Disclaimers:Severus Snape is a product of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. (That's right, he's back. Ha!)
Note: Time for a little romance, don't you think? Oh, I know in the game that Teo attacks right away, but in this story I put off for a while.
Love is in the Last Place You Look, Right in Front of You
Thanks to Liukan's potion, Milich's flowers were rendered helpless. Without his flowers Milich couldn't keep the Liberation Army at bay and was soon defeated. Like a coward, the loudly dressed man ran in to his Scarleticia Castle. Ranma's group that gave chase after the flower man contained: Flik, Viktor, Racqel, Kirkis, Pahn, and Cleo; all were bent on avenging Gremio.
The group comes to the gates of the castle to see a tall man, in a long black cloak, standing there; there are two falcons on each of his shoulders. When they get closer, the man turns around to look at the group. He has neck length greasy black hair, his face is pale and he wears a black suit under his cloak. A Wizard Rune is on his right hand where he also held a black stick.
"Racqel? Viktor?" The man looks at the two people he named.
"Uncle?" Racqel runs up to the man in black. She throws her arm around his waist. "Oh Uncle Severus. I was so worried about you." The two falcons take off from Severus's shoulder and fly around over the head.
"As I was about you." Severus says, hugging her back. "When I came back home to our village, only to find it in ruins, I thought everyone was dead. But a nice lady in Muse City told me that you two were still alive. She pointed me in the direction of the Scarlet Empire to look for you." The black wizard turns to Viktor. "I'd ask if it was hard raising your young sister on your own, but I know you had help."
"Please, don't praise me, it might go to my head." Viktor says sarcastically. "Still as harsh with the comments as ever I see." He holds a hand out to his uncle.
"It's only to keep up with your crude sense of humor." Severus laughs as he lets go of Racqel to take Viktor's hand. The two men shake, but before they have a chance to let go Severus pulls Viktor into a hug. "I know you did the best that you could."
"Uh…" Viktor is surprise by being hugged by his uncle, but he hugs back. "It is good to see that you are alive and well." When the two men finish hugging, they take a step back from each other. "We were on a journey to find the person who destroyed our home when we got caught up in the war." Viktor explain to his uncle.
"Who are the falcons?" Racqel asks as she watches the birds fly back down to sit on Severus's shoulders again.
"My messenger and errand birds." Severus points to one falcon that has dark brown wings with light brown tips. "Fury." He point to the other one that has light brown feathers with dark brown tips. "Strike." The two falcons screech in greetings.
Cleo clears her throat to get everyone's attention. "As touching as this family reunion really is, we have a mission to complete."
"Yes, of course." Severus goes over to Ranma. "Do you mind if we join up?" The young leader gives the dark wizard a weird look, but nods his head.
The group enters the castle and goes to the left wing; upstairs was a painting of Milich. Everyone who stood in front of it had something bad to say about him, but Racqel and Severus. Severus didn't know who the man was or why everyone hated him so much. Racqel didn't know what her feelings were. She stood and looked at the picture for a moment.
"Come on Racqel." Pahn yells at her. "The guy was a creep."
"I don't know." Racqel shakes her head at the brawler. "I mean with all these black runes and stuff. Maybe he was a victim tooooooo!" A door under her feet opens up and she finds herself tumbles down a set of stairs. "Runes that hurt…" The young woman groans when she finally hit the bottom. Her head throbbed with pain as she tried to figure out what just happened. Suddenly Racqel realized that she was not alone when a muffled groan goes into her right ear. She lifts her head slowly to see that she was face to face with Flik's older brother, Jason. Because her head casted a shadow over his face, Racqel couldn't see that tape that was across his mouth or the fact that he was glaring at her.
Jason was quite angry over the fact that they young woman just landed on him after he went to all that trouble of finally get over to the stairs. Blushing, Racqel bolts up on to her knees, which happen to be on either side of Jason's rear. She could now see the tape over his mouth, his hands tied behind his back, and his arms tied to his sides.
"Are you ok?" Racqel asked as she grabbed the ropes that held his arms to his sides and pulls him up. Jason gives another muffled groan as he gets into a sitting position. Racqel was so overjoyed to see he is all right that she hugs his neck tightly. As she does Jason blushes and forgets why he was mad at her. After pulling back from the hug, Racqel takes the tape off his mouth.
