Ender presents...

The One Gate
A Gatekeepers Fanfic

Disclaimer: Original Gatekeepers cast owned by GONZO. This story and new characters owned by me. Microsoft owned by Bill Gates. Given a choice I'd rather own Microsoft...

"One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them.
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."
- - - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
 
 

Chapter 1: To the Land of Opportunity!
 

All stories have beginnings, and all stories have endings. Sometimes though, those endings are not quite as final as they may seem. For as long as there is life, the story begins again... And this one begins at a busy airport within the United States of America, on March 3, 1970...
"Passengers of Japan Air Lines Flight 230 now disembarking from Terminal 7..."
Ah yes, America... Land of the free... 
"Passengers of Japan Air Lines Flight 230 now disembarking from Terminal 7..."
Home of the brave...
"Passengers of - " 
And in for the shock of its life.
"ORRAAAH!!! Open your arms America! The man, the great one has arrived, haha!"
Now it is not unusual to see some pushing going on when passengers begin to disembark from a plane. A businessman is late for a meeting, a woman is anxious to meet her sweetheart, a tourist is eager to snap a picture... All kinds of people hurry down almost as soon as the plane has its landing gear extended. What _is_ unusual is seeing these people pushed aside by the hurtling, hurrying shape of a burly young Japanese teen-ager in a military style beret, tears running freely from his eyes as he started kissing the ground not three meters from the plane.
"Oh-hoho! The taste of this land is so sweeet! It is surely glad to welcome Banba Chotaro himself to its humble shores!" the boy shouted in a deep baritone, oblivious to the small group of youngsters hurrying towards him - until one of them grabs him painfully by the ear.
"Ban-cho!" the girl hissed, for it was a girl who holds his ear, a girl with short brown hair not half his height who still showed no fear of the stocky youth before her. "You're embarrassing us!"
 "Kaoru's right," piped in another girl, this one with hair that flowed freely down her back, kept in place by a yellow ribbon. She was aware of the curious stares that the other passengers are throwing their companion, and the somewhat harsher glares sent his way by those unlucky enough to have found themselves in his path. "The Commander told us to keep a low profile and here you are, first thing out of the plane - "
"But Princcess Ruriko! You do not understand," Bancho protested, before turning his head towards the sky, a proud glint coming into his eye, unconsciously striking a heroic pose as he began to intone in a loud voice:  "I, Banba Chotaro, have crossed the ocean to find that which I seek! The perfect mate who shall be the queen of the perfect man, hanging on my arm, her blonde hair streaming in the - YEOUCH!" 
Kaoru removed her heel from where it had imbedded the boy's toe into the runway. "I told you to shut - up!"
"But Princess - "
"Baka! Save it for your blond American!"
"Ukiya-kun," Ruriko began tartly, addressing the only other male in the group. The boy had to that point remained silent, a bemused smile on his face. "Shouldn't you be the one keeping a leash on Bancho? What with being the Captain and all?"
"Eh?" the boy answered with a grin. "Why should I? Kaoru's doing a great job in my opinion..."
Ruriko glanced briefly towards the rapidly escalating argument, and then turned back to Shun Ukiya with a look that said plain as day what she thought about his 'opinion'. 
Laughing to himself, the black haired boy moved towards the mismatched combatants, moving his hands in a placating motion. "Alright, simmer down you two... Let's not make a bad impression during our first five minutes in New York..."
Kaoru calmed down immediately at Shun's words, but Bancho pounced on someone he believed would lend a sympathetic ear. "Surely _you_ understand Ukiya! This is the land of opportunity, and we, the hot blooded males of Japan -!"
"Ukiya-sempai isn't like _you_, you stupid hentai! Sempai is - " and at that, the brown haired girl broke off and found her face growing hot. She turned away quickly, just in time to see a pair of girls finish disembarking from the plane. One was a tall girl with long brown hair, and a cheerful - if somewhat lost - expression on her face. She was being pulled along by a shorter girl, her black hair done up in buns on her head.
"Aya!" the shorter of the pair exclaimed. "You people make so much noise! I thought we'd lose you if I didn't find Reiko soon, but it looks like I needn't have worried..."
"Don't tell me you got lost again Reiko-san?" Ruriko asked in consternation.
Reiko blinked, then let out a nervous laugh. "Sooorry, It's just that I get soooo hungry whenever I ride a plane..."
Ukiya blinked, then leaned over to whisper into Ruri's ear. "Doesn't she get that when she rides a train too..."
Ruriko nodded. "And you remember what happened the last time Reiko-san went in search for food..."
The Captain of the Far East branch cringed at the memory. "Remind me to thank Fei later..." he began, before a hard slap to the back sent him stumbling forward.
"Oy, Ukiya! Everyone's here so what are we waiting for?"
"Hey!" Kaoru protested. "Watch how you treat my sempai!"
