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Orbs of Emerald

Chapter 11: Happiness

***

Dirken sighed as he watched the Orb he held in his hands glow faintly. One of those three was the Keeper, he could feel it in his heart. He had finally figured out that Jonathon's dream was not a place on Earth, rather was a person, a Keeper.

The way that girl had spoken to him, it reminded him of Angel and Kylie. He hoped that she wouldn't be the Keeper so that he could get rid of her right away. He didn't like her attitude and he certainly hadn't liked the way her blue eyes had flashed, making her look like Angel so much it had ached in his cruel black heart when he'd recalled how close he'd been to having the black-haired Saiyan girl.

The way she had cried out for her brother like that, though...it had touched even him. To think that that little girl cared so much about the kid that she had just broken her entire pride out in the open like that. What was it about friends and siblings that people cared so much about? What was it that he, the mighty Prince Dirken, missed? Even from his own older brother, Dabura?

As Angel's Yin-Yang Theory had suggested, even his black heart held a little pink to it. However, there was no way he'd allow himself to lose again. He would rule over this and the Z world and all the other dimensions that had double-crossed him so long ago.

He would succeed, even if it killed him. Again.

***

"Jonathon?!" I asked incredulously.
"Be quiet, sis!" he waved his hand frantically. "Nakami, Rodriegiuz, open the door, quickly!"
"But sir!" protested Rodriegiuz.

"Look, that's my sister and her friends in there," Jon growled at them. "I was only acting when I said I didn't know her, now let her out! Dirken will figure out soon, hurry up!"

"Yes, sir, right away," Nakami scrambled to get the key into the door.

"Sis, the mushy stuff can wait," Jonathon ordered as the door flung open. "Come on, this way. My craft is waiting. Rodriegiuz, can you cover for us?"

"Yes, sir," the man stood tall. "I would do anything to help retain our peace."
"Thank you, Rodriegiuz," Jon nodded quickly, then began running quietly. His feet were so quick and nimble and silent that even those of us who had been trained to do this were impressed.

"Jon, how'd you figure out it was me with all the makeup on?" I whispered. "And without your memories?"
"I've had my memories the whole time, Jem," he whispered back as he looked around a corner. "Thanks to a particular ex-Gundam pilot by the name of Trowa Barton."
"Hey, our man got in deep!" Duo commented, laughing slightly.

"Duo, hush!" Rei scolded him softly.

We met no one along the path to Jon's spaceship, which was a miracle in itself. Rei and Nakami stood back and kept a lookout as we boarded, called the Emerald Angel. Duh, wonder why?

I don't know who was flying the ship, but we were on our way before anyone came along. Rei and Nakami boarded at the last second as the hatch closed.

"Who's flying this thing?" Duo shouted.
"A friend!" Jon answered, laughing. "Trowa. Duh."
"Brother, why did you hide for so long?" I asked even as we lifted off and the rockets flared.

"Because it would have become very, very suspicious if I tried to escape. Unfortunately, Dirken found out about my prophetic dreams before Trowa came and helped me revive my memories. I didn't even know my own Captain was actually the goddess Hawatari," he laughed. "I planned nearly this whole thing just so I could escape. With the exception of one thing." He blushed.
"And what's that?" I asked, exasperated. "You ding bat, do you know how worried I was? I mean, come on, did you have to make me think you were dead for two and half months?!"
"Actually, it was only two months and ten days," he pointed out.
"I don't care! Why'd you do it!"

"Well...I sorta started having these weird dreams when we were thirteen," he shrugged. "The only reason I was so excited about the Gundam melting my hand was because I'd dreamt all about it the night before it happened. And that's also why I wanted to join the military because I knew I was destined to do it. Well...I think that Dirken wasn't supposed to be here, because in my dream, I died, but because I did, you met your soul mate and got married and had a kid and if I didn't, well...we both died."
"So the whole thing was based on your dreams?!" I shouted. "Did you absolutely go bonkers or something, Jonathon, you idiot, you baka, you blooming fool-"
"Jem, you can stop right there," Jon said, laughing. "I know it was a dumb idea, but I'd rather have died then anyway then live with the fact that dad didn't like you."

"Jonathon..." I muttered, shaking my head.
"But he is right," Rei said. "He is what we call an anomaly. He knows what the fates have predicted and he knew right away that Dirken did not belong here."
"What do you mean, he doesn't belong?" Duo asked disbelievingly.

"He's from the dimension of the seven Dragonballs," Rei answered. "He was locked away in a part of the dimension that was said to be inescapable, but since he is a demon, he was able to use his powers of body-hopping to escape it, though he left his body behind. He's been trying to destroy everything since he was born, but now he's a new goal; to take over all the dimensions instead of destroying them, which he can do if he gets both Orbs in his possession."