"Ow…" Now Jason remembered why he was angry with her and that he really didn't like her very much. "You're as stupid as your brother…you know that?" He glares at her again. "Landing on me like that…. Can't you watch where you're going?" Jason watches as the smile on Racqel's face disappears and is replaced with an angry look. She sticks the tape back on his mouth, shoves him away from her, and gets to her feet so she could huff up the stairs. Jason was left to sit at the bottom thinking, 'Was she worried about me?'
Racqel yells up to the ceiling, once she was at the top of the stairs.
"Guys?"
"Racqel? Where are you?" Viktor yells back. "One minute you were up here and now…"
"I'm in some kind of hidden room under the floor." Racqel says. "By the way, I found someone down here."
Flik yells to the floor. "Who?"
"Your obnoxious brother." Racqel calls back. "Think you can you open the door now? I kind of tired of yelling."
"We don't know how." Cleo tells to her.
Ranma stands over the spot Racqel stood at. "Well…it opened when she said something." Pahn and Viktor are on either side of him, holding his arms. Racqel stands a couple steps down from the opening. "Um…Milich, too was a victim." Pahn and Viktor pull Ranma away from the door just as it popped open. Quickly Flik sticks a sword from one of the armors between the hinges of the door, to keep it open. Racqel reaches a hand out and Viktor grabs it to help her climb out.
"Where's Jason?" Flik asks her.
"Down there, where I left him." Racqel points at the stairs. "I was so glad to see him, till he opened his big mouth." She leans against the wall with her arms crossed.
Flik sighs and goes down into the hidden room. He finds Jason still sitting at the bottom looking up at the opening. "She was worried about me." Jason says after Flik remove the tape.
Flik smirks as he cuts his brother's bonds. "Yeah."
"After all this time and…and how I teased her." Jason looks up at the opening again. "She was worried about me." This time he was trying to see Racqel's face.
"And you had to say something stupid to her, didn't you?" Flik rolls his eyes at him. "Why?"
"I don't know." Jason rubs the back of his head. "Every time I see her, my mind shuts down. I don't know what to say, but the first think that comes to mind."
"Which is an insult?" Flik holds out a hand to help Jason to his feet. "You have problems, you know that?"
"Yeah, yeah." Jason waves a hand at him. "Let's get out of here. I miss the sunlight." Jason follows Flik up the stairs. When they get to the top Racqel holds her sword out to Jason. "What's this?" He asks coldly.
"You lost your sword, didn't you?" Racqel replies just as coldly. "Can't have you going around weaponless." Jason looks at her to see if she was serious.
"Take the sword." Flik whispers to Jason. "She is trying to make an effort to be friends." Jason snatches the sword from Racqel and storms pass her. She pulls down on corner of one of her eyes and sticks out her tongue at his backside. Flik shakes his head.
"What's that all about?" Viktor whispers to Flik.
"I think there's something between them." Flik whispers back. "They just won't admit it."
When everyone was back and accounted for the group makes their way to the top of the castle; waiting there for them was Milich. He cried about what they did to his poor flowers. Suddenly he grabs his right hand and a black light shines from it. "Ow…it hurts." Milich cries as he raised the hand in the air. There was a shattering sound and the loud color man falls to his knees. "The black rune Lady Windy had given me broke. I am free." He sighs.
"Who cares?" Viktor yelled. "Black Rune, pink balloon. You killed Gremio and now you shall pay." He raises his sword in the air. Milich knows that whilel under the spell he had done some bad things. That is way he did not try to run when Viktor brought his sword down at him.
"Viktor! No!" Racqel stops her brother's sword with her own.
Viktor brings his sword back up to air. "Don't try to stop me." Racqel jumps between Milich and Viktor. "Get out of the way." Viktor yells as he tries to get around her, but Racqel just kept getting in his way. "He killed Gremio, why are you defending him?"
"I wouldn't have to defend his life if you didn't try to make a decision that was not yours or anyone else's to make." Racqel gets in Viktor's face. "The fate of this man should be left up to Ranma." Reluctantly, Viktor lowers his sword.
"So what you say?" Flik asks the young leader as all eyes fall on him.
"I will not make excuses for what I have done." Milich lowers his head, waiting for the deadly blow. "All I have to say is that I'm sorry."
"This man is not to blame." Ranma says with his head bent low. "Milich?" He raises it enough to look at the general. "Will you join us?" Milich looks up at Ranma with disbelief at what he hears.
"How can you ask him to join us?" Viktor gets in Ranma's face. "The man killed Gremio."
Flik puts a hand on Viktor's shoulder. "Viktor…ours is not to question the Leader's decision."
