Bubblegum Crisis Post 2040 Fanfic Series

Bubblegum Crisis Post 2040 File 1: Dominant Species

Part 3: Casualties

Chapter 35: Prodigal

by P. Kristen Enos (bgcpost2040@aol.com)

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A Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 English Dub Version Fanfic. All rights belong to AIC, ADV Films and the other creative powers that be. I just want credit for writing the story. Contains spoilers! Rated PG13. Yuri warning! Nothing in here should be a shock if you've watched the episodes and paid attention. All I'm doing is filling in the gaps with my own interpretation of events! Special thanks to Greenegret for betaing!

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Priss ran her hand along the handlebars, finally resting on the shell covering the engine. A deep smile appeared on her face as she regarded her long time friend.

She turned to the waiting mechanics of K's Garage and said, "Thanks, guys, for keeping her for me."

"You should thank Mackey especially," Nigel noted with a drag of his cigarette. "He kept her polished and ran regular checks on her to make sure she was ready at a moment's notice."

"Well, we were never sure when or if you were going to come back," he sheepishly admitted.

"Mackey!" Nigel said sharply, another signal that the younger man had put his foot in his mouth.

"It's all right," Priss said with a slight curve of a smile. "I've wondered that myself. And, thank you, Mackey."

"So are you back to stay?" Mackey asked, feeling encouraged to be nosy.

"It all depends how well and how quickly Linna recovers. And a couple of other things."

"Have you gone to see her yet?"

"No, this was my first stop. But since Sylia knows to call me as soon as she gets news of Linna waking up, I guess there's no rush."

She paused and looked around the garage, noting that it didn't seem to have changed much in the past three years. Of course, Mackey looked the same, but Nigel had actually started to gray at his sideburns, which shouldn't have been too surprising since he was now over forty. She then noticed another item in the corner covered with a gray cloth; its size and shape were too familiar. It was Linna's scooter.

Priss smiled to herself at the sight and then frowned when another thought occurred to her, "Guys, um, Sylia didn't give me any information about the boomer that attacked Linna. Was it rogue or not?"

Mackey opened his mouth to speak but Nigel cut him off, "It's a bit complicated. You should really talk to Sylia and have her explain it."

Realizing that was Nigel's way of closing the subject, Priss nodded and pulled on her motorcycle helmet.

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"Welcome to the Silky Doll," greeted the tall, Caucasian beauty with the long white-blonde hair. "How may I help you?"

In her familiar leather biker's outfit with the helmet gripped in her hand, Priss stared at the friendly sales girl, waiting for some sort of twitch of the mouth or arched eyebrow to expose a more sarcastic intent behind the pleasant words. None came as the other young woman tilted her head expectantly for some sort of response.

Some nearby customers were already giggling and murmuring in the background.

Priss ignored their attitude and focused on the puzzling fact this new sales girl actually seemed genuine in her offer to help.

"Look, uh -" she glanced at the name-tag, "Sylvie, I'm an old friend of Sylia's. My name's Priss. Is she around?"

A look of recognition suddenly lit up her eyes as she said, "Ah! Yes, she mentioned you would come some time today but she wasn't sure when. I'm sorry she's not upstairs right now. But perhaps you'd like to wait for her by trying on this dress in the dressing room over there." Sylvie picked up the nearest garment available and offered it to her.

Priss stared at the pink dress before her and then narrowed her eyes at the other woman.

Sylvie just tilted her head and smiled sweetly. She didn't give any indication that she was being less than sincere in her actions.

Suppressing a frown, Priss carefully took the dress and said, "Fine. I'll go try this on."

Priss was feeling déjà vu at the looks and giggles as she stiffly walked her way to the dressing room. When she stepped inside, she looked at the mirror before her and saw Sylvie watching her intently from the background. They stared at each other through the reflection before Priss slid the door closed behind her.