Ruriko sighed as she realized the two 'physical' Gatekeepers were about to go at it again. For a second she was torn between stopping the fight and helping Ukiya catch his breath, but before she could choose either way, she was distracted by the blare of several police sirens. The girl turned around to see several military looking jeeps heading for the Japanese Gatekeepers.
"Oh brother," she said. "We've done it now..."
As the sound of the sirens drowned out conversation, the other Gatekeepers formed up around Ruriko. Ukiya was shaking his head and mumbling something inaudible, but Ruriko didn't need to hear him to know what he was saying...
_The Commander's going to have my head... The Commander's going to have my head..._
The jeeps stopped not three meters from the group, and immediately two uniformed soldiers stepped out of each, all carrying threatening looking rifles. Ffom the jeep closest to the group, a third soldier exited as soon as the motorcade stopped, and opened the rear door of the vehicle, standing back to salute its occupant. 
The Gatekeepers exchanged long looks. All present agreed that the reaction seemed to be a bit much...
Kaoru was tugging Ukiya's sleeve. "I'm sorry Sempai, tell them we didn't mean it - or just tell him it's Bancho's fault."
Ukiya ignored Bancho's shouted protest and patted Kaoru's hand comfortingly. "Don't worry Kaoru-san, this is all just some misunderstanding. If worse comes to worst, we can just use our ID's and smooth things over later." With that, he took a step towards the lead military jeep, but Ruriko caught his arm.
"Ukiya," she warned. "These are American soldiers, they won't know Japanese..."
The boy gave her an irritated look. "Hey, I know that. I'll have you know I mastered their language after that crash course they gave us back at headquarters..."
Fei gave him a sidelong glance. "Didn't you sleep through most of those classes, Captain?"
Ukiya flushed a bit at that. "Hey! You remember more of what you hear in your sleep - its like hypnosis or something..."
The others looked back at him skeptically.
"That does it, I'll show you guys... Just sit back and watch your Captain work."
Cracking his knuckles, he moved towards the soldiers, stopping a few paces before the jeep. Clearing his throat, Ukiya began to apologize for their actions...
[We're awfully sorry to have caused such a commotion sirs, it won't happen again we promise...]
Or at least he tried to... What came out sounded more like this:
[Where vain fruit locomotion big sisters, walnut happen in a prom dress...]
Thus it was quite understandable when even the battle hardened U.S. Marines broke into wide grins, one actually chuckling under his breath, as the black haired youth scratched his head in confusion.
"What?" he asked his friends, reverting back to Japanese. "I got it right didn't I?"
Fei looked from the laughing soldiers to Ukiya and shook her head. "Um, I don't think you did Captain.."
"Maybe you missed a [the]," Reiko offered helpfully.
Ruriko, who had actually learned some of the language, had her head buried in her hands. "Please someone tell me this isn't happening..." she groaned.
Before an increasingly irritated Ukiya could ask the soldiers what was so funny, a wryly amused feminine voice cut in, speaking in fluent Japanese.
"You know, you're lucky that I've actually seen you in action Ukiya Shun, or I'd never stop thinking of you as a clueless moron."
At these words a slim, shapely leg emerged from the lead jeep, followed soon after by a distinctly feminine body clad in a knee-length black dress. Shun's eyes followed the dress - not to mention the those _curves_ - upwards, past a stylish white scarf, to a beautiful face that he found he recognized at once.
"Jun-san!" Ukiya exclaimed in pleasure, oblivious to the somewhat frosty glares that Kaoru and Ruriko were giving him. 
Jun Thunders, AEGIS operative for the United States Branch, smiled only faintly at her younger counter-part, but her eyes showed genuine warmth. "Welcome to America Ukiya,: she began, then faced the others. "And to you guys as well - AEGIS America is proud to extend its hospitality to the members of the Far East Branch."
At the black-haired young woman's words, the assembled marines lifted up their collars to reveal the AEGIS logo, and raised their fists to make the traditional AEGIS recognition signal.
"Affirmative, AEGIS!"
The Japanese Gatekeepers returned the greeting eagerly, although Ruriko couldn't help but look around anxiously at the number of people who were looking curiously at their group.
"Jun-san," Ruriko said in a worried tone. "Is it really alright for us to be so... open about this? We're out in public..."
She was about to say more when the crowd burst into spontaneous applause, mixed with loud voicing shouting strange words. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but the word AEGIS came out a lot, as did the term Gatekeepers. Once she actually thought she heard Shun's name... But surely that was a mistake.
Wasn't it?
Jun looked around at the growing crowd and shook her head ruefully. "As you can see, keeping a low profile is somewhat difficult nowadays..." The older girl smiled at Ruriko. "A lot has changed since that battle three weeks ago, as you'll soon be able to see. C'mon - I've got some time to show you guys around before we have to head for HQ. Everybody pile in!"

