Hey everyone! Here' the next chapter of my new story...and, besides being worried about OOCness (because I'm always worried about OOCness), I'm a little worried that this chapter doesn't make sense. Please read and review (or email me at cemberl@yahoo.com) with any part that confused you.
Thanks for reading.
~December
Chapter 1: What Alpha and Beta Disagree On
She stared at the screen full of Spanish feeling an overwhelming sense of frustration. It wasn't because she was looking at Spanish that she was frustrated; Spanish was her second language, although she rarely admitted it. Spanish was the language they had used for centuries and two lifetimes to communicate secretly about their liege and how best to protect him. It was for this reasons he used it now, knowing that many in the corporation could read Japanese and English but not Spanish. At the same time, since Spanish was a language spoken by many in the US, she could "explain" this screen full of Spanish as part of her job and no one would know differently.
But that safeguard still didn't address her frustration. At this point she had been on Toyko soil for two weeks and two days...and she was no closer to him than the day she first met him. Sure, he stopped by her office on occasion to talk about their joing endeavor, but never more than that. All she could protect him from in this arrangement were opportunists, both in this company and across the Pacific, neither of which was a real threat.
She was also frustrated because she knew something big was coming. Soon after her arrival, a late night meeting was arranged for those who protect in secret. The one among them that they referred to as Delta Rho set up the meeting at her post, which she often called her exile. As Delta brought her to meeting last, she was prepared and jumped into a roll call almost immediately.
*****
"Are we all here?" she had asked. "Beta?"
"Yes, Alpha Rho," the male voice, which she hadn't heard since the overseas phone call weeks ago, responded. He stepped into sight, still in his apron that he wore as an arcade worker, which was part of his cover, his blond hair a little mused. It looked as if her had been running his hands through it lately, but whether it was because of frustration or impatience, Alpha Rho didn't know...and didn't really care at that point.
"Gamma?" Alpha Rho asked, continuing with her roll call.
"Si, senorita Alpha Rho," an older female voice answered as a fifty year old Japanese woman stepped into view. Standing at about 4'11", the woman was greying slightly, but still seemed to radiate awareness and mystery along with an almost grandmotherly kindness.
"Delta," Alpha Rho said more than asked, knowing that her hostess was present.
"Hai, Alpha Rho," the woman with the dark green hair said. She was the only one not in civilian clothing at this point. Instead she wore a uniform that didn't look practical for anything. At one point she had said to Alpha that it was called a "fuku" or something like that. To Alpha it just looked uncomfortable and impractical.
"Good. Okay, I want a sector report from everyone and a timeline from Delta. Beta, you start."
The young man cleared his throat and began, behaving so serioulsy that he would have shocked the people who "knew" him in his other guises, "I met the reborn prince years ago and managed to become his best friend. From this vantage pint I was able to watch over him, especially as he was orphened at an early age and did not have much of a support network. A few years ago, he started pulling disappearing acts and I would lose track of him," the young man admitted. Alpha narrowed her eyes at this, but Beta continued. "These disappearances made no sense until I talked to Delta," Beta briefly looked over at the dark haired woman with an almost accusatory look in his eyes. After a pause, Beta began to finish up, "So, when our prince isn't playing superhero, he's been an amazing student and now employee. Healthwise, he's fine. Emotionally, well that has been touch and go at points. He could be downright cold, aloof, and cutting in the beginning..."
"Even after all this time, his defense mechanisms haven't changed," Gamma commented.
"But," Beta continued, "his love life changed all of that. Currently he's engaged to a Tsukino Usagi, but we know her better as the princess of the satelite moon, heir to the otherworldly empire during the Glorious Reign-"
"A time they refer to as the Silver Millenium," Delta added to clarify.
Alpha nodded as if she were merely filing away various different noises; however, her next question revealed the intensity with which she was processing the information presented to her. "Has she hurt him?" was her first question.
"No!" Beta practically shouted in denial. "If anything he's hurt her!" Beta would have continued, but he noticed his leader's raised eyebrow. He subsided in his tirade to let her continue.
"I don't mean feelings and I wasn't referring to lover's tiffs. I mean, has he been hurt because of his involvement with her or because he was protecting her?"
There was an uncomfortable pause as a shuttered look briefly came into Beta's eyes. It was gone in an instant, and, after quickly exchanging a look with another person among the four, he replied, "You'll have to ask Delta about that."
The woman that asked the question shook her head. "No, I won't. Your reaction told me everything I needed to know. But I will return to this point later. Gamma," Alpha continued, "Report."