"He is not like us, dear brother." Racqel puts a hand on Viktor's other shoulder. "Demanding blood isn't always the answer."
Viktor looks at the both of them. "All right." The big man sighs.
Later that night
Flik finds himself in the house at Kaku. Racqel had talked him into going back there, but she had not told him why. The answer comes when he hears Jason yelling outside. "Will you unhand me?"
"Come on." Viktor's voice could also be heard. "You and your brother need to talk."
"What for?" The door is thrown open and Jason is forcefully brought inside.
"I said bring him here." Racqel shakes her head. "Not drag him."
Jason yanks his arm from Viktor and runs up to her. "Oh, so this is your idea, huh?"
"In a way." Racqel pushes him back. "I think you and your brother need to talk."
"We have nothing to talk about." Flik crosses his arms and turns his back to Jason.
"Oh come on." Racqel turns Flik around. "You guys talked down at Milich's castle."
Flik won't look at Jason. "That was fluke."
"If he doesn't want to talk to me, fine! I really don't want to talk to him either." Jason says as he crossed his arm and turns his back. Now Jason and Flik had their backs to each other.
"Odessa's dead." Racqel says flatly.
Jason whips around and looks at her. "You're joking." He gets in her face.
Racqel glares at him. "Do I look like I would joke about something like that?"
"No, even you are not dumb enough to pull something like that out." Jason puts a hand on Flik's shoulder. Flik knocks it off. "Flik…"
"What do you care?" Flik whips around and glares at Jason. "All you're going to do is tell me to take it like a man. Right?" Racqel backs away to join her brother at the front door.
Jason has sorrow in his eyes. "No."
"N…no?" Flik cannot believe what he sees and hears.
"Of course not. I know what she meant to you." Jason puts both hands on Flik's shoulders. "You named your sword after her and everything." He tries to pull Flik into a hug.
"Who are you and what did you do with my brother?" Flik pushes Jason away from him. "You are a jerk and a bully. This…this is not you."
"You really think I'm a jerk?" Jason was taken back. "How could you think I was like that? I was always standing up for you."
"Gee, it was hard to tell." Flik takes a step back from Jason. "Remember when your friends took my bandanna?"
"I told you, those boys were not my friends." Jason says sternly. "And if I recall, when I came back with that bandanna I had a black eye." Jason ran his fingers through his hair with a bit of frustration. "When you came in covered in mud saying a bunch of guys took your bandanna, I went out to get it back. I ended up getting into a fistfight over it. One of the boys got lucky and got a smack in before I smashed him into the same puddle you got pushed in. And what was the reward I got for it? A warm butt and housework for the next two weeks. One for fighting and the other for being wrongly accused of taking your bandanna."
"Really?" Flik is surprised for a moment, but then it fades away to anger. "What about the pushing around and the insults? Or how about the 'act like a man' stuff?"
"You were favored, because you were the youngest in the family. It was my job to make sure you stayed out of trouble and look good in eyes of our parents." Jason explains. "I pushed you around and insulted to toughen you up for the boys outside. I knew they wouldn't go easy on you. The 'act like a man' stuff was in preparation for when you would get it from father. If I didn't really care about you, do you think I would have stayed around Warrior Village waiting for you to start your 'Journey of Manhood'?"
"You were waiting for me?" Flik was back to looking surprised. "I figured you were too lazy to go right away."
"No." Jason shook his head and smiled, but the smile soon faded away. "When you met up with Odessa, and I saw how things were going between the two of you, I thought it time to take my leave." He heaves a heavy sigh before continuing. "That is till I heard about this war that you guys were going to start. Then I knew I couldn't leave yet. I knew that I should be around just in case."
"Oh." Flik looked at the ground, rubbing his right arm with his left hand. Jason sighs and tries again to hug Flik. This time the Blue Thunder lets him and cries into his older brother's chest.
"I think we better go." Racqel whispered to Viktor.
Viktor nods. "Yeah…"
Racqel had gotten the Blinking Mirror from Ranma and left it at the house for the brothers to use when they were ready to come back to the castle. Viktor follows Racqel out of the house, closing the door behind him. For the two of them it was a leisurely boat ride under the starlit sky. When they get back to the castle Racqel goes to her room to drop off her weapons. She and Viktor planned to spend time with their uncle, drinking and talk about what had happen so far. She enters the room to find a letter sitting on her bed. Racqel picks it up and a sweet smell comes up to her nose. She opens the letter up to read it. Her cheeks turn a slight pink when she blushes and her lips spread into a smile on her face. Racqel looks around outside her room to see if anyone was lurking around. When she found no one there she runs down stairs to the tavern on the first floor.