==[ A E G I S]==

Just how 'different' things were became glaringly obvious almost as soon as the jeeps drove out of the airport. Streamers and banners hung from almost every building in the city, all shouting 'welcome' in various languages, to the 'Earth Defense Force'. Everything from billboards to car bumpers was emblazoned proudly with an AEGIS logo, and to top it all off, there in the middle of times square was a gigantic poster of - 
"Ukiya! That's Ukiya-Sempai!"
True enough the picture was that of a larger-than-life Ukiya Shun, leaping towards an ominous jet black robot. The picture seemed to be a direct screen capture from the footage of the WHK broadcast o fthe final battle between Shun and Kageyama Reiji, the rouge Gatekeeper known as Shadow.
"Wow," was all that Ruriko could say, from her place between Jun and Ukiya at the rear seat of the lead jeep. The wielder of the Gate of Life looked upwards at the image of the boy she had grown to love, and found a sort of wonder settle over her. She had been unconscious - or worse, she recalled with a shudder - for most of that battle, but she had watched the footage from it more than a dozen times while Ukiya-kun was recupriating. Still, no matter how many times she had seen it, to see that image here, so large and so real, half a world away sent a strange sensation coursing through her. On one hand, she knew he deserved all the acclaim he could get... but on the other hand, she thought of how many people had seen Ukiya fight... And she wondered how many people would feel towards him what she and Kaoru already felt. She turned slightly towards him, watching him from the corner of her eye but trying not to be too obvious about it. During that horrible moment where she had thought he was about to die, she had made her feeling embarrassingly clear, but as to Ukiya's feelings for _her_... Well that was somewhat more complicated. She knew that he must have _some_ sort of feeling for her... After all, his words had pierced the veil of hatred that had been wound around her heart - but she couldn't quite be sure. It didn't help that they hadn't spoken of it in the weeks since the battle: Ruriko had been too embarrassed to start anything, despite the prodding of her friends, and Ukiya had been acting as if nothing had changed.
But still, she couldn't help but sense that _something_ was different...
And then of course, there was that _kiss_...
At the thought of that cherished memory, Ruri flushed a bright red and hid her face quickly in her hands lest her companions see.
"You ok Ruriko-chan?" she heard Jun ask, but she merely nodded mutely and prayed the blood would leave her cheeks sometime within the millenium...
Oblivious to her blushing, Ukiya was slowly beginning to recover the wits that had been scattered to the winds by the sight of a veritable shrine to his ego in one of the most important cities in America.
"Wha - How-That..." he began, but calmed himself with an effort as Jun began to laugh. "What I mean is," he started again, "What's with all this stuff? Aren't we supposed to be a secret organization? You know: 'Rule number 2 - The existence of the Gatekeepers is a secret till the end' and all that..."
The black haired girl shook her head in mock dismay. "You truly are oblivious aren't you?" she snorted once, then looked over at Ukiya. "That final fight you had against Kageyama was televised all over Japan, and subsequently re-run across every major channel in every free nation across the entire world! Don't tell me you don't cause a scene nowadays when you walk down the streets of Tokyo?"
Ukiya blinked, then turned towards a now-composed Ruriko who shook her head in turn. "Most of the others stayed inside the base while I was recovering from my injuries, and after that the Commander had us running though all sorts of debriefings so we never really had the time..." He paused to think. "I did get to spend some time with my Mom and little sister, and they both knew about my position in AEGIS... I guess I just didn't think the news would reach so far..."