The older woman began in her softer voice, "I served as main protector from the time his royal highness was six until he was sixteen. Delta brought him to me after that first almost successful attempt on his life. To the best of my ability, I made sure he learned to communicate with his planet. I taught him to care for flowers, especially the royal red rose. I talked with him about politics, values, and leadership. In terms of intellect and experience, the House of the Rose orphanage was the best place for him.
"Unfortunately," Gamma sighed as she continued, "emotionally, I think it was hell for him. The children there, well, some of them were rather cruel. They treated him in this life much in same way the anti-royalist treated him in the last. But here, he had no family to help him through it and no friends to minize the blow. Even as a child, the noblese oblige and kindness that is a part of our liege have left him open for a lot of scars."
As the group nodded, Gamma added a last observation. "In the whole time he was with me, the he only ever mentioned two people who could possibly have been friends with him before he met Beta. One was named Fiore, whom I never met, and I believe may have been imaginary...as I could find no record of his existence anywhere. The other he met briefly while he was still in the hospital. He didn't remember her name, but she did try to cheer him up, and she gave him a rose. I checked...she was impossible to trace."
Alpha nodded again at Gamma's conclusion. She had known much of what Gamma and Beta had shared already. Delta, however, probably held the most unknown information, and, as the closest thing they had to a double agent (if one saw the heirs of the otherworldly empire as potential threats - which Alpha often did), her report was the most important. "Delta," Alpha requested, not needing to clarify or elaborate at this point.
"Upon receiving instructions from Alpha I arrived at this post shortly before the fall. During that time, I interacted with as many otherworlders as possible, especially at the seat of power on our satelite moon. Luckily, the former holder of this position was anti-social, so everyone accepted me as their guardian of time."
The room nodded, but only to show that they were listening. Things never could have gotting this far had Delta's cover been blown early.
"After the fall, I spent centuries learning about this position and training myself. By the time I was able to use my position in any useful way, much of earth was rebuilt. As it was, I was barely in time to save life f our liege. Whoever was behind the accident intended for the entire car to die. It made sure that the adults were dead, but it sought to torture the child by leaving him to die in the car with his dead parents. At some point during the attack, our liege sustained a head injury. Thankfully, it wiped out the memories of that attack. Unfortunately, it took almost all of his other memories of both lives as well." Delta continued.
"What attacked the car?" Alpha asked at Delta's pause.
"I am not sure. It was long gone before I got there. All I know it that it felt old."
"Like Dark Ages old?" Alpha asked again, attempting to ascertain the power and threat of the force behind the "accident". Even as a child, upon hearing about the plague that happened during the Dark Ages, she was very alarmed. It wasn't until she was old enough to reclaim her role as Alpha Rho that she realized what "the plague" actually was. And, as there was no team able to protect the earth present at that time, Alpha often worried that that particular evil would resurface.
"No," Delta responded in answer to Alpha's query. "Older. Glorious Reign old."
That statement shocked the whole room.
"What?!" Beta had shouted.
"Are you sure? Are you really sure about this?" Gamma cross-examined.
Alpha's eyes narrowed and her jaw tightened. "And you weren't able to destroy it and know nothing about who or what it was working for?"
"No," Delta had to utter again, "But whatever it was, it hasn't reappeared. I am not sure why."
Alpha groaned mentally. Having a very old and powerful force that tried to kill your prince, whom you are protecting, unaccounted for was another stressor she didn't need at the time. But she was pretty sure that Delta wasn't finished yet.
"After saving him from the accident, I got him to Gamma...by pulling a few strings. When he turned sixteen, I set up a trust fund for him and again worked magic, trying to get him scholarships to continue his schooling. By the time he was seventeen, however, he was earning those on his own. Financially, while he does get the occasional part-time job to hlpe pay the insurance on both his car and his bike, he is doing rather well." At this point Delta smiled the mysterious smile that had taken her centuries to perfect, "And it only took a few savings and loan scandals to it."
That produced smiles from the entire group, which, for them in this setting, was like uproarious laughter.
"Amazingly enough," Delta continued after a few moments, "he's drawn to people from his past and they end up making up his inner circle-"
"Clarify," Alpha demanded. "We know about Beta, but Beta himself helped that along. And we know about the satelite princess. But who else-"
In response, Delta handed Alpha a picture. "One of his friends in this lifetime," Delta explaianed. "She calls herself Saori now, but I'm sure you recognize her as-"
"Beta Sigma," Alpha breathed out, shocked. Ignoring Beta's quiet "I knew Saori seemed familiar", Alpha looked at Delta. "The Sigma team is here?" she asked. "But...then, the Queen-"
Delta looked down remorseful. "She died in the car accident that almost took our prince. Ironically, our king and queen were reborn as the parents of our prince in this life. That's what make the accident so sinster. Someone was trying to kill off the royal family."
