Author Disclaimer: I don't own anything pertaining to Burst Angel or its characters.
Author Note: The image of a very badass Meg walking off at the end of the tv series held the grand "what happened" scenario with me and my girlfriend. Meg, with a hand gun? Meg, without Jo? What the hell? The manga's loyalty between the two would have it that Jo would have never done what she did to Meg as in the tv series. Hence this story.
Also, I mislike the character of Takane almost to the point of vindictive hate. Hell, the first time she appeared onscreen, I commented something along the lines of "Who's that skank on wheels?" The way they kept handling her as a secondary character made me leery if the writers went a little crazy and decided a romantic rival for Jo would be the best thing going for the plot. Luckily that wasn't the case, but WHY did Jo take Takane to the last battle, and not Meg? I know she didn't want Meg to get hurt or in trouble, blah blah blah, but Jo was always so awesome that she got Meg out every time. The blow to the face was extremely out of character to me. Jo was a lab creation, hence she has a one-track mind… protect her loved ones, the top one being Meg. She had run headlong into certain danger before just to fulfill her singular goal. Considering the type of person she is, this is a profound statement of love.
Jo may not even understand what the word is, but had protected Meg at all costs. Until the WTF moment. Sorry, but had to mention. Onto Meg and the outcasts!
"Avenging Angel" chapter one
"Old Wounds"
It was well over six months before Meg caught a clue to Jo's location.
And it had taken a lot of work. Meg had been knocked out before the fight at RAPT, and inexplicably cast aside in the process. At least this was how the barbs to her heart felt. Meg had walked back into Tokyo wearing Jo's tired red coat, looking for her, and then clues to her whereabouts.
'My girlfriend left me behind and all I got was this dumb scarf,' Meg thought darkly. The cynicism would have once scared her. Her small fingers traced the edge of the yellow scarf she had found, tied up at the demolished RAPT building like a banner of victory, or at least a marker of identification. Her coat and scarf… the two major identifiers of Jo. It could have been a kind gift for doing to her what she had… Or…
Meg's fist clenched over the holster at her side. A huge red colt .45 rode with her there, loyal if Jo was not.
'First she told me to leave… then she knocked me out when I wouldn't!' Meg still hadn't forgiven Jo for that, yet she still cried herself to sleep at night, and wore her coat and scarf. They had been part of Jo's personal look and identity for years, yet not more so than her guns. If either of them had been left behind, then Meg would have known for sure Jo was lost for good.
She had to still be alive. She hadn't found either weapon yet.
And So Meg had carried on, slowly and surely. She could not find Sei but DID manage to find Leo, and then the trailer. A distraught and uncharacteristically Amy had been pounding away at her computer that showed a feed of endless static when the two made their way inside the mammoth trailer.
The girl had been crying, long tracks of still wet tears staining her cheeks, when the door to her room was opened. "Sei? Jo?" She had called, before noticing Leo and Meg. Then she had well and truly begun to wail, Leo taking her into his arms. Meg had stroked the girl's long hair, her insides shredding, the three of them, the cast asides of their loved ones.
It was now over six months. They used the trailer to drive around Tokyo, to search for any clue to Jo and Sei. Leo, being a mechanic, and Meg, having been with just Jo, had no tie-ins to the Bai Lan syndicate. They had no idea how to find any representative of the gang, and so the going was long, arduous, and more than a little depressing. To earn money, they did go-to work for the military if a strange creature or robot appeared, nothing long-term or serious, but they did have to eat and buy fuel for the trailer.
It was hard, but Meg had gotten better at her marksmanship, opting for a sleek handgun painted as red as her hair. And since she was a girly-looking girl, most drug lords didn't take her very seriously, which turned out in her favor each time. At first Meg had been terrified going into danger without Jo. At least when she was a kid, she had her gang of friends as well. Anyone was better than one. Meg had to turn herself off to get the job done, and afterward, would seek out Jango's compartment, and sit beside the large mecha. Never in the cockpit however…. That was Jo's place.
Meg was in Jango's storage compartment now, walking slowly around a mammoth steel leg, her fingers tracing the extension of Jo longingly, reaching… dreaming… of days past when she would run her fingers through Jo's hair as she slept.