Following the familiar routine, Priss ended up in the secret elevator to make her way down to the darker depths of the building. As the floors whizzed by, she pressed her hand to her chest at the sensation of her increased heartbeat. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, staying that way until the elevator finally came to a halt and opened to the familiar open space of the pit.

She frowned to see worktables, tools and machines that indicated massive activity was the norm for the laboratory these days.

"Welcome back, Priss," Sylia greeted from her place at one of the tables, where she seemed to be tinkering with what looked like a fancy palm-sized remote control. "How was the flight from London?"

"Great when you go first class," she commented as she tossed the dress on the nearby table before coming over to lean against the table where Sylia was actually working.

"Yes, I was surprised you wanted to take that kind of flight, especially as a last minute expense."

The singer shrugged and said, "Well, Leon and I don't have much opportunities to really enjoy ourselves with living from gig to gig so I thought we'd splurge this time. Plus, it helped to be guaranteed a space rather than waiting on stand by. And we do realize we owe you for the tickets and we'll pay you back once we start to earn some more money when the rest of the band catches up with us.... By the way, since when did you have shop help?"

"You mean Sylvie?" she responded without looking up from her task of soldering some circuits together under a magnifying lens. "I tested her out yesterday afternoon and she seemed to catch on quickly. This is her first day without my assistance and I've received some great reports from the occasional spot checks I've done. I've never trusted my customers to anyone else before, but they all seem to take to her."

"Yeah, well, power to her if it means more time for you to be able to get to the bottom of this incident with Linna." Priss then crossed her arms and said, "So now that I'm here and this place is about as secure as we can get, are you going to finally tell me what happened?"

Sylia finally stopped her task and looked pointedly at her before asking, "Did you hear about the Plaza Slaughter?"

Priss frowned, not liking that opening at all. "Yeah, people went out of their way to tell us about it since they knew we were from Tokyo. What does it have to do with Linna?..."

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"...I didn't become a Knight Saber just so I could baby-sit rich bastards who don't play nice with their overpriced toys," Priss stated bluntly.

"And I didn't create the team to do that either," Sylia responded, showing her annoyance as well. "But the fact remains that innocent people like Linna get caught in the cross-fire, and that's where being a Knight Saber becomes critical."

"It looks like you already got your boomer," Priss said with a pointed thumb towards upstairs. "If you want to get to the heart of the problem, you take out those rich bastards. You don't need to be a Knight Saber to do that." She grabbed the dress and started to walk out.

"Priss."

The singer froze in her tracks but didn't turn around. "Yes?"

"I will still call you when I get news of Linna," Sylia said in a firm, low tone. "Yet keep in mind that although you were her best friend, you weren't around during the other times when she really needed you. And showing up after the fact doesn't make up for your absence. She's moved on in more ways than one."

Priss remained frozen and then said softly, "Thanks for the f.y.i., Sylia. But that's a matter between her and me."

Not another word was exchanged between them as Priss stepped into the elevator to go back to the top. She pressed her fingertips at her chest and frowned at the racing rhythm of her heart.

With the pink dress in one hand and her helmet in the other, Priss finally emerged from the dressing room.

"So do you want to try on something else?" a pleasant voice asked her.

Priss turned and looked at Sylvie with a totally new sense of awareness of just who, or more precisely what, was before her. And the stare was returned without a blink.

After a moment, she handed over the dress and said, "No thanks. There's nothing here I want to wear."

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Priss leaned against her bike and stared out at the waterfront, as the cool breeze from Tokyo Bay washed over her. It was also one of the few scenic views in the day where she didn't have to look directly at any construction sites filled with boomers, at least not up close.

She knew vaguely in the back of her mind that she should call Leon to find out if he secured a place for them to stay for the night, but she didn't feel any rush about it at the moment.

She pressed her fingertips at her chest and noticed that her pulse hadn't slowed down. She couldn't tell if it was from excitement, panic, both, or even something else altogether.

It was as if her heart was begging her to be let loose, to feel... real again. And she didn't dare let it because she knew it would be a point of no return.

-- End Chapter 35 --

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