"Viktor." Racqel pants when she reached the table that her brother and uncle sat at. "Look, look." She holds the letter in front of his face.
"What?" Viktor takes the letter from her and reads it. An eyebrow rises as he looks at her. "A love letter?" Racqel nods as she sighs happily. "I dunno." He gives her a skeptical look.
Racqel gives him a light slap across his shoulder. "Don't ruin my moment."
Flik comes into the tavern with Jason following behind him. "Mind if we join you guys?"
"No." Viktor starts to hand the letter back to Racqel when Jason snatches it from him.
"If I could catch the thief that stole the stars to put in your eyes, I would thank him." Jason looks at Racqel sighing. "How pathetic is that? Why would anyone be interested in someone like you?" Racqel snatches the letter from him and storms out of the tavern.
Flik claps at Jason move. "That was lovely."
"Oh shut up." Jason yanks a chair out and sits in it.
Viktor has a curious look on his face. "I wonder who this secret admire is?"
"Who cares?" Jason grumbles.
A week later
Everyday throughout the week Racqel had been coming to her room to find a new letter sitting on her bed. She would pick it up and smell it before reading. Each smell was delightful to her nose. After reading the letter Racqel would fall on her bed with it held close to her chest.
One day the young woman was in her room with a new letter in her hands. There was a loud knocking on the door. "Who is it?" Racqel held her breath, hoping it was her secret admire.
Instead Flik's head pops into the room. "Emergency meeting." The Blue Thunder said urgently. "Teo is attacking with his Armor Calvary."
"What?" Racqel jumped to her feet. "Oh man." She comes out of her room and follows Flik to the Meeting Area.
Already in the room was Ranma, Sanchez, Mathiu, Viktor, and a ninja dressed in pink. The ninja introduced herself as Kasumi and told how the imperials have attacked her village home. Even with the help of her chief, Kasumi barely escaped. Now she was here to tell the Liberation Army that Teo's army was coming their way.
"We must go to battle." Mathiu informs Ranma.
At first the young leader was reluctant to take on his father, but knew what had to be done. "Fine." Ranma said at last, there was sadness in his eyes.
Once assembled the Liberation was out and ready to take on Teo's Armored Calvary head on. Even with their best effort the Liberation Army could not make even a dent on any armor the men wore. Nor could they fall any of the strange armored creatures those men rode. Soon the battle just turned into a bloody massacre, showing both sides who was going to win. When Mathiu sounded the retreat, the Liberation Army ran back towards Tigeress castle with the Armored Calvary Army close behind them.
Just as Teo's army was about to catch up with the retreating army, Pahn decided to stay behind. He was going to take on Ranma's father and buy everyone time to get back in the safe walls of the castle. Ranma and Cleo protested to the brawler's idea, but Pahn insisted on doing what he could.
"Back near the beginning of this war, I turned on you Young Master." Pahn says to both of them. "I caused you to lose your best and most cherished friend. Then, when I saw the error of my ways and asked to join up your cause, you welcomed me in with open arms. Now is my chance to repay you back for that kindness." In the end, Pahn was left to do as he pleased while everyone ran back to the safety of Tigress castle. Sometime later, Pahn came back to the castle safe, but winded.
In the Meeting Room
Flik paces the floor after the wounded were back and taken care of. "What are we going to do?"
"We have to think of something." Viktor rubs his chin.
"Well there is nothing we can do about it now." Mathiu says gravely. "Let us gets some rest and think about things in the morning."
Everyone sighs as they leave the room. Flik, Jason, Viktor, and Severus head down to the tavern for a strong alcoholic belt to numb the misery of defeat. Racqel goes to her room with hopes that there would be another letter there to cheer her up. Maybe this letter would be the one to tell her who her secret admirer was. She opens the door and looks at her bed. There sat a dress with a letter on top of it. The letter said, "Since tonight might be our last night, I thought it would be best to finally meet. Please wear this dress and meet me at the docks tonight." Racqel tosses the letter to one side and picks up the dress. It was a white polyester one-piece dress with a sleeveless top and a tight mini skirt. In a flash Racqel changed from her regular clothes into the dress. The skirt held her legs together so tight that it was hard to walk, especially with the shiny black two inch high heels that came with it. There was a black veil that went around the skirt area.
