The Last Amazons

By Dixxy

Chapter One: The Horrible History of Samantha Thomas

(Sam)

No matter how much time passes, no matter how long my wounds have been healing, I will never be able to erase the memories. The memories of my life have not always been pleasant ones. One would hope their memories consisted of day trips, birthday parties, and weddings. Mine's been of abuse, wars, and funerals.

I usually find myself wishing that I'll dream of something nice, like some good times with my only close relative, my Aunt Ella, or of some sort of a harebrained scheme my best friend Rona Santana and I pulled off. Or even of some trip to an ice cream parlor with my kind-of-sort-of-but-not-really-steady-boyfriend Sage Date. Anything like that would be so much better than waking up screaming.

My dreams have consisted of visions from my life as a Senshi, which for the most part has been great, but the horrible moments in fights for my life are always the most memorable. When I was being taunted by my adversary (but now good friend) Cara and provoked into using a power neither of us knew I had. Watching my best friend, possessed, kidnapping another of my friends (Keisha Narrlobi) and then having to fight the newly possessed one. About the time I met Sage, which, should seem like a good time considering my good words on him earlier, but we met as captives to our enemy, Lady Trulpa. Everything I saw in the Under City, whether it was just the streets itself or the last battle with the demon empress, also haunted me.

These dreams I can live with. I'm destined to be Samantha, Halo of the Ronin Senshi. It's the dreams of my parents that I wish I could live without.

For the first five years of my life, my parents and I lived together. My mother was a kind and gentle Japanese woman who was good friends with Ella, my father's sister. My father, on the other hand, was a rough-edged and all out violent Australian blonde. I hate that man. I hate that I inherited my appearance from him, and it's absolutely torture every time I look in the mirror and see part of him staring back at me. That's why I always cover one of my eyes; I'm ashamed of the face I've got because it looks like his. I have his height, I have his strengths, I like the same foods he ate, and sometimes I feel like the only difference between us (physically) is our genders. Ella and my friends try to tell me otherwise, but I have trouble believing them.

If you don't already know, I hate my father because he killed my mother. He killed her when I was five. My mother found out something about my father that he didn't want her to know- I always thought it was a mistress or a gambling addiction. In a fit of rage he grabbed a baseball bat and beat my mother with it. I watched in horror as my mother's blood was soaked up by the carpet. Aunt Ella arrived just in time to scare my father off and get me and my mother on the way to the hospital. But it was no use. My mother was dead before we got there. Her last words were "Cyan's diary has the truth. Find it, Butterfly."

For the longest time, neither me nor Ella had a clue what my mother wanted. I knew Butterfly was my mother's nickname for me (as a little kid I loved butterflies to no end), but we had no idea who Cyan was and what the importance of his or her diary was. It was one of the things that haunted me. It was something I didn't understand and I wanted to figure out.

My father was arrested shortly after that. For the next several days while I mourned my mother's death, I was also afraid my father would come after me. That he would break out of jail and get me and Ella. My aunt assured me that he wouldn't get us, and it turned out she was right. A riot broke out the week after he got in and was apparently killed in the riot. One of the guards found his body and put it in some sort of a "jail morgue". I don't know if there's an official name for it, but a place where the police put bodies of dead prisoners who died from either execution, old age, or, in my father's case, a riot.

After my father's death, my aunt realized that I'd been dealt some serious mental and emotional damage, so she decided that she was going to try and salvage what was left of my innocence and bring me far away from the memories. To the United States of America. Boston, my home for the past ten years. But it was either too late or not enough- I hated men. I saw what my father did to my mother. I was afraid it would happen to me. So for the ten years I lived in Boston I was cold and cruel to any boys or men I met- teachers, fellow students, and neighbors alike. And I had an especial dislike for baseball players because they were always around the thing that had killed my mother. Because of the constant reminder I have of my father, it always stays fresh in my mind. My mother's screams for mercy. The grunts of my father with each blow with the bat.

The Ronin Senshi changed some of that. I still can't go anywhere near Fenway Park, but my coldness to men has lessened. Mike and Anubis helped out a lot. Mike was taking care of a little girl who'd lost her mother in a car crash (which Mike had to prove to me by showing me the clipping of the obituary he'd saved on Sue Lee's request) and was doing a good job of taking care of her. Anubis was trustworthy, too, and after the McDonald's incident seemed too stupid to try and kill one of us. Course, once he got a grip he proved to be very intelligent and very capable, but he was all right. Well, when there's not an Orange Julius stand within a fifty-yard radius, anyways. . .