"Well, personally I think your Commander was trying to insulate you from all the attention that you've stirred up - not all of it was positive you know. The existence of the Invaders had been kept secret for so long, that the discovery that their actually _are_ alien invaders on the planet gave credence to every crack-pot paranoid conspiracy theorist on every continent and they've been making a lot of noise. People are demanding to know what AEGIS is, how long we've known of the Invaders, why we never told the public - as if that last question is hard to figure out. "
Ruriko looked at Ukiya but something in Jun's words had caused the Gatekeeper Captain to turn pensive, so instead she turned to Jun. "What do you mean by that?"
Jun sighed. "A lot of people are afraid of all the things they saw when that fight got televised. Don't get me wrong," she hastened to reassure them. "There's a lot of joy too. Many people think we saved the world at that battle - but there are a lot of people who just saw their worst fears come to life. Monsters used to be figments of the imagination - in Tokyo people didn't only see that they existed, but that they were intelligent to be organized into something akin to an army. That shot of all the Fusion forms of the Invaders formed up along the road to the Diet building is going to stay burned into the minds of people for a very long time..."
Jun's words caused a tremor in Ruriko's heart. She hadn't really thought through what the effect of that broadcast would have on the world at large. All of a sudden, all the precautions that the Commander had taken, making sure that they kept a low profile until they entered the plane and then segregating them from the other passengers... She knew that some people probably viewed them as saviors, but others were probably afraid of them and what they represented.
"How are the governments handling things?" Ruriko asked as the jeep turned a sharp right towards steadily rising skyscrapers. "Has there been much of a panic?"
"Yeah," Ukiya nodded, snapping out of his introspection. "I would have thought that they and the military would have been able to cover things up..."
"Civilians...," Jun muttered under her breath, then she gave a helpless gesture. "Contrary to popular belief its not easy to cover up anything these days - especially not with television and radio getting to be so popular. Shadow's little gambit also involved quite a number of Japan's high officials and if the government tried to make it all look like some sort of hoax, they would lose their own credibility. As for my country," she shook her head, her long black locks flying. "It's hard to hide _anything_ from our media - even if it's a matter of national security. Actually, Jim says I should be thankful  - the media calling us 'heroes' might be the only reason why we still have our jobs..."
"Oh that's right," Ruriko cried out in dismay, her hands flying to her mouth. "I've totally forgotten to ask whether or not you got into trouble for helping us out that time..."
Ukiya slapped a palm against his forehead. "We're such idiots! Jun forgive us... Were you and Jim and Misao punished in any way? We can take it up with out Commander and he - "
Jun waved Ukiya's apologies away with a slender hand. "We'd do it again if we had to Ukiya - if you hadn't been able to stop Shadow at the Diet, I don't know what would have happened, and God knows you needed the help," she said with a smile, before turning serious. "That being said though, we're professional soldiers: We knew the consequences of going against High Command - even to act upon our consciences - and we were willing to take any punishment. The strangest thing is, even if the media hadn't been singing all our praises, I personally doubt the brass would have done anything anyway. They've been far too busy, almost excited, about something... That's probably why they called us all to this big meeting."
Ruriko nodded thoughtfully. She'd been quite surprised when the Commander had said that all Gatekeepers were being summoned to New York for a conference with the High Command...
All save one that is...