Racqel questioned the taste of her secret admirer. But she figures that since he spent money on the dress for her, the least she could do was wear it. She walks from her room to the elevator. Because she wanted to show her dress off to her family and friends, Racqel rode down to the first floor. She waltzes into the tavern as best she could. Everyone looked at her with jaws dropped. "What do you think?" Racqel asked with a smile on her face.
Viktor didn't know what to say. "Well…"
"It's…um…" Flik tried to look for the right words. Severus said nothing, figuring silence was best at the moment.
"Well if nobody is going to say it, I will." Jason gets up and looks her in the face. "You look ridiculous."
"Oh what do you know?" Racqel yells at him. She whips around and storms out of the tavern.
"You're just making a fool of yourself." Jason yells after her. Racqel ignores him as she goes back to the elevator. She rides it down to the bottom floor and walks out to the docks.
Being that it was late fall, it was pretty cold out. Racqel could feel Goosebumps rise on her arms and legs as she shivered. She looks around for the guy to show up. While searching, Racqel spies a square box with a tag that had her name on it. After going over to the box and opening it, a mechanical doll with three heads pops out. As she tried to make out what the heads of the doll looked like, the doll grabbed the calf of her right leg and locks its hand together. She goes to pull the doll off when she sees there is a note in its three mouths. Racqel takes the note and reads it out loud. "Now our revenge begins."
The doll start to say something, but she could not hear what it was. She tries to pull it off to find that it won't. The volume of the doll's voice rises loud enough for her to hear. "Hey, hey. See this chick? She's as thick as a brick." Racqel tries again to pull the doll off and the volume rise up a bit more. "Hey, hey. See this chick? She's as thick as a brick."
Racqel goes back into the castle. With the extra light from the torches inside she was able to see the faces of the dolls. One was Juppo, the middle one was Krin, and last one was Gen. Racqel goes to the elevator and pushes the button. The doors open to show Sergei is in there with tools in hand. He tells her the elevator is broken, because someone recently cut some of the electrical wiring it needs and it was going to take some time to fix. Panicked, Racqel grabs one of Sergei's screwdrivers and tried to pry the doll's hands apart.
However, the only think that moved did was make the voice of the doll rise even more.
"HEY, HEY. SEE THIS CHICK. SHE'S AS THICK AS A BRICK!" Now the doll echoed throughout the bottom floor. Some people come up from the basement to see what was going on. Racqel drops the screwdriver and runs for the stairs. She tries to climb them, but the skirt of the dress was so tight that she's couldn't raise her legs. Racqel gives the doll one more tug with the hope that maybe now it would release her. "Hey, hey. See this chick. She's as thick as a brick!" No luck, the doll's volume goes up another notch and now it echoed through the staircase. Tears are streaking down the young woman's face, because she was so embarrassed. In desperation Racqel tears the skirt to free her legs. The tear goes all way up to show her undergarments. She ditches the high heels and runs up the stairs. People look at her as she get to the first floor and runs into the tavern.
"HEY, HEY. SEE THIS CHICK. SHE'S AS THICK AS A BRICK!" The doll yells along the way. Viktor and the other at his table look up to see her coming to them, crying.
"It won't come off." Racqel sobs, trying to lift her leg to Viktor.
"What the…!" The doll gets louder and people have to cover their ears to dim the noise. Viktor tries to pull again, causing the doll to get even louder still.
Flik stands up, pulling his sword from its scabbard. He was going to try to cut it off when a sudden flaming arrow flies across the table and hits the doll. The arrow causes the doll to burn enough for Viktor to pull it off Racqel's leg. He throws the doll onto the ground, where it lay to burn. Racqel looks over at Jason, but he looks way from her. More tears streak down her face as she looks around the room. People were trying hard to stifle their laughs. Racqel felt so humiliated that she runs from the tavern, up the stairs, and locks herself in room to cry.
Back at the tavern Viktor was snarling as he glared around the room. He just dared anyone to laugh at the expense of his young sister. "When I get my hands on the people who did this, I'll…" Every one of his knuckles cracked as Viktor clutched his hands tightly. Suddenly finding the whole incident not very funny anymore, people figured that being elsewhere would be safer and left the tavern quickly.
"Calm down nephew." Severus motions Viktor to sit down. "You need a level head to think about this."
Viktor grunts as he picks up the scorched doll and throws it on the table. Severus pokes at the doll with his wand to see if it will do anything now. The doll just lays there, quiet and smoking. Meanwhile Flik was sitting in his seat, staring at his sword. Something about the flames and his sword had started something in his head. "What are you thinking?" Viktor asks.
