Great Angel of Fire

Chapter 23

Everyone watched anxiously as Serena handed over the small vial to Amy, the small amount of crimson liquid inside it swishing innocently within. Amy held it up to the light, tapping the top with her fingernail to rid the fluid of bubbles.

"Well, it looks human enough," she observed. "Youma blood normally gives off an odd color when held up to the light." She closed her hand around it and held it protectively to her stomach, nodding at Serena. "I'll call in some favors and get it tested by forensics."

"Are you sure we can trust them?" Lita asked, leaning against the wall.

"Yeah," Rei agreed, "what if it...goes boom or something?"

"Like I said," Amy assured them, "I'll call in a few favors."

"But this is really good, that we have this evidence. Human or not, we could probably figure out what this person is capable of just by the DNA, right?" Kyo asked.

"Yes and no. If the blood belongs to a human we really won't be able to tell anything other than that it's human. Human blood is pretty bland compared to that of a youma," Amy explained. "But if this is youma, we can tell what race, what species, special powers, and all of that. Youma blood is much more complex, and with just a little bit of analysis it tells you so much more."

"So, depending on what the tests say, it could mean nothing," Emma said.

"Right, unfortunately."

"So what do we do now?" asked Mina.

"We wait," Darien said. "We pray. We prepare."

"Well as long as we're on the subject," Emma said sarcastically, "anybody else got bad news?"

Kyo's eyes flitted to the spot next to Emma, where Meggie normally sat. She was home, with Gabby, working on a way to strengthen some tradtional remedies for morning sickness so they would work on a powerful being such as Meggie and unnamed-fetus.

The damned cat had talked the two of them into keeping the whole situation clandestine for the time being, while she tried to work out how to make sure that they hadn't buggered up the future too much.

After this bit of information, the senshi decided to just sit around and chat. Kyo sat beside Emma. "How's Meggie feeling?"

"Like crap. She was puking all morning and most of the afternoon. She doesn't get sick often, but when she does she's sick," Emma replied, "You would think that her immune system would block out a bug that's going around when it heals gashes across her torso in minutes."

"Yeah..." Kyo agreed. Too bad this isn't your ordinary stomach flu.

"Kasadi is getting antsy," Emma said, changing the subject. "She hates being out of the loop with all of this. I told her to stay home today and take care of Meggie, and if she was a swearing person, she would have cussed me out like a sailor.....no pun intended."

Kyo smirked, but his mind was still on Meggie. He felt really guilty for all this. He knew that women who are pregnant got sick. But it was called Morning Sickness! Not Morning-Noon-And-Night Sickness.

"You know what I mean?" said Emma in conclusion of something Kyo hadn't caught due to the whole mind-elsewhere thing.

"Yeah," he said anyway.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emma walked through the door of the house at about noon, after the senshi meeting. She had been feeling slightly calmer about the whole situation now that they had SOME sort of evidence to go by. Or at least, they think they have evidence to go by.

After snagging the cookie jar from on top of the fridge--the place that cookies where hidden from Hotaka--she went upstairs to check on Meggie. She had made it up the stairs just as Kasadi was closing the door to Meggie's room.

"How's she feeling?"

"Icky Sicky," Kasadi replied,"She was throwing up all morning, and finally stopped long enough to fall asleep. I think she was up most of the night, so she's exhausted."

"I see. I hope it's not serious. Mom said that she'd take her to the doctor if she isn't better in the next two days."

"Yeah, I hope she gets better soon." Kasadi looked sympathetically at the closed door, as if she could see Meggie curled up in a little ball under her covers with her stuffed Koala, Edgar. "So, how was the meeting?"

"Well, Amy is taking the blood in for analysis," Emma replied, leading her to her own room, "She thinks it's human, which would be a huge bummer for us, but she's going to take it in anyway and see if there is even a slight mutation in the DNA."

"I see." Kasadi said, "Listen, Em. With Meggie being sick and all, and Rini still in Kyoto maybe-,"

"No, Kasadi." Emma cut her off, know exactly where she was going with this.

"Emma, please. I'm sick of sitting here by myself whyile the rest of you are getting your butts kicked. You need my help!"

"No Kasadi! We've been over this, it's too dangerous. If you go out there, someday, you are going to die. Whether it be your first mission, or your one-hundredth." Emma tried to explain once again to her, without losing her temper.

"I know that, but this is what I have to do. Just like you had to risk everything to make sure that you and Hoshiko, and Sam would have a future. I need to do this Emma!"

"I know where you're coming from Kasadi, I really do. And I'm not trying to be an uber-bitch about this, but it is my responsibility to make sure you stay safe."

"Who the heck determined that!?"

"Kas, you came here for school, not to lose your life fighting some psychopath bent on killing us all."

"I WANT TO FIGHT!" Kasadi screamed. Emma just stared at her, and a few moments later the door opened, with a very groggy looking Meggie standing in the threshold.

"What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

"Meggie, I want to fight." This woke her up.

"No, Kas. I'm sorry." She said sternly.

"I can't believe you two. When you found out I was senshi your were ecstatic."

"And then we found out that you being a senshi is a DEATH SENTENCE!" Emma yelled the last part, tears threatening to just start pouring.

"I'm going to fight, whether you like it or not." Kasadi said as she started for the door. "I'm not a child. I'm 15 years old. I know how to take care of myself. You can't stop me."

"Kasadi, where are you going?" Meggie asked, worriedly, tears forming. Ever since she had gotten "sick" her emotions were running rampant, making it so easy for her to start crying. Which we all know is so very not Meggie.

"I'm going out. I need space. I'll be back later." Kasadi said, before walking out the door. A few minutes later, Emma and Meggie heard the door downstairs slam.

"Dammit." Emma said.

"How did that happen?" Meggie asked.

"She wanted to help since you are out of commission, and Rini is out of town. I told her no,"

"She's going to snap soon, Ems. You know that. What just happened was just the beginning."

"I know, I know. But if we're really lucky, that youma blood will be the beginning to getting rid of Shadow."

"I hope you're right."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

SSS: Please don't kill us. We are really really really really really really sorry. But Junior year kills the sooooullll!!!!!!!

we're trying guys. sorry for the delay in (and shortness of) the post. really.