No More Hesitation: Role Reversal

Anime: Burst Angel

Genre: Romance

Rating: T

Pairing: JoxMeg/MegxJo

Disclaimer: Own nothing

Author: Demonictwister

Summary: Five years after Jo left, Meg is the genocide angel, everything has changed; her vulnerability, her innocence, and her weakness. The only thing that hasn't changed is her love for Jo. So when Jo comes back, what new approach to her will Meg give?

No More Hesitation: Role Reversal

Amongst the shattered and crumpled buildings of Tokyo, a young 22-year-old woman, with a flowing, red flame for hair and bright sapphire eyes stood. Her arrogance in her stance was not without good reason.

An angel of death such as herself should never be seen as anything less.

Meg breathed in the scent of the dust that was blowing in the wind, which smelled of blood and gunpowder.

Damn, the ruins of Tokyo never ceased to dull her spirit.

She shoved her guns back into her leather straps the sides of her thighs. She was literally a 'killer woman,' and was as tough as nails. Though five years ago when she had been seventeen you would never had thought that.

They had just finished a job.

By 'they,' it meant her, Kyohei, Sei, and Amy.

Meg looked ruefully up at the red gigantic robot that now replaced Jo's silver one.

Meg smiled sadly and thought to herself, (Just as I've replaced you, huh, Jo?)

Indeed, though Meg had changed a great deal, the one thing that remained the same was her unquenchable love for Jo, the silver-haired angel of death that she had so profoundly fallen in love with.

"Has everything been taken care of, Meg?" Sei asked over the comm..

"Yeah," Meg said coolly, "I don't see the point of sticking around. Let's go."

Meg, clad in a red leather jacket and chaps and armed with guns, flicked her lit and burnt out cigarette and her jaded sapphire eyes were filled with cold calmness.

A few years back, this would have been an odd sight to see for the city of Tokyo, but now, almost everyone knew of the dangerous Meg.

The now labeled "Red Phoenix."

Everyone went back to the trailer, tired and hungry.

Their team had been damaged five years ago. Amy, Kyohei and Meg had been out of physical danger, however, the results of what had happened had left scars in their conscience.

Jo had disappeared, presumably killed, Leo and Takane had been confirmed to have been killed, and Sei had been brutally injured in the fight at the Tokyo city hall. The building had been destroyed, but Sei had survived, only due to the grace of Jo.

All of them, especially Sei were eternally grateful to Jo. That day she had saved them all from the government, and she had sacrificed herself to get Sei out of range of the explosion at the city hall.

Sei had gotten out with only a bullet wound and some burns from the explosion. However, five years later she was alive and in control of a small, freely run position of what remained of RAPT.

None of them had any idea of what happened to Jo. They only knew that they needed to stop what remained of the RAPT that came into power five years ago so that they would remain free.

Jo had taught them all that, especially Meg.

Tonight, however, was noisy as usual, with, Kyohei laughing with Meg and Amy who teased him mercilessly.

"Oh, Kyohei," Amy teased, "You're so nice to us giving us all this food, tell me, is it because you're trying to seduce Sei?"

Kyohei, five years ago would have turned at least eight different shades of red at that and would start to sputter, however, he had become wise to their "abuse" and just gritted his teeth, his eyebrow twitching slightly, nevertheless earning laughs out of all three women.

Kyohei, while having grown a great deal into the man that he had always wanted, no longer being the awkward and nearly whiney boy he had once been into a much calmer version of himself and had fulfilled his dream of studying abroad, he still couldn't give up his attachment to these three. He had saved up enough money on his first two years after Jo went missing to go study abroad and spent the next two years studying to his heart's content.

Still, in the end, on the fifth year, he came back to the trailer, the place he considered home. And he still bent to their teasing like he used to.

Amy, after five years, whilst remaining a teasing little vixen that seemed to refuse to behave, had blossomed (at least physically) into a beautiful young woman. She certainly was more mature than she used to be, but Kyohei could stand as testament that that wouldn't remain for longer than a few minutes. Amy even had some power up in Sei's RAPT business now. In computers obviously.

Sei, she had gotten control of her own company under her grandfather.

But there would always be a place in their family for someone else……someone who wasn't here. They were happy now…..but one of their family members was still missing.

As the other two were busy playing with Kyohei's head, Meg stopped laughing and thought to herself.

About Jo.

Not a day had gone by for the past five years since that day when Jo had left and supposedly died that Meg hadn't thought of the beautiful dark angel.

And when Meg came to these thoughts, it reached her conclusion that that was a sign for her to get to bed.

If she started thinking about Jo it would drive her emotions overboard and she'd start becoming vulnerable again like in the old days, before she became a Genocide Angel, and that was unacceptable.

At least this way, she could feel those emotions and go to bed and waste that energy she would have, five years ago on crying and now instead have sweet, sweet dreams of the other woman.

"I'm going to bed," she said, heading towards the bedroom that had once belonged to her and Jo, then added over her shoulder to the other three, "Oh and Amy, don't let Kyohei get too bold with Sei or he may take advantage of her."

She said this of course, with a smirk on her face, the other two laughed, the boy between them however, started grumbling as Meg disappeared.

Okay, so there were two things that hadn't changed about Meg in the past five years; her love for Jo and her teasing personality. Oh, yeah, and her insatiable appetite that seemed to have no end.

Meg sighed as she plopped down on her bed. The bed where she wished Jo was laying with her, not just as a friend or alley, but as a lover.

She groaned in aggravation.

