Subject: [FFML] Jadeite Days Final
From: Gamlain
Date: 5/16/1998, 8:14 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com


Youma Blues
Jadeite days final
Eppisode 10
        What to do when your boss becomes a paperweight.

        I should really start this chapter with a discussion of a few
events that I 
havn't discussed as thouroughly as I should have in the previous chapters.
        They were, and really, still are part of a some what touchy subject
to me 
because they touch on a messy start to a relationship I now find rather
painfull to 
discuss.
        Unfortunately for my remembrance, I do need to explain some things 
about what Catlin and I had been up to.     
        It all started with some of the things Catlin and I had discussed -
namely 
my alliance with the Youma underground, and their current problems.
        Namely lack of weapons.   Non-army Youma in the dark kingdom face a 
rather large problem in acquiring those same, largely as there really
aren't many 
resources available in Metallia's prison to manufacture such things, so we
decided 
that the best things that I could do would be to import weapons...well,
perhaps I 
should stop messing around and just get to the F****** point.
        I came in after the raid on the power plant, to find that Catlin
wasn't at 
the apartment.
        Two agonizing hours of scrying, shopping, running and searching
later I 
was somewhat peeved to be home when she walked in.
        Smiling like the cat what got the proverbial canary and humming a
very 
catchy tune.  I had the feeling that this was a bad omen.
        "Catlin," I asked (and stifled the premonition of certain doom),
"Where 
have you been?"
        "Oh..I decided that it would be safer for Tethis if there were only
one 
Youma in the house, so I went on a walk...and this nice guy I met a few
days ago 
took me to..what'cha call'em?  A movie."  She was playing (and scarily
well) the 
classic air head - to the hilt.  The predatory gleam in her eyes rather
spoilt the 
effect, though.
        And the news really spoilt my mood. "A nice guy, huh.  Mind telling
me 
what this nice guy's name is -" So I could kill him..Jellousy isn't a nice
emotion 
kids.   Trust me. " - and while you're at it, what movie you saw?"
        "Oh, Um, Mamoru something or other."  Sometimes I wonder if the gods 
really do hate me.  This was definitely one of those times.
        "Mamoru Chiba maybe?"  I had this sinking feeling and I remember 
chanting something to the effect of "Please say no, please say no, please say 
no..."
        "That's it! I have trouble remembering all these Terran names...How'd 
you know?"
        I just about exploded when she said that.
        "...You went on a date.  With Mamoru Chiba.  With the -second most 
dangerous person on the planet-, With Tuxedo Kamen, and you didn't feel fit
to 
tell me!?...Catlin are you out of your mind?"  I broke off at her look of
shock 
(and then interest), and after realizing that she wouldn't have known the
identities 
of the Senshi mentally slapped myself for spilling the beans.
        Then she shrugged, and said, "Several dates actually - I was bored
while 
you were recovering.  And the secret identity thing didn't come up.  But the 
movie was nice -It was called 'Hard boiled' I think - and I liked the
weapons. "
        I had to work very hard to not rush out the door to kill Mamoru Chiba.
Very, very hard. 
        I also decided that his idea of a date movie sucked.
        "I'll get you some.  Just don't  -" she interrupted me long before
I could 
finish with a exclamation of "You mean they really exist?".
        "Oh yes.  Easily made, too - If you had enough money you could arm
the 
entire Youma resistance."  
        Some how I didn't think her smile boded well for my future.
        I was right.

