Hey all! I'm writing this sort of as a redo of "My Michelle." Ok, so it's almost completely different, but the idea came from it. Lupin III is property of Monkey Punch, TMS and Funimation. Keep that in mind, and enjoy! Please R&R.

Blue on Black

Ch. 1

Jigen raced down the hallways like a bat out of hell. He knew the mission had gone sour from the moment they entered the building. He felt the same sickening pain in his stomach that he always felt when things went bad. Lupin was already in position and Goemon was waiting to be their transportation out. There was no way they could abort the mission now. He didn't have a disguise on him, but Lupin had told him that it would be fine. It didn't feel right. He felt naked. But he stuck to the plan anyways, even as two men appeared behind him and aimed their guns.

Lupin inched his way through the air ducts. He hoped to God that Jigen would stick to the plan and nothing unexpected would happen. That way, the creep they were stealing from would get his comeuppance and they'd be plenty richer than they were the day before. Jigen just had to play it cool and play the guinea pig while he did the dirty work. He found the vent above the room he needed to be in and waited for the signal.

)(

She walked calmly down the hallways. Things were going smoothly. Apparently, the man she was hitting for information was getting attacked from another side, so she slid into the chaos unnoticed. She had already planted bugs in several rooms and she had hacked into the main computer system to learn his darkest secrets. She heard gunshots coming from down the hallway, so she ducked into a nearby room. She moved a strand of her shoulder-length black hair behind her ear and smiled confidently. Unfortunately, the room was occupied by Mr. Eson himself. "Shit," she thought as he pointed his gun straight at her heart.

"So, the little spy decided to walk right in without even attempting to hide?" he asked as he grabbed her wrists. "Glad to see you're at least coming quietly."

"I figured you're having enough trouble as it is with other pests, why be any trouble for you?" she asked with the biggest and cutest eyes she could bat.

"He is a problem that we shall have solved soon enough," he said, leading her to a pole and handcuffing her to it. "They think they can steal all of my money and treasures, well I have a great surprise for them. All of my belongings are not here. But I have a grand explosion awaiting Mr. Lupin."

"Lupin? You mean Arséne Lupin III?" she asked.

"Yes, acquaintance of yours?" he asked.

"Go take care of your bug problem."

)(

Jigen was beginning to get really pissed off. Nowhere in the plan was anything mentioned about getting chased by two huge men with machine guns. For some reason, he had the feeling Lupin set it up to be that way. He continued to run, but he noticed the man of the hour himself, Mr. Eson, in a connected hallway, shut a door, locked it and started to head to the very room Lupin didn't want him to go. Jigen continued in the path he was going, but he knew he couldn't run forever. He drew his gun out, turned around quickly and shot the two men with the precision aiming he was known for.

Lupin heard the door open and felt a lump in his throat. No one was supposed to come into this room; they were all supposed to be following Jigen. He heard the door shut behind the person who walked inside.

"Mr. Lupin, you aren't as clever as you think you are. I know what you are up to and you will fail." Mr. Eson paced around the room a bit. "I understand, Mr. Lupin, if you don't want to show yourself, but I know you are in here and you will come out soon enough. Have a good night, Mr. Lupin…" Mr. Eson left the room.

)(

"I've been searching for the daughter of the devil himself, I've been searching for an angel in white. I've been waiting for a woman who's a little of both. I can feel her but she's nowhere in sight."

She had managed to get the cuffs off as soon as Mr. Eson had left the room. It was a quick and simple trick her mother had taught her years and years ago. That's the type of lessons she received, having come from a family of thieves, criminals and spies. She opened the door and peaked into the hallway and saw no one. So she left the room and began to walk in the direction she was walking before.

Jigen was running once again to figure out where their target had run off too. He approached the hallway in which he saw the man and turned the corner with his gun raised. It took him a moment to realize that there was a woman standing before him with a gun pointing at him as well.

"Who are you and who do you work for?" Jigen asked.

"None of your business and I work for myself. I suppose that you are working with Lupin?" she asked.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked without lowering his gun.

"I suggest that you leave now, if you are working with him. Mr. Eson knows what's going on, and, unfortunately, he found out about me as well and ruined my job."

"Who are you?" Jigen asked, a little dumbfounded. The girl sighed and grabbed his arm.

"C'mon!" she yelled as she dragged him behind her. She managed to get the two of them out of the building without being noticed and to a safe exit. When they were at least a building away, they stopped to catch their breath.

"Thanks," Jigen got out between gasps of breath.

"Don't mention it. I only hope that Lupin gets out as well. It'll be a shame if a good gentleman thief like himself dies. We don't have enough good-hearted criminals in this world."

"Do you know him?" Jigen asked.

"It's been years since I've seen him. Send my regards to him," she said as she turned to walk away into the night.

"Can I at least get your name?"

"Michelle." She disappeared into the distance.

