I have no claim on these characters or the show or the books. Enjoy!
Epilouge
"Got...to...keep...moving." Panted a young woman moving through the darkness between the crubling ruins of towers and buildings. This was her home. This desolate place with broken and torn houses and shattered glass everywhere. She pushed forward trying to keep quiet while moving through a hole in a chain fence blocking her way. As she squeezed through the fence sliced through her thin tunic and dug deeply into her arm.
She grunted with pain and quickly ripped the hem of her pants and tied it tightly around her arm. The wound bled sluggishly through the temporary bandage but she paid no mind to it as she continued on her way. She followed a crack sidewak throught the area that was once the local park. She glared at her surroundings. This had been where it had started. Her first transformation that changed her life forever.
Her short red chopped hair tossed in the slight wind while she looked for a place to rest for a moment. She stalked around the hole that used to be a pond and a bench. Finally coming to two large boulders that were relatively close to each other, she slid between the two of them and rested with her back against an ol section of sidewalk that was ripped from the Earth.
She shivered from a bit of water that dropped on her from the leaves above her. 'It wasn't supposed to end this way.' She looked around sadly at the carnage. The pond was drained and any life in it was long gone. The building that once stood in the distance tall and proud were little more than ruins. Even Tokyo tower, the grand and proud icon, was bent and warped.
Everything was falling apart. Nothing was the same. There was no happiness in this world. You could feel the despair and death haunting around you no matter where you were. Everyday you would wonder who it was who was going to die today. Their overlords cared little for their slaves. Human or otherwise. Because in the end we were all toys. Just things to torture and attack for enjoyment.
The world was slowly dying. No one could stop it. No one even dared to hope anymore. It only brought more pain when you realized that it wouldn't change. The onlys ones who even had a chance, The Mew Mew's, were gone and done for. Except her. Their fearless leader. Ichigo. She was barely alive was it was but the others. They hadn't made it. No one she loved made it. It was a long Ten years filled with pain and sorrow.
It started with the defeat of Deep Blue. Or at least when they thought was the defeat. He had survived in Aoyama. Her sweet Aoyama that she held so close and loved so dearly. He wasn't hers though. Aoyama had no family. She never once thought to ask about his home life. He was always so happy and willing to make change. She never suspected what he was. But then neither did he.
He was a puppet. A construct Deep Blue had made to make people trust him when he invaided. He hadn't planned on it gaining a life of its own. He was living within a being who had such a good and pure heart that he was nearly impossible to take over. When he gained acsess to a bit of power and became the blue knight for her...It was a beatiful thing...except it wasn't. It was the beginning of the end. Slowly he was loosing himself. The more he touched and used that power the more he was consumed by Deep Blue.
In the end he had tried to sacrifice himself to bring peace and it brought nothing. The moment everything looked to be ok, the moment where everyone was going to go home and be normal and safe again, She had floated down from the ship while the others turned it into particles. He had caught her and held her close while muttering soothing words and giving her feathery kisses. Aoyama professed love and joy at her. She had smiled at him and jumped to her friends to celebrate.
Something had pulsed though. It rocked them and they froze in shock. Their once enemies, Kishu, Pie, and Taruto, had all appeared to give a warning but it was too late. Aoyama fell to the ground in agony while he was completely and utterly consumed by Deep Blue. He had used his last bit of energy to keep her safe and it destroyed him.
With Deep Blue who and in control chaos broke loose. She tried to fight, they all did, but Mew aqua had suspended their powers. He picked them off. Taruto died first. He jumped in front of beam of power Deep Blue had sent toward Pudding. She was next. Shaken by the death in front of her. She never even saw the blade flying towards her. She didn't cry out when it struck. It was too quick to be painful. Her head rolled to the side and fell off her shoulders.
Lettuce called her name but knew it was useless. We had scattered. In a moment of preservation we all took a chance and fled. For a few days we were ok. We knew to split up but promised contact. We just needed to regroup. We weren't prepaired for the mercenaries. Deep Blue didn't care about Kishu's people. He wanted power and death.