If such a thing were possible, the team seemed to get even more serious and somber. Using even shorter sentences, Alpha tried to ascertain what all of this information about the past meant for the possible futures. "Everything in a written report?" she ordered, although to the unknowing person, it may have sounded like a question. Delta, however, understood the directive and nodded.
"Good," Alpha continued. "Timeline, then. And explanation for the force."
Amazingly enough, Delta and the others understood Alpha's short hand. Delta got to the point quickly. "There is something on the horizon. Whatever it is, it is powerful and difficult to beat. There could be a decisive battle in the coming months, one we cannot afford to lose."
"This thing on the horizon, what we've all felt. Have you figured out what it is yet?" Gamma asked, only to receive a negative answer.
"Is the Crystal Toyko future still a possibility?" Beta asked.
"Yes," Delta confirmed. "That, along with the other two next best options are still possible...but so are some pretty bleak alternatives, including at least one where no one from the Glorious Reign survives."
*****
It was that phrase that still rang through her head even now, days later as she sat at her computer. She had to get closer to her liege. Too much of the day he was unprotected, and that kept her up at night. All she knew was that the horizon was darkening and whatever this was, it wanted to destroy the remnants of the Glorious Reign. And currently, it had a clear shot at the only surviving member of the royal family.
"Merde," she muttered under her breath as she threw something across the room. Sure, it wasn't Spanish, but it was how she felt. Besides, while she could say "unprotected flank", "gun", and "covert plot" in Spanish, she couldn't say anything practical, like shit. Just another thing to frustrate her, the need to be operating between up to four languages.
"Is this a bad time?" a voice asked from the door to her office. Although the person was trying to hide their amusement, she still picked up on it. It did not bother her; if he was amused, even if it was at her expense, then he was safe.
"Mr. Chiba," she said as she looked toward her door. "No, this is a good time; come in," she invited.
The young man entered the room, picking up the object she had thrown acroos the room. "You may need this later," he said as handed her the stapler.
Jamelle blushed. "And I was hoping you'd never see my American temper. At least you found it funny," she added. In turn she was internally amused by his look of shock at her statement. 'The poor boy doesn't realize that he can't hide anything from me. It's my job to read him like a book. And I'm good at my job."
After a few beats, Mamoru decided to indulge in curiousity, something he wouldn't normally do in an office setting. "So, what frustrated you today, Ms. Minag- I mean, Jamelle," he amended upon seeing the look on his American collegue's face.
Jamelle sighed as she took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "My living situation," she answered, quietly replacing her glasses. "The hotel where I'm staying is driving me crazy and I don't want to be there for months. I really want an apartment, a flat...something! Heck, a student hostel would be better than this! I want to feel like I'm home when I walk in the door, not like I'm still at work. It's a little thing, I know," the black female said with a shake of her head, "but it's getting in the way of my productivity at this point."
Mamoru looked at her curiously. "Could you afford rent on an apartment?"
"I'm paying two hundred ninety-two dollars a night for my current hell. As long as rent around here is not 30 times that, I could manage....Do you now of a place whre I could live?" Jamelle asked. "I don't mean to sound pushy," she added as she looked at Mamoru's expression.
"Actually, I do know of a few places," Mamoru said slowly. "There is even a vacancy in my building-"
"Really?" Jamelle practically pounced on that information. "Could you help me find a place to live? I'd be so grateful." And, in part because of her pleeding eyes, before Mamoru knew it, he had agreed to help her get the open apartment in his building.
******
"It was the least I could do," Mamoru said a week later to his friend Motoki as he waited at the Crown Arcade to meet Jamelle to take her to sign her new lease.
"Really?" was all Motoki said with a raised eyebrow over his smiling eyes.
Mamoru gave his friend a look. "Whatever you are thinking, stop. She's been amazingly helpful as our American liasoin, but, more than that, she really has been protecting me, liek she said she world." Mamoru shook is head. "Some people at work did not want to see me succeed and tired to sabatoge me at several points during the last few weeks. Every time she managed to stop the plots without bringing shame on me or the company, sometimes at her own costs.
"And this is yoru way to saying, 'thank you'," Motoki finished. "She doesn't know that you know what she's done for you, does she?"