Lupin appeared a few moments later, looking a little singed.

"What the hell, Jigen? He figured out we were in there and he had set up a flame thrower inside the air ducts! How the hell did I miss that?" Lupin yelled, flailing his arms.

"What do you mean 'what the hell?' I don't remember being told that I was the distraction! I was only told that I had to walk in, say I was doing business for someone, pick up a flash drive and get out of there, nothing at all about being a distraction!"

"Would you have done it if I told you what you'd really be doing?" Lupin asked with a grin.

"Probably not…"

"Well, there you go."

"I was told to send you regards from Michelle, who ever she is."

"What?" Lupin asked.

"I don't have a clue who she is, but she's good. Not hard on the eyes, either," Jigen stated, lighting a cigarette.

"Hmmm. I wonder…" Lupin pondered.

"You know, I wonder what she's up to," Jigen wondered as they walked back to their rendezvous. "She said that he ruined her job also. Do you think that she is after what we're after?"

"I don't think so, at least not if she's who I think she is. She probably wants to humiliate him just as much as we want to, though," Lupin responded.

"Lupin, who is she? An old girlfriend or something?" Jigen asked.

"Don't worry about it, Jigen. She's better off forgotten," Lupin said coldly as he waved to Goemon. The samurai drove over, picked them up and then took them home.

)(

"You're some kind of beautiful stranger. You could be good for me; I have a taste for danger"

She leaned out of her bedroom window with a cigarette perched between her lips as she fought with her lighter. It always seemed to take her just as long to light it as it did to smoke it. The flame finally appeared and she moved it to the cigarette and inhaled. Michelle let out a puff of smoke from her mouth. She had gone over a year without a cigarette, but she had gone even longer without failing a mission. "Well, it wasn't a total failure," she thought. "I have a flash drive with all the information I need, I just wish he hadn't seen my face." She let the Parisian breeze take the ash from her cigarette as she tapped it.

"The worst part of the evening was that I almost had an encounter with Lupin. It was bad enough that I met his partner in crime, even if he did seem like an interesting man." She tossed the butt of her cigarette out of the window, shut the window, and then closed the blinds and curtains. Next, she set up alarms around her apartment as she always did. It wasn't her main residence, but it still contained her laptop, which had more information on it than the FBI would know what to do with. As part of her normal nightly routine, she packed up her laptop, made sure her backpack was ready, laid out her clothes for the next day, and then went to bed.

)(

"You're seriously not going to tell me anything about Michelle, are you Lupin?" Jigen sighed.

"Damn it Jigen! I don't want to talk about that girl. I don't know what's gotten into you, but if you're that damn curious then go out and find her!" Lupin yelled as he flung the keys to his motorcycle at Jigen. Lupin stormed off to his room and slammed the door behind him.

"What's his problem?" Goemon asked.

"I don't know. Some girl helped me out during our mission and asks me to send her regards to Lupin, and he gets pissed off whenever I ask about her," he stated.

"What are you going to do then?"

"I guess I'm going to go try and find her," Jigen said, holding the keys up. "I'll be back later." He left the house and left Goemon to himself.

)(

"Could've been easier by three; our old friend fear and you and me"

A loud screech woke her instantly. The sound seemed to come from the road below her. Michelle jumped up and peaked around the curtains and blinds. There were several men running into the building. The car that screeched drove off. Michelle quickly put on the clothes she had laid out and grabbed her backpack and double checked that her laptop was inside it. She shot a cable from her window to a lamppost, slid down and landed gracefully on the pavement. Then she began to race down the dimly lit streets.

Behind her, she heard an engine approaching. She ran as fast as she could, but she knew she could never out run a motor. It was coming closer and she could feel her blood pressure rising with adrenaline pumping through her.

"Need a lift?" a man asked as he appeared next to her on a motorcycle. He slowed down so she could keep up with him. Michelle took a good look at him.

"Aren't you that guy from Eson's earlier?" she asked, still running.

"Yeah, hop on and I'll get you out of here."

"I can't trust you! How do I know you're not secretly working for them?" Michelle asked.

"I would have already killed you if I was," Jigen stated. "Now get on the bike and hold on!" Jigen stopped long enough for her to get situated on the bike, and then they took off.

"Where are you taking me?" Michelle yelled over the sound of the motorcycle.

"I'm taking you to where I'm staying," he answered.

"Lupin isn't there is he? I don't want to see him."

"Relax. What is up with the two of you anyway?" Jigen asked.

"N-nothing. I just don't want to talk to him and I don't want to see him. I don't think he wants to see me either. Pull into this alley, we're being followed."

"Do what?" Jigen asked.

"We're being followed, now turn!" Michelle yelled. Jigen quickly jerked the motorcycle into the alley. "Go ahead and turn it off and follow me," she whispered to him. Jigen listened to what she said and pulled out his pistol.