"Okay, okay, can someone please explain this whole thing to me step-by-step?" Nakami broke in.

We did.

"Oh."

"So now what do we do?" I whined aloud.
"We do what I told you to do in the first place," Rei answered as though it were obvious. "We make you a righteous person and fulfill Jonathon's promise."

***

Once everyone had calmed down and things had been explained, I set to the tedious and painful task of fixing poor Heero and Duo. Jonathon came over and offered his hand in the job and was put to work helping Duo regain his original hair color. I was working on getting Heero's dark brown hair back from his black.

"You were right," he commented quietly as he watched Duo and Jon work together, talking and laughing like excited schoolboys. They got along so well, even I was impressed. Jonathon normally wasn't so talkative.

"About?" I asked as I brushed the black dye from his hair. It wasn't often that Heero spoke willingly, so I took full advantage of it.

"Your brother. He does look like Maxwell." Throwing a glance toward them, I smiled and nodded.

"You didn't think I'd forget what my brother looks like, did you?"

"You don't forget things very often to begin with," Heero countered. "So I am wondering why you did not know that your brother was acting." So that's it. That was why he was talking.

"Simple," I sighed. "He was always tricking me in one way or another to believe a thousand things that weren't true."
"As in?"

"Well...one time he fooled me into believing that rain was actually angels crying," I smiled at the memory. "It was pouring outside and the thunder and lightning was quick and loud. He told me that the thunder was the angels' sobs and the lightning was their anger shot from their fingertips. He convinced me that if I ever went out in a storm, I would be killed and become a ghost."

"Why did he tell you those things?"

"We didn't have much else to do," I explained with a sigh as I brushed the last bits of black from his hair. I wished profusely that I hadn't cut it. His eyes were so blank and without emotion that it would make one cry just to look in them. "There were times in our lives that we wished we could die and go away forever, just to escape. But then we'd remember that we wouldn't be able to kill ourselves at the precisely same nanosecond and we might be separated. We always were together, until that day in Nara."
"Nara...I regret that place every time I hear its name," Heero closed his eyes and refused to look me in the eye.

"Don't, Heero," I said softly. "Don't. I don't. And you want to know why?"

"Why?" he repeated, sounding baffled.

"Because if Jonathon hadn't run to see you," I paused to take a deep breath. "I would never have met you and I would have never had the insight to be trained. And Dirken would have taken over this world long, long ago."

On the other side of the room, Rei watched the scene with a smile on her face. Already time seemed to have devoured her, but time between Heero and Jem and Jon and Duo had stopped almost completely.
"Two steps closer to your goal, little Jem," Rei whispered softly to herself. "And two more for you to know."

***

The arrival at Quatre's mansion was a grim one as we all stepped off the Emerald Angel and headed inside, where we met with Wufei and Quatre. Both were shocked to see us, half-way back to normal and accompanied by three new people who they were not accustomed to. However, both were quite wary of Jon, because he and Duo looked like twins more than Jon and I did.

"Jem! Heero, Duo, what's going on? Who are these people?" Quatre asked, worried and fearing the worst. "Trowa? Are you back already?"

"Calm down, Quatre, it's not like this is the first time we've brought strangers back here," Duo said, laughing.

"Uh...actually, Duo, it is," I pointed out. I turned back to Quatre. "Sorry, but we didn't have time to send a transmission." I smiled smugly and pulled my now-shy brother over, his white uniform still quite imposing. "I would like to introduce my twin brother. This is Jonathon, better known as Jon."
"Y-Your brother?" Quatre stuttered.

"It's a long story, buddy," Duo droned out the word long. "Believe me, it's gonna take a while to explain that one."
"And this is one of the X Force's ex-Lieutenants, I guess you'd call him," I laughed nervously. "This is Nakami."
"And I am Rei Nani," she put in. "But I suppose you'd know me better if I told you my true identity. I am the goddess Hawatari. This is my human form."

Wufei and Quatre both blinked repeatedly in surprise.
"Don't worry about those things," Rei said off-handedly. "You may call me Rei. That is my real first name, after all. I suppose I should explain things, since I am the one who knows the whole story."

"Be my guest," I muttered aloud.

"Let's sit down first," Trowa suggested.

"Yeah, like Duo said, this is a long one," I grimaced.

"Well, to start with, the original leader of the X Force is a demon who lacks his body. His name is Dirken and he comes from the dimension of seven stones, also known as the Z world," Rei began quietly. "It was his coming here that threw the entire prophecy of the Orbs out of balance when he inadvertently saved Jon's life for his own purposes. However, it was also through this that Jon's promise may come to pass after all, because it wouldn't have if Dirken hadn't come here in the first place."
"She's referring to the prophecy of the Orbs at the end of the legend saying that if one of evil mind gets a hold on the Orbs, this world belong to him," I put in.

