Chibodee, still riding high from his win over Argo, heard the slightest of noises behind him. Sensing the kick directed at the back of his head, he ducked away and blocked with a smile, thinking it was Asherah; she hadn't congratulated him yet, and she had an uncanny ability of always being able to track him down.
The smile melted off his face. His attacker was a man; furthermore, one Chibodee had never seen before.
The failed kick seemed to have annoyed him; his lips were pressed tightly together, and his brow was furrowed and eyes narrowed in a look of displeasure.
"Hey, man!" Chibodee protested. "What's wrong with you?"
His mysterious adversary didn't deign to reply; instead, he blitzed the Gundam fighter with so many punches and kicks that it was all Chibodee could do to block. "C'mon, cut it out! I haven't done anything to you!"
A low growl, muffled thud, and whoosh of air sounded; talking had caused Chibodee a distraction he couldn't really afford, and enabled the other man to land a forceful fist into Chibodee's gut before he could do anything but tighten his muscles.
All right. the Neo- American thought coldly. I tried to be nice. He quit concentrating solely on defense and pressed forward.
His assailant blocked every punch Chibodee threw; with the last one, however, Chibodee brought up his leg to kick at the man's ribs. When he blocked, the Gundam fighter changed direction at the last second and scored a kick on his jaw instead. He was backed up a step; Chibodee dropped that leg and snaked the foot of the other around his enemy's ankle. With a jerk of his leg, the man was brought down.
That didn't mean he was out for the count. He managed to kick Chibodee so hard in the shins that his eyes watered, and sprang upright.
*
Asherah watched the seven men below her with a curious mix of wistfulness, fondness, and uncharacteristic timidity in her expression.
Even more uncharacteristically, she'd exchanged her usual bootcut jeans and comfortable, formfitting tee shirts for a short (A/N: Not mini, just short), dark green corduroy skirt and an oxford shirt striped with different shades of green. Instead of boots or tennis shoes or something equally comfortable, she had on heels; her white mane gleamed, and tastefully applied makeup highlighted her pretty features and downplayed less flattering ones. Asherah scowled. She would get a pimple.
All of this made perching on a tree limb rather inconvenient, and even more so when said tree limb was twenty feet off the ground and you were trying to stay unnoticed besides.
With that thought in mind, she stepped off her branch.
*
Chibodee was losing.
His opponent had seemed to be incensed by Chibodee's getting the better of him, and promptly set into the Queen of Hearts with such ferocity that Chibodee could've sworn he'd detected a malevolent red gleam in his eyes.
Chibodee blocked three punches and a kick and threw a punch of his own. I have no choice. I have to up the ante.
His skin started glowing gold.
*
"Ouch!" Sai Saici said, looking down at his hand in surprise. The Ace of Clubs crest shone back up at him.
He glanced to George; the Frenchman's face was tight with worry. He, Sai, and Domon gone out for a celebratory meal with Chibodee's crew, Marie Louise, Cecil, Rain, and the monks; they were currently ensconced in a restaurant respectable enough to make the Neo- Chinese boy squirm, waiting for Chibodee. Glancing at Domon, Sai knew that his crest was burning, too.
Rain was already on it, moving outside to call the hospital to check on Argo. (A/N: It's up to you whether she's going outside to a pay phone- if they still have such things- or just to get better reception on her cell phone, besides being polite.) She reentered with a grim expression; stopping beside the table, she only uttered one terse word. "Chibodee."
The three fighters were out of their seats instantly.
"We don't know where he went." Shirley told them.
"We'll track him down." Domon told her.
"Where's Asherah?" Bunny suddenly asked.
The faces of everyone at the table darkened. Shirley spoke for them all. "Nobody knows."
The Gundam fighters hurried out of the restaurant.
*
For a moment, her brothers merely stared, stupefied. "Asherah?!" they chorused in disbelief, looking at the young woman in front of them.
She smiled gently. "Hello, boys." Turning her dark gaze to each of them in turn, she greeted all seven by name.
Andy was the first to make a move; then they were all squished together, hugging each other. She was startled, and more than a little touched, to see tears rolling down the faces of the older brothers that had so annoyed her. It was a long time before they broke apart; even then, they passed her around like a doll to hug individually, looking as though they didn't quite comprehend that this was real.