Flik puts the sword away, a bright smile on his face. "I think I've come up with away to get Teo's army."
Viktor looks at him with curiosity. "What's that?"
"I'll tell you tomorrow." Flik gets up from the table. "I have to talk to Mathiu right away." He leaves the tavern in a hurry.
Viktor turns to look at Jason. "Thanks."
"Whatever." Jason grumbles; he looked pissed.
The next day Viktor came to Racqel's room. She is lying in her bed, face buried in her pillow and the covers pull over her head. "You ok?" Racqel doesn't move. "Um…Flik has come up with a way to fight Teo's army." Viktor comes over to her bed and sits on the edge of it. He sees the dress crumbled up in the corner of the room. "He remembers the Fire Spear blueprints that Odessa left. A group has gone to the secret factor to get them."
"That's nice." Racqel mumbles.
Viktor tries to pull the blankets back. "Do you want something to eat?"
"No." Racqel grabs the blankets and pulls them down around her head. "I just want to be left alone."
"To sit around and mope about this means that they win." Viktor puts a hand on her back.
Racqel moves her back, trying to get his hand off. "Don't care."
"This isn't like you." Viktor says with a worried tone in his voice. "When did you care what everyone thinks?"
"Since I became enemy number one here." Racqel turns rolls over and sits up. Her eyes were red and her hair was a mess of tangles going everywhere. "Not many people like me here and some how I seem to set them off. Like Onil, if I know her, she's probably going around gossiping about this. She's hated me since I told Cleo and Pahn about her listening in on them."
"Well, I think Cleo dealt with her." Viktor smiles in hopes that it would bring Racqel some comfort.
"Then there is Krin. He's mad that he can't steal from me. Juppo, who can't play a joke on me." Racqel starts to cry and Viktor hands her a tissue. "Plus there is Gen. He's pissed off that I showed him up at Teien." She sniffles. "They got me. It was their faces on that doll. They threaten to get me and they got me."
Viktor puts a hand up to his chin. "Juppo…Krin…Gen…?"
Racqel wipes her eyes. "What is it?"
"I don't know. It could be nothing, but…" Viktor looks at her. "Ranma had Jason, Flik, Tai Ho in the group for the mission to the secret factory. Jason insisted that those three should also be in the group. I was wondering why."
Three days later Viktor has managed to get Racqel to come out of her room and go out to the docks to wait for the return of group that went to the secret factory. As they wait Racqel was hugs Viktor's arm and had buried her face in it. With his free arm Viktor smooth her hair. "It'll be ok." He tells her.
The boat docks at the pier. The first to leave the boat were Juppo, Gen, and Krin. Their eyes were baggy and it looked like they haven't slept in days. As the three past Racqel they bow slightly before running away. She was confused as to what that was all about.
Next to come out were Flik, Jason, and Ranma. "You ok?" Flik asked Racqel when he came up to her and she nods.
"First day out since…" Viktor tells Flik and he nods. Jason hurries past them, not even stop to talk. It look like he was carrying something, but nobody saw what it was.
After a brief battle discussion in the Meeting Area the Liberation army went out to fight Teo's army once again. The secret weapon worked great on the Armored Cavalry. They were spears with flaming points and they were hot enough to penetrate the armor. Also, on the plus side, fire would shoot out of the spears wherever they were pointed. Now it was Liberation Army's chance to massacre Teo's Armored Cavalry.
The battle brought some joy to Racqel. She was able to forget the past events and relieve her stress on the imperial soldiers. However depression come back when Racqel had to watch Ranma fight his own father and then watch one of the five great generals die in arms of his son. Tired and weary from the event of the day, Racqel goes up to her room. All she wants to do was bury herself deep under the covers of her bed. But she couldn't, because on her bed was a white box tied with a red ribbon tied around it and a white rose sitting on top of it. Furious that someone was cruel enough to try to pull another prank on her, Racqel takes the box and hurls it out of her room.
A shadow in the stairwell watches as the airborne box flew from her room and land by the doorway of the stairwell. "Hey Jason. What's the matter?" Flik came up to see Jason staring at the box. Jason doesn't look at him as he goes down the stairs, but Flik could see his older brother was hurt. Flik shrugs as he goes the rest of the way up the stairs. He sees the box that Jason was looking at; the white rose was still stuck in it. "Wonder where this came from?"
"Racqel's room." Cleo came over to where the box lay. "Can't she ever cut a break?"
Flik looks at her. "What do you mean?"