"Yes," Rei nodded. "Now, Jon lost the majority of his memories through Dirken's destruction, but he claims that Trowa here helped revive them. I'm not quite certain what that means, though."

"I recognized him from Jem's description of her brother," Trowa put in. "I knew he would not have taken rank in the X Force's military purposefully, so I showed him a copy of the tape that Duo sent me of her, Quatre, and himself plotting the prank on Heero. It knocked the memories back into him."
"Plus made an interesting view of the pilot who shot my hand at Nara," Jon laughed. Heero gave him a Death Glare to end all Death Glares, piping him down in an instant.

"Yes, well, Jon made plans with Trowa to receive Duo and Heero as members of the X Force to allow their escape," Rei said. "But I'm not sure where it went wrong."
"I do," Jon said with a sigh. "I didn't expect the first Orb to react to Jem at such a great distance. I also did not anticipate having to leave the first behind."
"So, we're really in a fix now," Duo concluded glumly.

"Actually, if we can get Jem into a state of perfect righteousness, then she can easily summon the other Orb to her and it will be her choice alone as to what happens to this world and myself," Rei stated finitely. "But there are several things we must attend to in order for her to reach that state. And I cannot tell you what they are, Jem. You must discover them for yourself."

"This is going to be a nightmare," Jon moaned into his hand. "She has a million things she's afraid of!"

"Jonathon," I sang out sweetly. "Do you wanna die?"

"No, no, that's okay, that's really all right," he shook his hands quickly.
"Good."

***

Great. Just perfect. I groaned aloud as I walked down the beach once again. I had barely managed to escape the room alive during the discussion of different tactics of making me unafraid of various things. Do you know just how embarrassing it is to have each and every one of your fears played out before you, image after image and time after time? Not only was it making me red in the face from embarrassment, but it was also totally annoying to have Duo ask again and again if I was afraid of this or that.

"Why me?" I moaned. Walking aimlessly, I ended up at the pile of rocks that Heero and I had met on when we'd both slipped away from my little congrats party. I had changed out of the tight black jeans into normal ones and into a white T-shirt, keeping the jacket for warmth more than anything.
"Okay," I sighed quietly. "What am I afraid of? The dark, I know that. The deep, I know that. Heights. Too many things. And what about that promise Jon made to me?" What was the promise? He'd said a lot of things to me, including calling me a beautiful angel, fulfilling one of my great dreams. Was that it? To be called an angel in the best of times instead of the worst? But how could something so simple be the key that unlocked my righteousness?

A small sigh escaped my lips as I sank onto the same rock and stared into the oblivion that I loved so much. But I knew I loved something else more. I'd come to love my four trainers and even Trowa, who was away most of the time, as more than just my comrades.

And I loved Duo and Heero more than even just friends. Duo because he could make me laugh when everything else around me crumbled into oblivion and Heero...I loved him because he made me feel safe. Even now, when danger lurked only nanometers away, I felt as if he could protect me.

And I knew that my brother and my brothers-at-heart loved me. The simple knowledge that they cared enough to help me through this, though however annoying it may be, was enough. That's all that mattered to me, was their safety. Perhaps I could make a pact with that demon...maybe I could...

But no. Dirken wouldn't listen. He didn't understand the meaning of the word "brother" or "friend" and he certainly would double-cross me if I ever tried to barter with him. Going to the demon would only risk their lives more rather than guarantee their safety.

***

Heero walked aimlessly through the woods. He, too, was contemplating the words Rei had spoken of. What did she mean by Jonathon's promise? Was there something in Jem's past that needed to be healed? She had often said that she faced her fears head-on when she could. Was it something even she couldn't realize?

"How do you help someone achieve what they themselves don't realize they need?" he asked himself aloud. Then he wondered in silence why he'd reacted like that in the cell, when Jem had been so hard on herself.

"Hey, Heero. You too, huh?" asked the voice he knew too well. The other brown-haired boy grinned lankily at the Perfect Soldier. "She's something else, isn't she?"

"Whom?"

"Jem."

Heero remained silent.

"You love her," Duo stated calmly. "I can see it."
Silence.

"I love her too," Duo spoke again quietly. "There's something about her, something angelic. Heh, that's probably why her brother called her that as his last words to her."
"What?"

Nothing stopped the Perfect Soldier from speaking.

"Those were his last words to her," Duo repeated. "She told me that, when I was bring her here. 'I will see you in heaven, you beautiful angel, you.' Kinda funny, seeming how he always tried to call her Phoenix, ya know."

"Perhaps if we can ask her the meaning of this, we could find her brother's promise," Heero said, his monotone fully there.

"Darn it all, Heero!" Duo shouted suddenly, advancing on the Perfect Soldier with the full knowledge that he did not have his shotgun with him.

"W-What?" Heero stuttered, for almost the first time in his life. For the first time since he had "killed" Mariemeia Barton.