        Night fell on Tokyo and the airport was empty...Jadeite had been
trying to find me all 
day, but I thought I'd sit this one out......
        Mostly out of respect for the participants.
        I'd just use the airport camera's to observe.  The Cyber-telepathy
spell 
was very useful, after all...
        I had only just managed to persuade Catlinite not to get involved
with the 
coming bit of insanity, and then only on the condition that I didn't do so.
        Like that was really going to happen...but oh well.  I'd try.
        By the time the Senshi actually showed up my determination to stay
out 
of it was well and truly shot.  Good thing I'd brought extra energy along
just in 
case...
        They came in through the mono-rail, and after mars flambe'd the sand-
figure guards that Jadeite had set as a delaying action, I finally got a
good look at 
them. 
        Mercury moved...wrong.  Not at all like a young girl - more like a
robot.
Too smoothly, to fast...I'd seen that movement pattern before..If I could
just 
figure out where....
        I was almost to late.  
        "Miss Tsuinko, Miss Mizumo, Miss Hino, thank you for joining me!"  
Jadeites voice echoed across the open runway, startling everyone..And from
the 
looks on their faces, his relivation that he knew their identities did not
come as 
welcome news.
        "Oh? Did you prefer Sailor's Moon, Mercury and Mars as names?  Pity 
about that.  Oh well, seeing as how I know your true identities, You will
have to 
stop using those disguises..though since I intend to kill you anyway, I
suppose it 
no longer maters."   My boss was always to melodramatic for his own good - he 
immediately raised a hand to point at a parked jet.   
        Mercury started the opening gestures to an attack, not waiting to 
discover what he intended to do.   One I recognized - the Ice blast she'd
thrown 
at me in the power plant.
        And Mercury moved -just like- the Countermeasures that had guarded 
her computer.
        Then there was no time for thought - only action, as I tried to
beet the 
frost ball to Jadeite....to this day I have no idea why I saved him, but I
did make 
it just in time to meet the ball with the edge of my sword in an instant of 
screaming cold and pour energy into turning it aside.
        In the aftermath there was silence, as everybody stared at me in
surprise.
        Especially Jadeite, whom I smiled viciously at and said, "Hi Boss.
Sorry 
I'm late - crosstown traffic was bad."
        He completed his gesture and as the sound of the 747's engines
heating up 
was heard, said, "Well, it seems you are loyal after all...you were right,
as well 
about the identities of the Senshi.  They react most gratifyingly, once I'd 
confirmed it...I wonder how much else of what you told me holds true?"
        In reply I shoved him sideways - out of the path of Mars's
fireblast and 
dove out of the way of Moon's Tirara.  "Oh, most of it.  Why?"
        He smiled as Moon and Mars panicked and the 747 tried to run them 
down (Mercury had activated her visor and taken out the computer, though,
so I 
didn't figure that would work for long...)  "Oh, I do believe I need you to
refresh 
my memory..."
        Then Jadeite looked surprised as the 747 turned towards us(Mercury's 
work, and that damn computer..), and the Senshi began powering up new 
attacks.   "Boss," I snapped, "this is no time for discussion!"
        Then I dodged on principal, jumping to the top of the plane's wings.  
(No one threw attacks my way, but still, standing out in the open like we
were 
was a bad idea.)
        There was shortly a tremendous crash as half a dozen more planes came 
alive at Jadeites command and began chasing the Senshi (and the rogue plane) 
around the runway.
        Giving me a perfect opening blindside them...  Pity the rose throwing 
idiot had to show up and deprive me of it.  Worse pity the rose he threw
stopped 
all the planes - two had already rammed each other, and it looked like the
game of 
'bumperjets' could have become even more exciting if one of them had rammed 
the fuel trucks..
        "Servant of evil, attacking young girls is intolerable!  I, Tuxedo
Kamen, 
shall defeat you!"   And there was a time when I thought Sailor Moon's
speeches 
were bad - Mamoru, I decided, shouldn't quit his day job.
        However I definitely wasn't going to let him get anywhere in his
fight 
with Jadeite...especially since he was making time with Catlin on the
side...Hell.  
I was jellous and I intended to kick his ass.  Let's put it bluntly, why
don't we...
        Unfortunately, as I discovered when I jumped down to take his head
off 
with my sword, TK is considerably more skilled than I had previously assumed.
        In fact, it took him almost no time at all to send my blade
spinning across 
the runway, and I was forced to resort to a tried and true maneuver to stop
him 
from braining me with that cane of his: I drained another gem completely of 
power (reducing my current stock to six) and blasted away at him with
everything I could 
manage at one time. 
        He dodged it, but the bolt did smash a nice trench into the runway
for 
about twenty meters.
        
        I've spent a lot of time since that instant thinking about continuity.
So much so that I suppose that you could say it's become something of an
obsession 
of mine, but well....I have reason to obsess.
        Generally speaking it's obvious I was catapulted into a sailor moon
universe..
but in what continuity?  The 'anime' sailor moon differs significantly from
the Manga -
and the US dub of the anime differs significantly from the japanese version
of the 
same.
        The place I'd come to resembled all three in some ways...and was
identical to none.
        Part of that, of course, is the result of my own tampering with the
timeline - but 
there are some other differences that I can't account for.
        At all.  
        It is as if the three 'universes' were all slightly skewed stories
based on a timeline
my very presence was throwing completely out of wack.
        It has considerable bearing on the fight I was in at the time,
because it was the first 
time I noticed an occurrence that has since come to occupy a lot of my
attention.
        Something continually tries to preserve the history established in
the story lines of 
the 'Sailor moon' Show, Manga, or Dub.  
        I've never been able to figure out which one it's trying to
throwing things back to, but 
the fact of it's existence is easily verifiable.
        And I really hate the concept of 'destiny'.  Always have.
        Oh, some of it I can attribute to the actions of Sailor Pluto - She
certainly tried very
hard to stop me sometimes! - but still...
        There are things that should never have happened, that I -know- she
didn't cause, that 
did, nevertheless, happen. 
        On this particular day it conspired to keep the battle going 'as
planned' - IE, I wasn't 
allowed to help Jadeite.
        I could blame it on stupidity on the part of Tethis and Catlin -
their showing up in 
the middle of the fray is certainly responsible for most of my distraction
until Jadeite was
forced to flee by Mars's Paralyzing ward-thingie.
        However, neither of them can really explain why they came there.
Tethis, in fact, can't
explain how she even got there - one moment she was at the safe house and
the next she was 
watching Mr Chiba go hand to hand with the boss (an occurrence which smacks
of Pluto's 
involvement, really).
        Catlin's intervention in Mercury - rather, Hermes's - attack was
probably the only 
thing that could have brought the less experienced Ami back into the
battle.   I noted that
a boot to the head seems to do wonders for Senshi sanity and
sense...actually that's one 
observation that's held true over the years. 
        The effort it took me to keep both of my Youma allies from being
fried by Mars 
gave the dazed girl the time she needed to totally shake off her computer's
influence, and 
commence reducing local visibility to nill, for non Senshi at least.
        And by the time the mist wore off it was all over but the hurried
teleporting.
Oh yes, and my boss's conversion into frozen immobility.