Unseen by her companions, her expression darkened a bit. She hadn't quite known how to treat Megumi since... since... Since everything that had happened. She'd always known that the silent girl had disliked her but she had never thought... to betray AEGIS, to betray himanity...worse, to turn Ruriko against _Ukiya_! Truth to tell, there were times when she thought about the other girl that she almost felt as if she were once again in the grip of the Gate of Genocide, so intense were her emotions... And yet, she knew that Megumi had shielded her many times, the last even immediately after the battle with Kageyama. When they had returned to AEGIS HQ afterwards, Megumi had insisted on being placed in protective custody - but not before she had apologized to Ruriko. Just a single word, hardly enough to make up for all the pain, all the betrayal - but to have _Megumi_ apologizing, that was very confusing indeed...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a shout from Ukiya, and she turned to find him pressed tightly against the window and making 'ooh'-ing and 'aah'-ing sounds. For a moment she was reminded of their first trip in a bullet train along with Reiko, but then she realized she had to stop him before he embarrassed them further. His attempted homicide of the English language had been quite bad enough.
"Ukiya-kun!" she scolded him. "Stop that this instant!"
"But Rurippe!" he answered excitedly. "You've got to _see_ this!"
Before she could whack him on the head for calling her _that_ name, he leaned backwards and she found herself looking out the window at a tall building - two of them actually. She found herself looking up...and up... and up...
While the Gatekeeper of Life was feeling her jaw drop towards the ground, Ukiya was already quizzing Jun for information.
"What is that Jun? It's huge! Is it finished yet?"
Jun's face assumed the expression of a mother being asked about the achievements of a particularly gifted child. "That," she began, "is the World Trade Center, soon to be officially proclaimed as the world's tallest building. It's almost done - they're opening one of the Towers later this year, but right now they're closed to the public."
"Too bad," Ukiya said, his nose once more pressed to the glass as the towers began to recede into the distance, though always visible above the other buildings. "Would have been great to get a view from up there..."
To that, Ruriko could only agree. She felt strangely uplifted by the sight of the buildings... If humans could build something like that, surely they could triumph over the invaders - and over their own fears as well. 
Lost in her thoughts, Ruriko barely registered the rest of the conversation Ukiya and Jun were having until the jeep slowed and eventually stopped as they reached a guarded checkpoint. After their driver flashed his AEGIS ID, the jeep was allowed to move on, and Ruriko found herself looking at a stately building, overlooking a driveway where the flags of many nations fluttered in the breeze. The convoy of jeeps wove its way up a wide driveway, where the Gatekeepers disembarked and once more gathered as a group. Jun moved in front of them and turned around with a smile on her face.
"Welcome to AEGIS International Headquarters," she said. "Come on in...Everybody's waiting."

==[ A E G I S]==

In a dark place, not far from the Gatekeepers, a different gathering was taking place...
"They've arrived."
"I see... All of them?"
"One was left behind, the one who wields the Gate of Iron Wall."
"The Gate of Force you mean."
"Excuse me? But that's what her gate was classified as..."
An amused chuckle sounded from the darkness. "You should know better than to question my knowledge of the Gates by now, my friend."
"My apologies Lord..."
"Now, now, no need for that. I know what I am, and I am no Lord - at least not yet. But soon now... very, very soon, all the pieces will be in motion."
The other voice made no reply, and in due time the other spoke again.
"And then, on that long - awaited day, all of the twenty one shall bend to the will of their Master..."

End of Chapter One