was worth a look some time.

And Mew and Isas?…the names were linked…

Maybe she'd tell Mew to check out the schoolboys in the bus terminal. Just maybe. She had a hunch…

But that was for tomorrow. She didn't need to stress out about it. After all, she reflected, glancing up at the huge blue sky surrounding them, she had all the time in the world.

THE END

(Wow…I finished! I didn't realise I was about to post the last chapter until I actually copied and pasted it! Anyway…thank you so much to everyone who reviewed and thanks for Nik and Tei/Disk for being their normal helpful selves. Merry Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Non-Denominational Holiday to all of you, and have a great new year!)