        Only a few people are gifted with t he knowledge of precisely when
their 
lives went completely and irrevocably to hell.
        Lucky me.
    "Sora-kun, can I speak with you?"  It was the next day..and I did have 
to go back to school.  Blowing my cover at this point would be a very bad
thing.   
Ami Mizuno, of course, chooses this day to recover from her own extended
illness...and  
meeting her was -not- going to be the high point of my day.
     "What is your connection to Tenshino Aoi?  Don't bother denying
it...It's obvious...with your names and..I mean, you look so alike, and he
protected your records, with magic..I'm shure of it. He hurt me.  I think I
deserve to know."  From the look she was giving me I knew it would be 
no use to pretend ignorance...and perhaps, just perhaps, I didn't really
want to.
    "Ami...stay away from Tenshino. Don't get involved with him.  He's
dangerous."  Over and over, I though to myself, "play the part..remember, you 
arn't the one you're talking about. Don't give yourself away.." but Mercury
saw somehow..
to this day, I don't think she was fooled.
    "I know that.  Tell me...I deserve to know.  Please...I'm already
involved."
Somehow she always seems to look so innocent...and I have cause to know
that Ami 
is anything but innocent.
        Damn her.
    "Tenshino...is related to me, but that much is obvious.  He's a monster,
but he wasn't always."I said. Not directly lying seemed to be a good idea.  
It wasn't, but it seemed to be at the time.
        "..we were close, once, close enough to have been brothers, but
he...fell in with 
a bad crowd.  Bad people, Ami - really bad."  She nodded a bit, hesitantly,
and I continued.
        "They....changed him.  Now, he's not nice anymore.   I don't think
he's
really working for them...so much as on them, but he has to do what they
tell him..or at least appear to.  He's - not evil, just very, very ruthless,
and I can't tell you quite why."  
        "Why don't you ask him?"  She sounded uncertain, asking goading
questions like that
...And really, she had reason to, but still..I couldn't decide whether she
knew or not.  
So I continued as if she didn't.
"We talk sometimes, but I'm not shure I know him anymore...there are things
he's 
said I don't understand...I think there are others like him, though.  A lot
of 
them...dragged into..the goings on, but unwillingly.  I'm pretty shure he's
trying 
to protect them..to get them loose from the...situation they're in.  It
can't be easy."
     "He fights the Sailor Senshi.  I've seen him."
     "He does a lot of things, Ami-chan.  Bad things...not because he wants
to,
because he has to.  If he doesn't, worse things could happen.  I think..he'd
like to be in league with the Senshi, but doesn't dare.  He can't be
associated with them, because the people he..works for are their enemies.
He can't be seen to be anything but an enemy to the Senshi, or his masters
would probably kill him..and a lot of other people, who have nothing to do
with the things that are happening.  Kids Ami...a lot younger than you and
me.  The people he works for would think nothing of hurting them just to get
at him."  
    "How do you know about these things?"
    "He tells me.  I think it's his way of..confession, I guess."  Ami
paled and swallowed,
obviously not wanting to ask the question that followed...or rather,
wanting to ask, 
but not wanting to hear the answer.
        "Confessing what?"
        "He's killed people Ami.  I know it eats at him...they were bad, clear
through - the people he told me about, and he really didn't have a
choice...I think they were evil.  But it keeps him up nights, knowing he can
do that, so he talks to me, because, I think, I'm the last normal thing in
his life. I know he gets hurt, to...really, really hurt, I had to take care
of him last week...he's still my friend...his friend Cat was staying with me
because she got hurt during one of the things he does, so it isn't just
him, it's anything associated with him."   I stopped, finally.  She looked 
frightened, but I could tell that it wouldn't be enough to scare her off.
        "I could help him..."  I had to turn away from her at that, or I'd
have 
given the game away.  because I wanted to accept what she was offering.
But I didn't dare, so what I said was:
        "Please, Ami, take my advice: don't get more involved with him than
you have to.  
He's in big trouble, and pain and chaos are following him around like wind
follows a storm."
        I stood with my back to her, looking out from the schoolyard for a
long time before she 
left.
        But eventually she did leave.
        To this day I wonder what she thought.
        The Sailor Senchi declared war on my Youma persona the next day -
In hindsight, 
I think I brought that on myself.
        Of course, I wouldn't know about it for over two weeks, because I'd
just declared family 
emergency and dropped out of school for a week to head to the US.
        I had guns to buy.






























Gamlain@airmail.net
Gamlain, transuniversal courier & Hero for rent
Sorcerer to the three great Anime demonesses: Ryoko, Marller, and Ifruita 
"So then I shot a goon and I cut the head man's throat, and after that
things got violent." - Tarnkep Protree
Of course, my homepage is at
Http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/8762/index.html