Mamoru nodded, marveling (not for the first time) at how well the med student and arcade worker knew him. "No, she doesn't. I just wanted to help her a little, in the way she's helped me."
"Commendable," Motoki pointed out, "but mixing your work and home life is a risk, isn't it? I mean, aren't you meeting Usagi here today?"
Mamoru smiled at the mention of his finacee. "Yes, actually. I wanted her to meet Jamelle-san," his smiled widdened as he shared his plan, "So I told her to be here at 2:00 and told Jamelle to meet me here at 2:30 so that they would arrive at the same time." It was common knowledge that, although she was getting better, Usagi still couldn't be on time for most things.
Smiling at his friend's plot, Motoki looked up in time to see a young woman walking into his arcade with a dark green briefcase over her shoulder. She wore a black dress with a shiny pin of some sort near her heart. Over the dress, she wore a short, button-down, light pink sweater. "I think your Jamelle-san is early," Motoki observed as he nodded toward the door.
Mamoru turned just at the point when Jamelle spotted him. She smiled and began to walk toward them, weaving expertly between excited kids and fast moving teenagers.
"Hi," she breathed when she got to the counter. "I'm a little early, but I was afraid of getting lost. I hope you don't mind," she added.
"That's okay," Mamoru assured her. "Jamelle-san, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Furuhata Motoki. Motoki, this is Minagawa-Smith Jamelle, the American liason I mentioned."
At this introduction, Jamelle began to bow and greet Furuhata-san, while Motoki held out his hand to meet Ms. Minagawa-Smith. Quickly noticing the disconnect, the two laughed as Jamelle straightened and took Motoki's hand. "That has happened to me more times than I can count in the last month," Jamelle shared. "It is nice to meet you as well, Mr. Fur-"
Motoki stopped her with a laugh. "Just call me Motoki, Ms. Minagawa-Smith. That way you won't have to stumble through my last name."
"Then you have to call me Jamelle," she countered, "My last name is mouthful." The two smiled at each other, which was just enough to cover the look that passed between them. Motoki, as he let go of Jamelle hand was about to say something else, when he noticed familar movement near the door of his arcade. Looking at Jamelle again, he said, "If I were you, Jamelle-san, I'd step back."
Confused by the suggestion, but knowing that it was safe to rely upon it, Jamelle took a step back...just as a blonde blur ran by her and crashed into Mamoru. About to take evasive action, she noticed the smile on Mamoru's face and so, instead of following her instincts, she became extremely watchful.
"I'm sorry I'm late," the thing/person that had rushed Mamoru said into his shirt. "But-"
"It's okay, Usako," the young man said as he smiled down at his finacee. "I knew you'd be there."
"They really do look good together, don't they?" Motoki asked Jamelle, his question somewhat pointed.
"I'm the wrong person of whom to ask that question. I always see the potential dangers and dark sides of relationships. Devotion can demand a high price," Jamelle replied quietly to the question. "Sometimes too high."
At this point, Mamoru seemed to have remembered Jamelle's presence, as he pulled away from his finacee and said, "Usako, there is someone I want you to meet." Turning his love around to face Jamelle, he said, "Usako, this is Minagawa-Smith Jamelle. She is working with me on that big project at work that I mentioned. Jamelle-san, this my finacee, Tsukino Usagi."
Jamelle looked at Mamoru as he finished. "Finacee? You never said anything! Congratulations!" the woman said in English. Returning to Japanese, she looked down at the young woman in front of her, and, bowing rather deeply said, "It is an honor to meet you, Tsukino-san."
The young girl blinked, but quickly bowed in return. "It is nice to meet you, too Minagawa-Smith-san." Usagi straighted and looked up at the tall woman in front of her. She was as easily as tall as Mako-chan, maybe taller, the young girl though to herself. She smiled at the young woman, who, after looking a little startled, smiled back.
Trying to cover for the fact that the satelite moon princess's entrance and smile knocked her slightly off based, Jamelle quickly changed subjects. "I don't mean to interupt time with your finacee. If the two of you want to stay here, I can go sign the lease on my own."
"It's okay, we don't mind going with you to sign the lease, do we, Usako?"
The young blonde shook her head, feeling like something else was going on, but she wasn't sure what it was.
"Thank you. Oh," Jamelle added, "do you know where I can find a moving company or something? I don't have a lot of stuff, but there is no way I can get what I have into my new apartment alone-"
"I'll help," Motoki volunteered before his friend could offer.