"Well look." Cleo points at the box. "There's no name of who it's from. It was just left in her room as far as I know. Who's going to fall for the same trick twice?"
"But what if it's not a trick?" Flik picks up the box.
Cleo looks at the blue man with a curious look. "Excuse me?"
"Jason…" Flik mutters to himself. He walks over to Racqel's room, leaving Cleo to ponder what he was thinking. Flik knocks on the door. "Racqel? Can I talk to you?"
Racqel calls out to him. "Door's open." Flik opens it and walks in to see her sitting on her bed. "What are you doing with that box?" She glares at him.
"Because I think you're making a mistake." Flik sets the box down on the table that was in there.
Racqel looks away from the box. "I'm not falling for it again."
Flik takes the chair from the table and sits across from Racqel. "Do you know why Gen, Juppo, and Krin looked like they haven't slept in a while?" Racqel shook her head. "Jason sat up with them at the fire first night out there, sharpening his new sword. They bragged about the joke they played on you. They laughed about it, till Jason said, 'I hope you know how to sleep with one eye open.' Then he used the fire to flash his sword at them. I never saw anyone shut up so quickly. They looked at him as he gave glare and an evil grin back, the fire dancing off his face." Flik started to laugh. "From that point on they decided to forgo sleep for the rest of the trip." He looks over at Racqel, who was now looking at the box. "Oh yeah. When we got back to Kirov, Jason went into this shop and came out with a box. A box that looked exactly like the one you're looking at, now that I think about it." Racqel looks at Flik and he smiles. "Anyway, I think it was a mistake throw it out without giving it a look." He shrugs and leaves the room.
Cleo comes from her room over to Flik. "So is it another joke?" Flik shrugs and goes down the stairs. Though confused, Cleo decides to go back to her room and keeps an eye out to see what might happen.
Some time later a young boy comes up to Racqel's room. "You sent a message to my parents?" The young boy asks. Cleo heard the boy and looks out of her room to see what was going on.
"Yes." Racqel hands the boy a white box with a red ribbon. "Take this and sell it. Keep the money."
The boy looks at her curiously. "You sure lady?"
"I'm positive." Racqel ushers the boy to go. "Take it and sell it. Or give to someone. I don't care. I never want to see that thing again." The boy shrugs and runs down the stairs with the box clutched in his arms. Racqel goes back into her room and closes the door.
Cleo was very curious as to what was in that box, so she runs after the boy. Unfortunately the boy was too fast for her to catch up with. By the time Cleo reaches him, he is on a boat back to where he came from. She sighs and decides to go to the tavern since she was down there. In the tavern were Jason, Flik, Viktor, Pahn, and Severus sitting at a table. Cleo comes over to join them. Jason was sitting slouched in his chair, staring at his cup forlornly.
"Hey Cleo." Pahn waves to her. "What brings you around here?"
"Um…a box." Cleo says timidly.
Flik looks at her. "What about it?"
Cleo fidgets with her hands. "Well…Racqel just had it sent away." Jason shoot right up, his eyes are wide open. "She had some boy take it to sell or give away." Jason slaps his forehead and throws himself back in his chair. "What's the matter? Was it something I said?" Cleo looks at him with shock.
"How stupid could I be?" Jason asked himself. "I should have known better than to try something like that."
"What? What?" Cleo asked.
Jason lays his forehead down on the table. "I was the one who left the box in her room." He starts to bang it. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." Panic, Cleo moves over to him and pulls him back. "I thought it would…"
Flik looks over at his brother. "What was in that box?"
Jason put his chin on the table and folded his arms around his head. His mouth was press against his wrist. "A dress." He says through his wrist.
"You bought her a dress! After what she been through!" Cleo scolded.
"I thought if I got her a better looking dress…" Jason buries his face into his arms. "And that's not the most stupid thing I've done."
Viktor looked at the man in red with surprised. "There's more?" Jason nods and points a thumb to the sword on the back of his chair. "You didn't…" Viktor grabs the sword and pulls it out of its scabbard. "You…when?" Written on Jason's sword was Racqel.
"Just before we left for the trip." Jason tells him. "Meese finished making my new sword in time, but I decided to have her name put into it."
"Without asking?" Viktor looks at the top of Jason's head.
"I figure if she knew she would return my feelings." Jason sighed.
"So that's why Juppo, Gen, and Krin were so freaked when you flashed your sword at them with the fire light." Flik smiled. "They saw the name and knew they step too far." Jason nodded.