"You miss her too, I bet," she murmured, looking up at the robotic giant. Jango sat, implacable, and unmoving; worse of all, silent to her inner pleas. "Jo would ride you rough, but you always got her home in the end."
Jango had been waxed to a shiny gleam recently; Meg knew when she wasn't moping in here, Leo was, polishing the days his creation saw action. But most of all, he missed the pilot he used to berate for Jango's hard use. Meg retracted her fingers and settled one hand on the pommel of the gun in her holster. Carefully, she picked her way around Jango to exit the compartment.
Meg made her way back to the kitchen and dining area, her somber eyes following the random pictures tacked up on the walls over the years. She and Amy had taken a wide array of unprofessional group portrayals for months and different views of Jo and Sei (or Jo with Meg herself) littered the walls. There were a couple of Amy, of course, when she had demanded her picture be taken for the wall too. Jo always looked so distant…
Meg's fingers traced the puncture holes in the wall where a picture had been pulled off. Sighing, the red-haired girl opened the fridge and slowly pushed around half-eaten containers of take-out food. With Kyohei abroad and utterly inaccessible, the trio had fallen back on buying meals from restaurant take-out, and the obligatory supply of junk food. A Styrofoam box of stir fry looked way past its mark of expiration and Meg wrinkled her nose.
"Uhn… ah, fuck!" the girl cursed as the box fell apart in her hands, spilling noodles and vegetables all over her red boots. "You have GOT to kidding me!"
"Hey, that last box of pocky had my name all over it," Meg offered, strolling into the kitchen. She had an armful of empty soda and juice bottles which she sat importantly on the only empty part of the countertop. Other bottles lined the distant surface areas. Meg sighed and went to sweep up the mess.
"I mean THIS… what are we gonna do for dinner today, anyway?"
"We could get take-out AGAIN. Or eat that last can of pumpkin filling. Guess which one I'm leaning for?" Amy tried to grin, but it was devoid of her usual cheekiness.
"Brat," Meg commented, tapping her boot on the catch of the garbage can; also without the usual cheekiness. The lid sprang up and in went the mess.
"Skank," Amy gave back. She crawled on her hands and knees, reaching in the back of a lower cupboard. She came back with a bag of shrimp chips and snapped the bag open with a hearty tear.
"Where's Leo?" Meg asked, popping open a can of green tea. Their caffeine supply was running definitely low. It was the second to last can, after all.
"Crying himself to sleep again. He never goes to fiddle with Jango when you're in there," Amy commented. She munched on a handful of chips noisily. Meg sighed and went to Sei's bedroom and rapped hard on the door.
It was strange he chose that room to camp out in, but go figure. Meg had seen the looks Leo had given Sei when he thought no one was looking, and it was no surprise he had chosen her now vacant room to crash out in. The bearded mechanic held a torch for a woman gone missing, much the same as her.
Much the same as her. Meg couldn't find it in her to fault him in the least.
A muffled groan sounded through the door and a crash. Leo must have fallen out of the bed.
"WHAT?" he yelled, rather unnecessarily.
"We got a job tonight or what? Someone REALLY should be getting dinner, too," Meg announced with as much bitchiness as could be displayed as authority would warrant.
Grumble, grumble, shuffle.
"Yeah, we got something! Hold on…" the door slid open with a pop and a disheveled, unshaven Leo glowered down at Meg. The teen stared up into his half-awake grimace.
"The police called. They want help with a transport of some fancy microchip to some CEO," Leo rubbed at an eye with one fist and held up a crumpled print-out with the other. Meg snatched the print-out, glossing over the cartoony avatars Amy had decorated the corners with.
"Great, I can be there in an hour," Meg folded the crisp paper and tucked it into the top of her boot. "Any suggestions for dinner while I'm at it?"
"Pizza. I was dreaming I was swimming in a giant pizza with Sei-san on top," Leo began drooling; whether it was for pizza or Sei, Meg couldn't tell. She clapped the drowsy mechanic on the shoulder.