"Really," Jamelle attempted to confirm, not sounding a hundred percent happy about the offer. "I wouldn't want to put you out."
The blond man smiled. "No problem. I have time tomorrow and this way you won't interupt Mamoru's time with his finacee. Besides, we can trade stories on Mamoru," he added with a twinkle in his eye.
"Motoki, I'm not so sure that's-" Mamoru began, but Jamelle cut him off with her acceptance of his offer.
As they began to prepare to leave to sign the lease, Jamelle laughed and said to Mamoru, "Don't worry so much. We'd only be swapping stories between the two of us. We wouldn't do anything that wouldn't protect you."
And Mamoru again felt a little disturbed and strangely comforted by the American's use of the word "protect" again.
******
In another area, an angry force struggled against an already cracked seal. Finally, after a burst of energy, the seal exploded and the force was free. "Stupid, Alpha Rho," the force muttered in a feminine voice. "Did you really think that you could trap me forever?"
The force summoned its energy and tried to return to its post, but found its way blocked. Puzzled, the force asked, "Why would the gate deny me? I am its mistress, it would only deny me if there was a replacement-" The force stopped speaking abruptly. "Well, well, well, Alpha Rho," the force said after it realized what had happened, "maybe I did underestimate you after all. You put someone else at the gate of time so that I couldn't return there when the seal finally did break. But I wouldn't count me out just yet, noir one. As I cannot resume my duties, I'll make you fail at yours. Your prince and all of earth will pay for tainting the Silver Millenium." The force laughed, "and leaving you alive to watch your prince die will be more than enough torture to pay you back for all that you did to me."
And in this space, more laughter from a woman with a dangerous plan echoed all over the little frozen continent.
- to be continued -
Thanks for reading.
~December
Chapter 1: What Alpha and Beta Disagree On
She stared at the screen full of Spanish feeling an overwhelming sense of frustration. It wasn't because she was looking at Spanish that she was frustrated; Spanish was her second language, although she rarely admitted it. Spanish was the language they had used for centuries and two lifetimes to communicate secretly about their liege and how best to protect him. It was for this reasons he used it now, knowing that many in the corporation could read Japanese and English but not Spanish. At the same time, since Spanish was a language spoken by many in the US, she could "explain" this screen full of Spanish as part of her job and no one would know differently.
But that safeguard still didn't address her frustration. At this point she had been on Toyko soil for two weeks and two days...and she was no closer to him than the day she first met him. Sure, he stopped by her office on occasion to talk about their joing endeavor, but never more than that. All she could protect him from in this arrangement were opportunists, both in this company and across the Pacific, neither of which was a real threat.
She was also frustrated because she knew something big was coming. Soon after her arrival, a late night meeting was arranged for those who protect in secret. The one among them that they referred to as Delta Rho set up the meeting at her post, which she often called her exile. As Delta brought her to meeting last, she was prepared and jumped into a roll call almost immediately.
*****
"Are we all here?" she had asked. "Beta?"
"Yes, Alpha Rho," the male voice, which she hadn't heard since the overseas phone call weeks ago, responded. He stepped into sight, still in his apron that he wore as an arcade worker, which was part of his cover, his blond hair a little mused. It looked as if her had been running his hands through it lately, but whether it was because of frustration or impatience, Alpha Rho didn't know...and didn't really care at that point.
"Gamma?" Alpha Rho asked, continuing with her roll call.
"Si, senorita Alpha Rho," an older female voice answered as a fifty year old Japanese woman stepped into view. Standing at about 4'11", the woman was greying slightly, but still seemed to radiate awareness and mystery along with an almost grandmotherly kindness.
"Delta," Alpha Rho said more than asked, knowing that her hostess was present.
"Hai, Alpha Rho," the woman with the dark green hair said. She was the only one not in civilian clothing at this point. Instead she wore a uniform that didn't look practical for anything. At one point she had said to Alpha that it was called a "fuku" or something like that. To Alpha it just looked uncomfortable and impractical.
"Good. Okay, I want a sector report from everyone and a timeline from Delta. Beta, you start."
The young man cleared his throat and began, behaving so serioulsy that he would have shocked the people who "knew" him in his other guises, "I met the reborn prince years ago and managed to become his best friend. From this vantage pint I was able to watch over him, especially as he was orphened at an early age and did not have much of a support network. A few years ago, he started pulling disappearing acts and I would lose track of him," the young man admitted. Alpha narrowed her eyes at this, but Beta continued. "These disappearances made no sense until I talked to Delta," Beta briefly looked over at the dark haired woman with an almost accusatory look in his eyes. After a pause, Beta began to finish up, "So, when our prince isn't playing superhero, he's been an amazing student and now employee. Healthwise, he's fine. Emotionally, well that has been touch and go at points. He could be downright cold, aloof, and cutting in the beginning..."