Trulpa, believe it or not, was another good help. I'm serious. Aside from hating men, I thought that women were all on the same side. That we all had to fend for each other. Then I find out about Trulpa and my opinions begin to sway, and for a while I was beginning to change my feelings. Though I still hated most men and made a rude comment during the Kaze crisis.

The biggest influence was easily Sage. The circumstances we met under were kind of bad, what with Anubis releasing his bombshell on us and me and Rona running off, but Sage did everything he could do to try and get me to trust him. And it did work, and I eventually started feeling strong emotions for him I couldn't understand. Part of me was convinced I was in love with him, but the rest of me just laughed. Me, in love with Sage? Yeah, right. I didn't do that kind of stuff.

Did I?

Sometimes I have no clue what I feel about thing now a days. Things have changed so much. Fighting in the school yard seems like child's play compared to what it felt like before I fought against Dynasty soldiers and Dark Warladies. Men aren't as intimidating anymore (though I still can't bear to look at a baseball game). Heck, I have three guy friends!

First off, there's Sage. Duh. My sort-of boyfriend. It's weird whenever we go out for ice cream or something since he looks kind of like me, despite the species difference. Sage is the last (we think) survivor of the Flitterees, the people who inhabited the Dynasty before the demons took over. The fairy like people has wings of either a butterfly like pattern (the Intellectuals) or wings that resemble an element- fire, thunder, water, ect (the Elementals). Sage is a Thunder Elemental, since his wings are made of thunderbolts. Its weird touching them, if he has them out. He's got a playful side that didn't really come out too often before he learned of his heritage, but now it's out most of the time unless he has to be serious. But it's not really considered unusual for him to make the lights in a house flick off, or for him to become invisible and sneak up on you. I hate it when he does that to me, but it's funny when he does to other people.

Kento is one of Sage's friends. He's been around- he's lived in China, Japan, the Dynasty (though he wishes he hadn't- I don't blame him) and now Boston. His English isn't very good, but it's been getting better. Sage tells me that Kento used to be a lot like me- the hard headed one who rushed off into battle with a hefty appetite and punch that packs a wallop. Well, the stomach and the strength haven't changed, but he's much more calm and organized that the person that I've been told about. Maybe it has to do with being able to see into the future, or being able to change into any animal or person he wants to. It makes me wonder if I'll ever go through such a dramatic change for some reason.

Cye, Sage's other friend, hasn't changed much from what I've been told. He's shy, quiet, and a little more feminine that the other two. The guy cooks and reads. Don't get me wrong, I've seen him play video games against his father (Anubis- very slight family resemblance but not a hell of a lot) and he definitely laughs whenever someone lets a belch or a fart rip, but he's so much more. . . naïve. Hard to believe he's one of the most dangerous members of our suicide mission against the Dynasty, being the Child of Destiny and what not.

I'm glad that my life is different. I know I don't have to run from every other man that walks down the street. I'm no longer convinced that the male half of the human race is out to get me (though I do realize there are a few sick bastards out there- my dad was one of them). I realize that it's an almost equal balance of good and evil amongst men and women. Ying and Yang to the max.

Still, loving a man is different. Yup, I can trust a man. Check and double check that. But loving a man? Being able to spend lots and lots of time with someone and be more than friends? To be able to share intimate problems with someone other than your closest girlfriends (in my case, the other Senshi, though it's usually Ria or Rona)? To be able to hug and kiss someone and not gag? That seems so. . . weird. And then there are so many levels are romance, like live-in boyfriends, fiancés, sex, and marriage! Oh well, I'm not really close to any of those points. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, heh. I do that sometimes.

Keisha seems to think that Sage is a good place to start, maybe a good place to stay. I mean, there'd be a lot going there. One, he's a sweet heart. Two, he's cute. Three, nice butt. VERY nice butt. Four, fellow Ronin. No need to worry about explaining to some Average Joe I might need to escape from a date to go save the world. Sage would have to come with me. Five, he's tall, and with my height, I need a tall guy so I don't have to bend over if I want to kiss him or hit him. Six, he's not into drugs or cheating or anything. And seven, he seems to be interested in me. Well, interested a little bit. I don't think I'm particularly pretty- I'm down right intimidating, kinda like Sally on 3rd Rock From The Sun. Tall, blonde, strong, and a good reason for men to run away screaming. I'm also not as pretty as her. Ella says I'm very pretty, but she's my only living relative- of course she's going to say I'm pretty to butter me up! Still, the question remains: IS Sage Date (pronounced "Da-tay". Personally, I think it sounds French, but Sage says its Japanese) in love with me or not?

I was going to find that out. . .