"Tell Sei to keep the tomato sauce off her knockers," Meg suggested and walked off to her bedroom. She needed to get some extra ammunition, in case the outcome went against her. She was becoming a crack shot of late that she came back with nearly all her rounds now, but it never hurt to have 'em.
Meg stopped at the door, her fists balling up. Her and Jo's room. She had shared everything with Jo in here, space, blankets, warmth, embrace. No one out there would have ever seen the way Jo watched her fussing adoration, how calm she looked when asleep or how peaceful when watching a horror movie. No one knew how messy she was, or how thoughtful.
But she was gone.
To think she was doing these simple things without her near… Meg slid the door open and walked in. She had heaped the blankets in a pile on the sole bed; they were in the same jumble she had tossed them. No one had sorted the mess.
No one at all.
Her clothing was set in careful piles around Jo's belongings. Meg swept an eye over the stacks of B-movie dvd's. All Jo's all undisturbed. She would want them back one day… right? She didn't think the white-haired enigmatic girl could live without seeing one horror movie a day…
As Meg swept over to her make-up stand where she stored her ammo, the usual daily question threatened to undo her….
If Jo were alive, would she be doing any of her favorite things? Right now, this very moment..?
Meg pulled her red pistol out of her holster and aimed at herself in the mirror. Cock, bang. You're dead. She hadn't found either of Jo's guns… so she HAD to be alive, somewhere.
She had to be.
Re-holstering her weapon, Meg pocketed her ammo, and made sure her lipstick was on straight. She gave her reflection a mock salute to get into her jaunty business persona and walked across the room to the door. As she slid it open, a single picture propped importantly by her bed caught her eye. It was the sole inhabitant of her bed side table.
In it, she was hugging Jo, forever one. It was the picture taken from the wall of the dining area. Meg had caught Amy studying the empty space on the wall before, and Meg knew Amy had to figure out she had taken it.
But Meg needed it. It was there if Jo was not.
She watched the picture sadly and closed the door behind her. The light went out on the two girls frozen in celluloid.
8
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The job was thankfully, a short one. Meg oversaw the transportation of the police's microchip to the head of a famous corporation without obstruction of any kind. She hadn't had to shoot anyone, and better yet, came out looking pretty good in her skintight red outfit.
Meg left the job as quickly as she did these days before the police chief could make an idiot of himself by asking her out.
'Honey, I don't even play that way,' Meg thought, her bleeding heart stretching her along thin. She had pocketed the cash, shaken the chief's hand and high-tailed it out while making it all look casual and all before the mustachioed chief could work up the courage to open his mouth.
Meg walked along, half aware of the lecherous looks men (and quite a few ladies) flashed her way. She knew she should check in with Amy and Leo, should be getting their meal and continue the wayward journey home, but she was out anyways, and nearby….
So her slow footsteps took her towards the old RAPT building. The structure was a smoldering wreck, thanks to Jo's harsh handiwork, and if RAPT had bothered to rebuild figuratively, they hadn't literally for their building remained a burnt-out ruin, taped off from the public.
Which meant if they were still around, the organization had to have gone underground. Much like Bai Lan had to have. Much like Jo and Sei. There was just no other explanation.
Meg sighed glumly, toeing a loose rock from the rubble outside. Sei had come off as very straight and very uninterested, but still…. She had better not be going after Jo.
It was so an un-Sei thing to contemplate that Meg's thoughts were dull instead of vindictive. She sidestepped the tape and carefully made her way upstairs. A large conference hall had been blown wide open (more than likely by Jango) and a loose wind stirred the edges of Meg's scarf. She ducked her face into the folds and tried to smell Jo.
Meg had picked through these ruins as often as she could, hoping to find some clue, anything, to point her to Jo's trail. Her scarf had been found sure, whether as a banner of victory or grave marker, Meg couldn't say.
It was so unlike Jo, it gave her an uneasy feeling. That and a sick stomach. A scarf instead of coming home? A blow instead of companionship? Did Jo even WANT to be found?
Did Jo not… need her anymore?
'I fight for you,' Jo's low murmur echoed in her mind and Meg scrubbed tears from her eyes fiercely. If she didn't fight for her now, then who did she fight for?