"Even after all this time, his defense mechanisms haven't changed," Gamma commented.
"But," Beta continued, "his love life changed all of that. Currently he's engaged to a Tsukino Usagi, but we know her better as the princess of the satelite moon, heir to the otherworldly empire during the Glorious Reign-"
"A time they refer to as the Silver Millenium," Delta added to clarify.
Alpha nodded as if she were merely filing away various different noises; however, her next question revealed the intensity with which she was processing the information presented to her. "Has she hurt him?" was her first question.
"No!" Beta practically shouted in denial. "If anything he's hurt her!" Beta would have continued, but he noticed his leader's raised eyebrow. He subsided in his tirade to let her continue.
"I don't mean feelings and I wasn't referring to lover's tiffs. I mean, has he been hurt because of his involvement with her or because he was protecting her?"
There was an uncomfortable pause as a shuttered look briefly came into Beta's eyes. It was gone in an instant, and, after quickly exchanging a look with another person among the four, he replied, "You'll have to ask Delta about that."
The woman that asked the question shook her head. "No, I won't. Your reaction told me everything I needed to know. But I will return to this point later. Gamma," Alpha continued, "Report."
The older woman began in her softer voice, "I served as main protector from the time his royal highness was six until he was sixteen. Delta brought him to me after that first almost successful attempt on his life. To the best of my ability, I made sure he learned to communicate with his planet. I taught him to care for flowers, especially the royal red rose. I talked with him about politics, values, and leadership. In terms of intellect and experience, the House of the Rose orphanage was the best place for him.
"Unfortunately," Gamma sighed as she continued, "emotionally, I think it was hell for him. The children there, well, some of them were rather cruel. They treated him in this life much in same way the anti-royalist treated him in the last. But here, he had no family to help him through it and no friends to minize the blow. Even as a child, the noblese oblige and kindness that is a part of our liege have left him open for a lot of scars."
As the group nodded, Gamma added a last observation. "In the whole time he was with me, the he only ever mentioned two people who could possibly have been friends with him before he met Beta. One was named Fiore, whom I never met, and I believe may have been imaginary...as I could find no record of his existence anywhere. The other he met briefly while he was still in the hospital. He didn't remember her name, but she did try to cheer him up, and she gave him a rose. I checked...she was impossible to trace."
Alpha nodded again at Gamma's conclusion. She had known much of what Gamma and Beta had shared already. Delta, however, probably held the most unknown information, and, as the closest thing they had to a double agent (if one saw the heirs of the otherworldly empire as potential threats - which Alpha often did), her report was the most important. "Delta," Alpha requested, not needing to clarify or elaborate at this point.
"Upon receiving instructions from Alpha I arrived at this post shortly before the fall. During that time, I interacted with as many otherworlders as possible, especially at the seat of power on our satelite moon. Luckily, the former holder of this position was anti-social, so everyone accepted me as their guardian of time."
The room nodded, but only to show that they were listening. Things never could have gotting this far had Delta's cover been blown early.
"After the fall, I spent centuries learning about this position and training myself. By the time I was able to use my position in any useful way, much of earth was rebuilt. As it was, I was barely in time to save life f our liege. Whoever was behind the accident intended for the entire car to die. It made sure that the adults were dead, but it sought to torture the child by leaving him to die in the car with his dead parents. At some point during the attack, our liege sustained a head injury. Thankfully, it wiped out the memories of that attack. Unfortunately, it took almost all of his other memories of both lives as well." Delta continued.
"What attacked the car?" Alpha asked at Delta's pause.
"I am not sure. It was long gone before I got there. All I know it that it felt old."
"Like Dark Ages old?" Alpha asked again, attempting to ascertain the power and threat of the force behind the "accident". Even as a child, upon hearing about the plague that happened during the Dark Ages, she was very alarmed. It wasn't until she was old enough to reclaim her role as Alpha Rho that she realized what "the plague" actually was. And, as there was no team able to protect the earth present at that time, Alpha often worried that that particular evil would resurface.
"No," Delta responded in answer to Alpha's query. "Older. Glorious Reign old."
That statement shocked the whole room.
"What?!" Beta had shouted.
"Are you sure? Are you really sure about this?" Gamma cross-examined.