"Asherah." Ethan said seriously, when they'd finally released her. "Why did you leave?"
The mood in the woods tensed suddenly. The youngest brother had finally voiced the question they'd all been asking themselves for years.
"I can't believe you'd do that to me." her father stated stiffly, staring at his wife as though he'd never known her. And, in a way, he hadn't. The love he'd had had blinded him to many of her faults, and he hadn't wanted to admit that his marriage- that his wife- wasn't handling his long working hours, and the effect they had on him, well.
"Please." she sobbed, looking up at him through misty eyes. "Please, I didn't mean it… I love you… you love me… can't we just forget it?" she asked, in a forlorn whisper. She already knew the answer.
He turned away in disgust. Catching sight of his little girl staring wide- eyed through the doorway, he paused; his broad shoulders were rigid and his face as terrible and inflexible as granite. Asherah was terrified; never, in all her life, had her Daddy been that way. And never could she have imagined in his eyes what she found there now.
"If you love me- " his voice broke, "if you ever loved me- then do me this much; take care of my children."
"You- you're- leaving?" whimpered the mother, horrified.
He walked away in answer, staying only long enough to give his children eloquent hugs goodbye. When he got to Asherah, he couldn't look at her face; all he could do was mutter into her shoulder. "Take care of your brothers for me, baby. And- please- Asherah, my girl, please- if you remember nothing else, remember that I love you."
They were the last words she'd had from him, and the last time she'd seen him.
Her mother slapped her, hard. "You little brat! You're just like your father, just like him!"
"Slut!" Asherah snapped back, refusing to let her tears fall.
The woman's eyes widened. "You- you little…"
By the time she put the belt up again, Asherah's back was bloody. The beautiful woman hung her head. "Asherah… I'm sorry. I overreacted… but you're out of control. You can't call me names, you can't-"
"I can and I will, you goddamned whore!" Asherah screeched. She evaded her mother's hands, darted around behind her, and kicked her behind her knees, bringing the older woman down; she kicked her in the solar plexus. "That's it! I've had enough! You hate me because I remind you of Daddy, and he hasn't contacted me once- not once- since he left!" She was sobbing now. "I lost Daddy because of you! The only reason he loved me like he did was because I look like you… and now… and now he's gone, and I hate you! I hate you, Mother! And the boys… they aren't that bad, really, and you whip them anyway, and they don't deserve it, and you're a bitch! I'm leaving!"
Her mother had gotten her breath back. She came up with unnatural speed, but Asherah was too quick for her; she managed to scurry up the stairs and lock her door before the woman could catch her. Ignoring the indignant pounding on the door, she packed her things. Asherah didn't bother with opening the window; instead, she wrapped a dress of her mother's around her hand and punched through, then picked out the bigger shards until there was a hole big enough for the young girl to crawl through. She was small for her age anyway.
Asherah tossed the dress to the floor and jumped out the window to land lightly on the ground. Her brothers were all at school during the day- unlike Asherah, they didn't make a habit of skipping- and now, in the early afternoon, the older ones were working, and the younger ones at extracurricular activities or with friends. The only reason her mother was there at all was because the teacher had wanted a conference to discuss Asherah's frequent absences and disciplinary problems.
Well, she'd had enough. Asherah walked away with her head held high, refusing to look back.
It was ironic that the reason her mother's dress had been in her room was because she'd slept with the thing; it was the only solution she had yet found to the nightmares she'd had since her father left.
"What, you want some too?" she demanded, swinging at the suited man towering above her and wearing a smile she was familiar with. "I'm not afraid of you!"
He grabbed her little fist in his hand. Asherah frowned, momentarily taken aback; then she swung with her other arm.
He got that one too.
Seriously irritated now, she made to kick him in the shins but he blocked; she tried to kick him behind the knees, but unlike most men, she couldn't get enough leverage in his grip; so she went for the good old failsafe, a hardy kick to his groin.
He blocked and tightened his grip on her hands so that Asherah could feel the bones grinding together. She bit back a cry and scowled up at him.
He smiled down at her, a genuine smile this time. "Come with me." he ordered, his tone surprisingly gentle. "I'm going to take you to the colony."