The rough scrape of boot against rock alerted Meg suddenly. She brought her red pistol out of her holster in one swift movement. Silently, she pulled the hammer back and scanned the hall. Someone was here…. Someone that didn't want to be found. RAPT? Why would they still be nosing around this place? A million ideas surged through Meg's mind as she stilled her breathing, though her heart was pacing quickly.
The person Meg saw making their way around the fallen pillars and rubble was truly one she had not been expecting. Dark brown hair cascaded in twin ponytails; a jaunty schoolgirl-type fuku covered the spry fit body. She wore knee high boots, the better to running into trouble with.
And a katana hung from a scabbard around her back, too long to be worn at her side.
Takane, daughter of Osaka's Chief of Police and head of the special ops biker division. Meg's blood curdled and her hand tremored. What was SHE doing here? Did she know anything about Jo and Sei's disappearance? Did she have anything to do with them still?
Jo had refused her to come to the battle, but that Takane ho had been waiting, like a dog ready to jump at a bared scrap of food. And Jo had let her come! Just her! Her and not Meg…
Takane all but jumped out of her skin when Meg boldly walked out of the shadows. When she recognized the woman, she didn't relax completely either. Meg's eyes clouded. Something was up alright.
"Damn, girl, ya'll near gave me a heart attack!" Takane twanged, pressing a hand over her chest to prove it.
Meg didn't lower her pistol.
"Funny running into you here. Why ARE you here?" she asked coldly. The wary smile snapped from Takane's face. The lovelorn redhead was a sweetheart no longer.
'Being abandoned by her girlfriend must have toughened her up some,' Takane thought. However, she couldn't let anyone outside know her operative…
"I could ask the same of you. This has to be way out of your way," Takane gave back wryly. She kept a steady eye trained on the barrel pointed at her, although her stance was relaxed.
Meg held her ground. "Not more out of the way than Osaka. You have no reason for being here. Unless…"
"Unless…" Takane's foot shifted slightly to the left. Meg fired.
The bullet hit the wall beside Takane's face. The woman froze, watching Meg out of the corner of her eye. She stopped all movement.
"Don't give me that shit. You know where Jo is! And Sei… You know where they are! Don't you?" Meg's gun shook in her hands. She lowered the barrel towards Takane's chest. "Don't you?"
"Meg, I don't know…"
Meg fired again, at the other side of Takane's face. "Don't give me that! You were there! You know what happened! And if I were you, I'd start talking!" Meg ordered. Takane raised her hands slowly and exhaled audibly.
"I can't tell you… not even you. I wish I could help you, but I can't," the Osaka woman said quietly. It was meant to be soothing, to be reassuring… heavens knew, the girl needed that at least.
But it was not what Meg wanted to hear. She sprang forward suddenly and cold-clocked Takane upside the head with the butt of her pistol. Takane yelled suddenly in shocked pain and fell bodily to the floor. She lay on her side holding her head, when one of her hands was yanked back. A snap of metal enclosing her wrist caught her hazy attention.
"What are you…"
"I've waited a long time to find out," Meg growled, pulling the stunned woman to her feet. "And you're gonna tell me where Jo and Sei are."
"Wait, Meg! You don't understand…" Takane watched in dismay as the redheaded girl unfastened the strap to her katana from around her middle and let the weapon fall heedless to the ground. "My sword!"
Meg ignored her and cracked open her wrist communicator. "Meg to base, hurry up and answer!"
Leo popped up instead of Amy, sounding more awake. "Bout time you finished, girl! Did you get our pizza yet?"
Meg cursed and yanked Takane's handcuffed wrists. "Forget the damned pizza! I need you to drive out and get me… you got the location?"
"But we need dinner!" Leo protested, but she heard clicking in the background. "Okay, moving base out to get you… why couldn't you just walk back?"
"Because, Leo…" Meg yanked Takane closer. The woman winced as her hands rode up her back, trapped by handcuffs. "I might have found a clue to Jo and Sei."
Leo yelped and Meg heard him revving the trailer's gas pedal. "I'm on the way!"
End for now
No I have no idea what the Osaka biker division is called, so it's called just that :P Whee!
1/9/11