Alpha's eyes narrowed and her jaw tightened. "And you weren't able to destroy it and know nothing about who or what it was working for?"
"No," Delta had to utter again, "But whatever it was, it hasn't reappeared. I am not sure why."
Alpha groaned mentally. Having a very old and powerful force that tried to kill your prince, whom you are protecting, unaccounted for was another stressor she didn't need at the time. But she was pretty sure that Delta wasn't finished yet.
"After saving him from the accident, I got him to Gamma...by pulling a few strings. When he turned sixteen, I set up a trust fund for him and again worked magic, trying to get him scholarships to continue his schooling. By the time he was seventeen, however, he was earning those on his own. Financially, while he does get the occasional part-time job to hlpe pay the insurance on both his car and his bike, he is doing rather well." At this point Delta smiled the mysterious smile that had taken her centuries to perfect, "And it only took a few savings and loan scandals to it."
That produced smiles from the entire group, which, for them in this setting, was like uproarious laughter.
"Amazingly enough," Delta continued after a few moments, "he's drawn to people from his past and they end up making up his inner circle-"
"Clarify," Alpha demanded. "We know about Beta, but Beta himself helped that along. And we know about the satelite princess. But who else-"
In response, Delta handed Alpha a picture. "One of his friends in this lifetime," Delta explaianed. "She calls herself Saori now, but I'm sure you recognize her as-"
"Beta Sigma," Alpha breathed out, shocked. Ignoring Beta's quiet "I knew Saori seemed familiar", Alpha looked at Delta. "The Sigma team is here?" she asked. "But...then, the Queen-"
Delta looked down remorseful. "She died in the car accident that almost took our prince. Ironically, our king and queen were reborn as the parents of our prince in this life. That's what make the accident so sinster. Someone was trying to kill off the royal family."
If such a thing were possible, the team seemed to get even more serious and somber. Using even shorter sentences, Alpha tried to ascertain what all of this information about the past meant for the possible futures. "Everything in a written report?" she ordered, although to the unknowing person, it may have sounded like a question. Delta, however, understood the directive and nodded.
"Good," Alpha continued. "Timeline, then. And explanation for the force."
Amazingly enough, Delta and the others understood Alpha's short hand. Delta got to the point quickly. "There is something on the horizon. Whatever it is, it is powerful and difficult to beat. There could be a decisive battle in the coming months, one we cannot afford to lose."
"This thing on the horizon, what we've all felt. Have you figured out what it is yet?" Gamma asked, only to receive a negative answer.
"Is the Crystal Toyko future still a possibility?" Beta asked.
"Yes," Delta confirmed. "That, along with the other two next best options are still possible...but so are some pretty bleak alternatives, including at least one where no one from the Glorious Reign survives."
*****
It was that phrase that still rang through her head even now, days later as she sat at her computer. She had to get closer to her liege. Too much of the day he was unprotected, and that kept her up at night. All she knew was that the horizon was darkening and whatever this was, it wanted to destroy the remnants of the Glorious Reign. And currently, it had a clear shot at the only surviving member of the royal family.
"Merde," she muttered under her breath as she threw something across the room. Sure, it wasn't Spanish, but it was how she felt. Besides, while she could say "unprotected flank", "gun", and "covert plot" in Spanish, she couldn't say anything practical, like shit. Just another thing to frustrate her, the need to be operating between up to four languages.
"Is this a bad time?" a voice asked from the door to her office. Although the person was trying to hide their amusement, she still picked up on it. It did not bother her; if he was amused, even if it was at her expense, then he was safe.
"Mr. Chiba," she said as she looked toward her door. "No, this is a good time; come in," she invited.
The young man entered the room, picking up the object she had thrown acroos the room. "You may need this later," he said as handed her the stapler.
Jamelle blushed. "And I was hoping you'd never see my American temper. At least you found it funny," she added. In turn she was internally amused by his look of shock at her statement. 'The poor boy doesn't realize that he can't hide anything from me. It's my job to read him like a book. And I'm good at my job."
After a few beats, Mamoru decided to indulge in curiousity, something he wouldn't normally do in an office setting. "So, what frustrated you today, Ms. Minag- I mean, Jamelle," he amended upon seeing the look on his American collegue's face.
Jamelle sighed as she took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "My living situation," she answered, quietly replacing her glasses. "The hotel where I'm staying is driving me crazy and I don't want to be there for months. I really want an apartment, a flat...something! Heck, a student hostel would be better than this! I want to feel like I'm home when I walk in the door, not like I'm still at work. It's a little thing, I know," the black female said with a shake of her head, "but it's getting in the way of my productivity at this point."