"Well…maybe there is time." Cleo looks at everyone. "Maybe if Racqel knew, she could get it back." She runs out of the tavern and up the stairs. Cleo bangs on Racqel's door when she gets there only get no answer.
"She's not there." Onil said snotty.
Cleo looks at the woman. "Where is she?"
"I don't know, she had her bath stuff with her." Onil points at the stairs. "Took the stairs a while back."
Cleo thanked the gossipy woman, takes a deep breath, and runs back down the stairs to the first floor to the baths. "Racqel…" The blonde woman calls in. "Racqel, we have to talk."
"Talk to me while I get dress." Racqel calls out to her.
"That box…the one you sent away." Cleo calls to her. "It's from Jason."
"So?"
"He brought you a dress."
"So?"
"He bought it for you cause he loves you."
"So?"
"Racqel!" Cleo yelled. "He named his sword after you."
"Really?"
"Yes, you need to get that box back."
"Don't want that box back."
"But…"
Racqel comes out to Cleo. "But what?" She is standing in a silk red Chinese dress, with a large white rose on the front and its green stem winding around her waist and down the skirt that reached her ankles. There are two slits on the side revealing silk black pants, white socks, and black Chinese shoes. Racqel also wore a black hooded cape; the bottom reached her ankles also. Her brown hair had a straight line going down the middle and it was up in one bun on the right side with white cloth around it. A white ribbons tied the cloth to the bun, its ends reached all the way down to her rear. She was trying to put the other side up when she walked out. "What do you think?"
Cleo looked stun and amazed at the same time. "Jason chose that for you?"
"Surprising isn't it?" Racqel twirls around to show the entire outfit to Cleo. "He has good taste and he knows my size."
"So the box that you had sent out?" Cleo asked.
"Had the other dress in it." Racqel laughed. "I don't expect much from it, so that's why I didn't care what happens." Racqel continued to work with her hair. "I'll be out in a moment."
"Uh…right. He's at the tavern." Cleo tells Racqel and then walks out. Quickly she goes over to the tavern. "Won't Jason be surprised?" She whispers to herself with glee. When Cleo got back to the tavern, she sees Jason get up to leave. "Where are you going?" She asked him.
"I'm going to bed." Jason mumbles to her. "I'm too depressed to drink anymore."
Cleo gets in his way. "But you can't."
"Why not?" Jason tries to walk around her.
"Because…" Cleo moves to stay in front of him. "Because it's obvious that you really need another drink. Perhaps a strong belt of something."
"Well, I don't want one." Jason finally managed to gets around Cleo and goes out the door. Cleo goes to chase after the young man when he stops. He stares out of the tavern to see Racqel is standing in front of him. Her hair was now in two evenly leveled buns.
"Hi." Racqel says timidly to him. She blushes a little and looks at the ground.
Jason blushes and puts a hand behind his head. "Hi."
Racqel slowly looks up at him. "I hope I complement the dress."
"N…no." Jason sees her start to look hurt. "The dress complements you." The red in her face darkens, causing him to blush even more. There is silence between them, but it gets broken with the purring of kitty Luna rubbing against Jason's ankles.
"Oh…Luna!" Racqel bends down and takes the cat from the young man's ankles.
"It's ok." Jason pets the cat. "You want…want to go to the roof and look at the stars?"
"Uh…ok." Racqel nods slowly.
"Great…" Jason takes her hand and they walk to the stairs. "I need to stop at my room for a moment." He tells her a floor before the roof.
Jason run over to his room and comes back with a guitar and a blanket. He takes her hand again to lead her up to the roof. After spreading the blanket out Jason sits down first, cross-legged, and pulls Racqel toward him down into his lap. Luna jumps from her arms and goes back down stairs. Racqel blushes as she sits in his lap. Jason takes his gloves off and hands them to her to hold. Afterwards, he sits his guitar on her lap before starting to play it. Racqel leans back on him and he rests his chin on her shoulder to sing softly in her ear. His voice was soft, a low tenor. Racqel sighs as the words and the music floats to her ears. Jason continues to play the guitar, but stops singing to kiss her neck. She turns around so that she is sitting sideways on his lap. The guitar is hugged into her side as she was looking at him. They close their eyes and kiss.
"Bout time." Viktor whisper to Flik as they peek from the staircase doorway.
"Tell me about it." Flik whispers back. "Though, I never knew Jason could play the guitar and kiss at the same time."
"Leave them alone." Cleo grabs Flik and Viktor by the ears and drag them down the stairs. "What is wrong with you? Let them have some privacy."