Oh, right, she'd have to take her ammunition off for her to get a good night sleep.

She groggily got up, and took off her guns, and unloading them and taking them apart. Five years ago, she wouldn't have even known how to LOAD some of the weapons she was using now. Sure, she had used a hand gun several times, and she knew how to load up some of the other weapons so that Jo could use them, however, never to this deadly extent. She only carried around a rifle or handgun to help Jo out, but she had barely even known, back then how to take guns apart and together for battle till now.

The circumstances that she had been in these past years had changed that.

She also removed her belt, chaps, and everything else except for her T-shirt, and the jacket that had once belonged to Jo.

No, she would be sleeping with it in her arms as she had every night since Jo had left for the past five years.

It was her only memory she had left of Jo.

She hugged the jacket to her chest. One thing she hated about wearing this thing everyday: it had her scent on it now. It now smelled like a mix of poppies and strawberries, no longer did it bare the smell of metal, gunpowder, fresh grass, leather and coffee that she had come to love so much.

"Jo." She said smiling sadly as she lay down to sleep, expecting one of her wonderful dreams where Jo would come back to them, back to her and Jo would confess how much she loved Meg and the two would live happily ever after…..pretty stupid and naïve right? Even after all this time, Meg was still the frail, hopeless one when it came to her dear Jo.

And yet, despite the drastic the change in Meg's once vulnerability that turned into strength, Meg never stopped hoping that Jo would come back to them or that they would find her, that was why she always had these dreams…that single fragile hope.

That one desperate dream that Jo was still alive and could come back to them…back to her.

But not tonight….no, tonight was a nightmare…literally!

Blood,……blood everywhere! A tanned body splayed out over the ground…silver locks stained in the blood the very person that the hair belonged to.

Pained, agonized, beautiful crimson eyes looked up. And that deep, yet gentle voice sounded so pained, "Meg………."

"JOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Meg screamed, shooting up out of bed.

Oh, dear God! Was Jo out there somewhere….hurt? Dying?

The door to her room opened and the lights suddenly snapped on.

"Meg, what's wrong?!" Kyohei yelled.

"We heard you scream." Amy said worriedly. Usually she'd have made a wise ass remark, but considering her history of losing friends, Jo being particular, she could help but instead, look at her friend and feel like she was about to cry for the older girl, panic evident in her face as she watched Meg.

"It's Jo!" Meg cried raggedly, "Jo….s-she's hurt! She's dying!"

"Meg," Sei said, flinching at the name that Meg had cried, speaking as gently as she could, "Jo's gone. She died. You were dreaming."

"No!" Meg insisted, "I know she's here somewhere! Get the trailer moving! We're going to find her!"

Needless to say, Meg had to practically shove everyone out of her room to get dressed.

The others all thought she was just imagining things, but to humor her, they consented. Well, after her "bitching" at them and her quite literally threatening to shove her fist down Kyohei's throat was what motivated them at last.

Naturally, all three of them were unsettled about Meg's insistence. This was an old ghost that Meg was bringing up. Two years after Jo supposedly died, all four of them had suffered, and even after those two years they still recovered. On the third year after Jo's death, there was still some difficulty, but they just didn't talk about it. Now two years later, Meg was bringing this up again?

All four of them had suffered over Leo, Takane and Jo's deaths, in their own ways, but this was just…….

Seven Miles Away:

About seven miles away, a young, twenty two year old woman with tan skin, one red eye open, her other eye shut in pain, and silver hair was crumpled on the ground, exhausted and bloody.

She had destroyed her enemies. All of them in that wretched building where they had imprisoned her for five years. They were all dead, but there was one left and she was badly hurt, she probably wouldn't live through tonight.

She looked up, feeling weak as she heard a growling sound above her.

It was the remaining enemy: A large monkey-like beast with razor-sharp fangs.

(I can't believe it, this is how it ends.) Jo thought to herself, (I didn't even get to see Meg again after all this time. I'm sorry, Meg, I'm sorry I didn't tell you how I felt.)

She readied herself for the final blow when, 'blam!'

A loud gunfire split the air and a bullet tore right through the monkey's claws.

"Stay the hell away from her!!!" A very familiar scream rang in Jo's ears.

She froze. That voice….it couldn't be,…….could it…..?

The monkey turned its head in the direction of that all too familiar voice that had haunted Jo's dreams for two years.

The monkey didn't stand a chance; a second shot was fired and off came the monkey's actual head!

Jo's eyes widened in shock. Only she herself and that wretch Maria had ever held such strength!

As the monkey crashed to the ground, footsteps ran close to Jo.

Jo managed, through her pain to look at who was approaching.

If Jo was shocked before, she was totally astonished now. There……..there was no way!

"Jo!" Came the scream of another voice that was so familiar.

Jo's good eye widened again. That sounded like Amy!

"Meg." She whispered, gazing up at the beautiful fiery goddess.

Wait…there was something wrong here. Meg's usual yellow chaps and shirt were gone as was her cowboy hat. Instead, she wore the same red attire that she herself used to wear. And that fierce look in the redhead's eyes, it was so dangerous.

Jo never thought she'd ever be able to feel fear…and because of Meg of all people!

But this was a different Meg….a dangerous one….

That was the last thought before Jo passed out.

Author's Note:

Okay, for those that have read this story know that this was uploaded before. Don't ask why it was taken down, trust me, long story. Anyway, I redid the story, made it a bit more detailed so that hopefully it would be easier to follow.

Hope you like it.