Duo began to sob uncontrollably, surprising Heero. The happy-go-lucky boy almost never cried.

"Heero, you love her, I can see it in your eyes," Duo cried softly, grinning disdainfully at the Perfect Soldier. "I can make her laugh, Heero. But only you can make her happy. Go make her happy, Heero. Just like you made Releena happy."

Heero stopped short and turned toward the other boy. He suddenly found himself flat against a tree.

"Go tell her, Yuy," Duo growled loudly, throwing Heero against the tree again with all the formerly-braided-boy's strength. "Or you're gonna lose her, too." Duo released him and stood back, watching the shocked expression on Heero's face diminish into determination. Both boys turned and walked away, Duo toward Quatre's mansion, Heero toward the rocks.
"Duo?" Heero called almost inaudibly toward the chocolate-haired boy. Duo stopped and looked back to regard the umber-haired boy. "Thanks."
"That's a first, Heero," Duo smirked back at him. "Now give her the second." He stalked off once again, never giving another glance back toward Heero as the other boy made his steady way toward the girl he loved.

"Make her happy, Heero," Duo mumbled under his breath. "Set the phoenix free again."

***

Staring out at the stars, I closed my eyes and let the wind take my hair into flight and let the waves serenade me. The tiny red, blue, and yellow suns of distant planets were positively stunning tonight. Time seemed to stop just for me to let me see each and every star in its own, remarkable beauty tonight.

A twig snapped and I stood up abruptly at the sound, pointing Heero's gun at whatever it was before it could approach any more. The barrel lowered slowly as I realized it was Heero.

"Hey," he called.

My eyes widened in shock (AN-She seems to do that a lot, huh?). Was this some trick? Some twisted joke Maxwell or Wufei came up with? Heero Yuy, Perfect Soldier, never said "hey".

"Hay's for horses, what do you want?" I snarled at him, surprised at my own fury toward his interruption. Why was I mad at him? The gun was still trained on him, even though it had loosened quite a bit since I'd first pointed it at him.

"To talk," he answered, walking nimbly toward me despite the gun. What was going on? Heero never wanted to talk.
"I don't want to talk about the stupid prophecy," I growled, pocketing the gun again. I sat back down on the rock roughly, my tailbone smashing into it. I winced in the dull pain from the earlier ones into the neo-titanium.

"I did not wish to."

"So what'd you come out here for?" I asked as he reached my side and sat down as well, closer than should have been comfortable.

"No reason in particular."

He did not speak again for a long time, so I continued my stargazing.

"Beautiful, aren't they? The stars, I mean."
"Yes. They remind me that I am not alone."

"Jon and I used to make pictures with the constellations as guides," I noted with a remembering smile.

"You draw?"

"Not very good," I blushed. Why was I blushing? It wasn't as if I was lying or anything. "But sometimes I could come up with something decent."
"I find that hard to believe."
"What?"

"Nothing," he gave a small sigh.

Silence prevailed.

"I'm sorry," I apologized suddenly.

"About?"

"The mission. It was my fault we failed. If I hadn't have gone, you guys would still be there."
"It was not your fault," Heero countered gently. "You were being human."

"And what would you know about being human, Perfect Soldier?" I asked, annoyed he'd brought my own words up against me.

"I guess it's because I'm not a Perfect Soldier after all," he smiled.

I stopped short, gawking at him. He was smiling. Not just a nanometer smirk. Not just the faintest hint of a smile. But a true, genuine, wide smile. The boy was smiling. He stopped about three seconds into it and turned to look back at the stars. But he continued speaking, and it was not a monotone. It sounded...grateful. There was no other word to describe it.

"You've taught me something, Jem," his words conveying true emotion. No monotone, no forced areas anywhere. Just a normal boy admitting he was wrong to a normal girl. Confessing something deep inside.

"And what could I have taught a Perfect Soldier?" I asked. "I thought you knew everything."
"No. Far from it, Jem. You've taught me that there is something more to my life than the mission. There is also brotherhood, peace, friendship, and...and love." He looked directly at me, into my green eyes and stared. Not an angry glare or an indifferent stare, but a loving, caring gaze that only a friend could give. Or something more...

What was he trying to say, though? That I was a good teacher of life? Was there more to what he was saying or was I stretching it far out of proportion?

"Why are you saying all of this, Heero?" I asked. "There must be a reason. You never talk this much without reason."

"Because...because..." he suddenly seemed at a major loss of words. I hoped beyond hope that they were the words I longed to hear from one person. I had silently begged those three words to move past his lips ever since he'd placed his gun between my eyes.

"Because why, Heero?" I prompted him.

He took a deep, steadying breath...

***

I wish I could be evil and leave it right there, but I can't bear to leave it any more than you can wait to find out.