She hadn't wanted to come, of course, and had been emphatic enough about it that they'd had to put her in a special hold on the shuttle. There was only one other person there. She and Jonas had spent the time traveling to the colony talking, and Asherah, even at that young an age, had the disconcerting sensation of staring in a mirror when discussing things with him.
Jonas. They'd known each other so well, been so close- how had things fallen apart as thoroughly as they had?
*
Chibodee was tiring. He was a tad slow to block a kick to his ribs; the lessened impact still staggered him back a step. He retaliated with a blocked punch to the man's midsection and brought his other hand down in a move Asherah had shown him, a knife hand attack. He managed to connect with the other man's skull.
It should have knocked him out. Instead, the man wobbled a minute- and simply vanished.
Chibodee stared. He'd only seen one person do that trick before…
*
"Andy, Joe, Nathan, Brian, Will, Jesse, Ethan," Asherah, said, glancing to each brother in turn as she named them (A/N: Oldest to youngest, and those flashbacks were happening during her explanation), "I love you."
Ethan knew what she was going to do the instant before she did it. He stepped forward and reached out an arm toward her, pleading, "Asherah…"
She smiled at him- and then simply vanished into thin air.
The other men cried out and looked around frantically before turning their attention back to Ethan. "What-"
"Why-"
"She was saying goodbye." Ethan said simply, wiping a tear from his face.
*
Chibodee had had his fill of fighting for the night (thank you very much), but gamely brought his fists up as he felt the presence of someone else.
Asherah emerged, holding her hands in the air. "I take it you made someone's acquaintance?"
His hands migrated to his hips. "I want some answers."
She studied his expression and sighed. "I thought you might."
*
Later that night, lying awake in bed, the face of the man that had attacked him unequivocally refused to leave his mind.
Asherah's husband.
Jonas Harrington.
The rogue agent that she'd told them about.
He turned and punched his pillow.
"Why'd he attack me?" Chibodee inquired heatedly, still upset with her for not telling him the whole truth earlier and wholly unsatisfied with her explanation of 'you don't need to know and I had no obligation to tell you. My and Jonas' relationship is none of your business.'
'Surely he can't be that stupid,' her stare said.
Chibodee hurried on. "I thought he wanted me to win, so Neo- America would rule space. That's the whole point of his plan, isn't it?"
"The whole point of his plan is freeing the people of earth from the control of the colonies and abolishing the Tournament system." she reminded him.
"But he wanted me to win." Chibodee pressed. Something occurred to him. "And why wouldn't he use a weapon, when I was alone?"
Asherah studied him for a minute. "I think it's gotten personal for him."
"How?" he asked, completely baffled.
Asherah sighed. "You're the first student I've taken. I think he's jealous, for one thing… and you're a threat now. It's always prudent to kill your enemies before they have the chance to do you major damage."
"But you and I- we're not-"
"I know he has no reason to be jealous." she interrupted. "But sometimes emotions overrule reason. Jonas should know better than to let that happen," she muttered, frowning.
"Hey, I'm not complaining if he's making mistakes." Chibodee told her darkly.
Her dark eyes shot up to meet his teal ones. "Why don't you go ahead and tell your friends you're all right. They were worried about you earlier; their crests started burning." She vanished without another word.
Chibodee growled. He was getting really annoyed with people doing that…
He turned over again restlessly. How long would it be before Jonas deemed the rest of the Shuffle Alliance a threat? How far would he go to get to the others? Chibodee had already lived through having one of his girls abducted and used by a government agent for his own purposes (A/N: Remember the DOD guy?); he didn't intend to repeat the experience. And they'd only just gotten Rain back… Domon would be devastated if she was taken again. Besides being seriously ticked… And Marie Louise was the Princess of France. He could only imagine the sticky diplomatic situation that would be, or what Jonas could do with so important a pawn in his hands…
It was a long time before Chibodee Crocket fell asleep.
A/N: You like? Special thanks to Ryan, who pointed out to me that Argo's ball is NOT studded with spikes and giving me the names of the weapons, besides pointing out some inconsistencies that I'm not going to bother to correct (right now, anyway) because I'm Just That Lazy. Cookies to: LivEvil and Ryan, and cakes to them both for Reviewing Achievement (not necessarily telling me what I want to hear, but reviewing so often.)