"We're not ditching the motorcycle, are we? Cause it isn't mine…"

"It'll be fine, don't worry. Get behind this dumpster," Michelle said as she aimed her pistol over the rim of the dumpster.

"You know, I'm known for being quite the gunman, are you sure you don't want me to shoot?" he asked.

"You'll get the opportunity soon enough. I need you on the lookout for their getaway car." Jigen turned around and sighed.

"Alright. Let me know if you need me." A second later, he heard a gun click and Michelle began to shoot. Jigen leaned around the side of the dumpster, but he soon realized that Michelle really didn't need his help. He saw the backup car pulling in and he shot the tires. Then he shot through the windshield at the driver.

"Come on! We need to hurry and get out of here in case there are more on their way!" Michelle said quickly as she jumped onto the back of the motorcycle.

"Alright already, are you ok?" he asked as he started the motor and they began to take off down the streets once more.

"I'm fine," Michelle sat quietly in the back for a moment, letting the motorcycle cover their awkward silence as she held on to him around his waist. "I never did catch your name."

"Daisuke Jigen. Just call me Jigen."

"Thank you, Jigen."

"I'll tell you what…Why don't we go for a ride?" Jigen asked.

"Sure, I've got nowhere to be tonight," Michelle answered with a smile. Jigen laughed and revved the motorcycle. He found it odd that he found himself so comfortable with her. But more or less, he was intrigued with what she had to do with Lupin.

"So are you from around here?" he asked.

"So to speak. I was born here, yes, but I travel all the time," she told him. "I'm not one to stay in the same place for too long. I don't want to be noticed by the wrong people, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, things go about the same way for me and my friends," Jigen said.

"You mean Lupin?" she asked.

"Yeah." Jigen took a turn onto a two lane highway. "We've been working together for ages." Dirt flew into Michelle's eyes. She didn't want to let go of Jigen, so she tried to rub her eyes on her shoulder, effectively nudging Jigen in the back. He smiled…until he heard a siren. "Damn it. I'm actually going the speed limit right now." A police car pulled up next to them.

"Pull over Jigen! Where's Lupin?!" Zenigata yelled, almost hanging out of his car.

"I'm a little busy at the moment, Pops, could you come back at a later time?" Jigen asked with a smirk. He revved the engine once more.

"Get back here Jigen! Who's that girl with you?" Zenigata called after him, following the motorcycle.

"Jigen, who was that?" Michelle asked, turning back to watch the police car that was slipping into the distance.

"A friend of Lupin's," he told her. "That was Inspector Zenigata. He's been chasing us since I've started working with Lupin." Jigen sped up and lost the cop car by driving down back roads. "Speaking of Lupin, what happened between the two of you?" Michelle was silent behind him. "You ok back there?" he asked a few moments later.

"…I'm fine. I'd just rather not talk about Lupin right now," she said quietly.

They rode in silence to the house. As they pulled into the driveway, Michelle felt as if a brick had been dropped in her stomach.

"We're staying at his house? I didn't realize he was actually using his old house," Michelle said.

"Yeah, we've been using it for awhile, well, whenever we come to France. How did you know it was his house?" Jigen asked.

"Don't worry about it," she replied, shortly. "Will I have a room to myself, or do I have to share?"

"There are plenty of rooms here, unless you just want to room with someone," Jigen said with a smirk.

"I'll be fine on my own."

Jigen led her into the house and up the stairs to where the bedrooms were. Michelle waved him a silent goodnight as he pointed her towards a vacant room and he went to his own room. Michelle walked into the room and smiled. She set her backpack down and looked around at all the trinkets and items that had been left from its previous tenant. Then she went into the closet and opened a secret door that was behind several long jackets and walked out onto a hidden porch.

"I'm glad you still remembered how to find the door," Lupin said, leaning on the railing and looking out into the distance.

"Lupin, please don't be angry with me," Michelle started.

"Why should I be angry? You only shot me in the back and tried to kill me. I can't believe you are daring enough to show your face around here. I ought to shoot you right where you stand."

"Lupin, you don't even know the whole story. If you knew everything, maybe you wouldn't be as angry. Yes, plenty of it was entirely my fault, and I'll gladly take the blame! But most of it was a complete and total mistake and shouldn't have happened. Please forgive me already!" Michelle pleaded.

"I'm not ready yet. I can't even look at you right now. I don't mind you staying here until you find another place to stay or you leave France, but don't get in my way," Lupin said as he turned to leave through another door.

"What happened to you Lupin? I missed you so much, but you're nothing like how I remembered you."

"I guess that's what happens when your sister tries to kill you," he said and left her in silence. She looked out into the night and pulled out a cigarette from her breast pocket. Once she finished it, she went inside and took another good look around the room she used to call her own. Then she went to sleep.

Lyrics:

"One of These Nights" by The Eagles

"Beautiful Stranger" by Madonna

"Glycerine" by Bush