They entered the atmosphere and fired their cannons in every direction. Monuments were burned and destroyed. Houses were fried and towers blown up. He sent a message to the Cyniclons. Lureing them to this planet with lies of wealth and a home that would welcome them. However they took were either destroyed or enslaved when they arrived. The hired brutes neither cared for woman or children. Just the sounds of screams that they found so melodius.
Zakuro and Minto were the next to die. Cornered and caught in the middle of smuggling children out of work camps. They had been excecuted in front of everyone. They attacked and the Mercs laughed and shot lazors at them. Minto cried out t the hole throught the middle of Zakuro. She turned to her friend and smiled before she fell lifelessly to the ground.
Minto, mind clouded by agony and rage managed to take out three of the guards before she was struck with a club. They laughed at the children who looked on in horror as the kind blue haired girl bled out from the hole in the side of her head. Ryou and Keiichiro were caught and shoved into a house with a dozen others. They were starved for days before the worst came to pass. With the windows barred and the doors sealed they had little chance to escape the flames. The whole house burned for hours. not a single person left alive.
Lettuce lasted longer than everyone else. She hid in the water and underground with Pie. They too were caught though. Even with their skill and power they suffered. They strangled Lettuce with a fish net and bound up Pie to mke him watch. Then after she laid unmoving and dead they snapped his neck. They laughed at the fun such a thing brought.
She dry heaved in the dirt. Nothing coming up since she rarely ate anything anymore. The memories flew through her mind. Yet she still lived. She shouldn't, she knew, even be breatheing. He was the only reason she lived. Kishu. He took her. He hid them away. She morned her friends, her way of life, her parents, everything. He was there with her. He was beside her through it all. He would leave for food everyday. Everytime he left she paced and made herelf sick with worry. Needing food was a risk. He would bring back some but it was never enough for them both. He always insisted that she needed it more than him.
He would rather starve than let her go without. She pled with him every time. Just to please eat a little more. He would just smile and ask why his kitten was so worried. They were together for a month. He would hold her close and she drew comfort from him. She laid in his arms nightly. It was the only way she could sleep without sobbing. Their first night together, she she gave her all to him and he to her, was her last happy memory.
It was just a week later that it wards fell. His magic stopped supporting them to tend to his malnutrition. They found us hours later. He smiled at her one last time as they simply ran him through. She couldn't understand why. Why would you smile when you were dying? She realized much later when instead of killing her they simply put her in a work camp. He had used the last bit of himself to keep her safe in the only way possible. As his blood ran over the Mercenaries fingers their eyes glazed and they took her away. He gave her anonymity. No one regognized her. His final spell kept her alive.
Some days she praye for death. To just end it all. But she kept on. She wouldn't bring it on herself. She wouldn't dishonor his sacrefice by trying to be killed. It was the last thing she could do for him. So she worked herself to death for years. It was robotic. Every day she woke up and sifted through the rubble and trash for what ever the guards told them to look for that day.
Finally, she had the smalled stroke of luck. It was just enough to brink a spark to her eye. As she shifted on one of the coldest days of the month something fell into her lap. It was filthy and the size of a small stone but the bits of gold and pink sparkling out from underneath made her realize what it truely was. She slipped it under her pants. No one noticed.
That night she cleaned it and smiled with watery eyes at the stone. She knew this was her last chance. The only option she had. She did't take anything with her when she ran. She waited till the night watchers were distracted and sleeping she she never looked back.
She smiled as her pendant warmed against her skin. Things would be different this time. She would make sure. She wouldn't hesitate. She knew what to do and it would work or she would die this time.
"Mew Mew Strawberry...Metamoroph-SIS!" She hunched over as she completed her transformation. She didnt have the energy to stand anymore. She summonded her stawberry bell. She smiled again. "Ribbon Strawberry Time Reset!" She called. She cried out as a vacume consumed her. He was squeezed and pulled until she felt like she would be torn apart. Pictures and faces flew past her. Come what may she would be ready this time!