Mamoru looked at her curiously. "Could you afford rent on an apartment?"
"I'm paying two hundred ninety-two dollars a night for my current hell. As long as rent around here is not 30 times that, I could manage....Do you now of a place whre I could live?" Jamelle asked. "I don't mean to sound pushy," she added as she looked at Mamoru's expression.
"Actually, I do know of a few places," Mamoru said slowly. "There is even a vacancy in my building-"
"Really?" Jamelle practically pounced on that information. "Could you help me find a place to live? I'd be so grateful." And, in part because of her pleeding eyes, before Mamoru knew it, he had agreed to help her get the open apartment in his building.
******
"It was the least I could do," Mamoru said a week later to his friend Motoki as he waited at the Crown Arcade to meet Jamelle to take her to sign her new lease.
"Really?" was all Motoki said with a raised eyebrow over his smiling eyes.
Mamoru gave his friend a look. "Whatever you are thinking, stop. She's been amazingly helpful as our American liasoin, but, more than that, she really has been protecting me, liek she said she world." Mamoru shook is head. "Some people at work did not want to see me succeed and tired to sabatoge me at several points during the last few weeks. Every time she managed to stop the plots without bringing shame on me or the company, sometimes at her own costs.
"And this is yoru way to saying, 'thank you'," Motoki finished. "She doesn't know that you know what she's done for you, does she?"
Mamoru nodded, marveling (not for the first time) at how well the med student and arcade worker knew him. "No, she doesn't. I just wanted to help her a little, in the way she's helped me."
"Commendable," Motoki pointed out, "but mixing your work and home life is a risk, isn't it? I mean, aren't you meeting Usagi here today?"
Mamoru smiled at the mention of his finacee. "Yes, actually. I wanted her to meet Jamelle-san," his smiled widdened as he shared his plan, "So I told her to be here at 2:00 and told Jamelle to meet me here at 2:30 so that they would arrive at the same time." It was common knowledge that, although she was getting better, Usagi still couldn't be on time for most things.
Smiling at his friend's plot, Motoki looked up in time to see a young woman walking into his arcade with a dark green briefcase over her shoulder. She wore a black dress with a shiny pin of some sort near her heart. Over the dress, she wore a short, button-down, light pink sweater. "I think your Jamelle-san is early," Motoki observed as he nodded toward the door.
Mamoru turned just at the point when Jamelle spotted him. She smiled and began to walk toward them, weaving expertly between excited kids and fast moving teenagers.
"Hi," she breathed when she got to the counter. "I'm a little early, but I was afraid of getting lost. I hope you don't mind," she added.
"That's okay," Mamoru assured her. "Jamelle-san, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Furuhata Motoki. Motoki, this is Minagawa-Smith Jamelle, the American liason I mentioned."
At this introduction, Jamelle began to bow and greet Furuhata-san, while Motoki held out his hand to meet Ms. Minagawa-Smith. Quickly noticing the disconnect, the two laughed as Jamelle straightened and took Motoki's hand. "That has happened to me more times than I can count in the last month," Jamelle shared. "It is nice to meet you as well, Mr. Fur-"
Motoki stopped her with a laugh. "Just call me Motoki, Ms. Minagawa-Smith. That way you won't have to stumble through my last name."
"Then you have to call me Jamelle," she countered, "My last name is mouthful." The two smiled at each other, which was just enough to cover the look that passed between them. Motoki, as he let go of Jamelle hand was about to say something else, when he noticed familar movement near the door of his arcade. Looking at Jamelle again, he said, "If I were you, Jamelle-san, I'd step back."
Confused by the suggestion, but knowing that it was safe to rely upon it, Jamelle took a step back...just as a blonde blur ran by her and crashed into Mamoru. About to take evasive action, she noticed the smile on Mamoru's face and so, instead of following her instincts, she became extremely watchful.
"I'm sorry I'm late," the thing/person that had rushed Mamoru said into his shirt. "But-"
"It's okay, Usako," the young man said as he smiled down at his finacee. "I knew you'd be there."
"They really do look good together, don't they?" Motoki asked Jamelle, his question somewhat pointed.
"I'm the wrong person of whom to ask that question. I always see the potential dangers and dark sides of relationships. Devotion can demand a high price," Jamelle replied quietly to the question. "Sometimes too high."
At this point, Mamoru seemed to have remembered Jamelle's presence, as he pulled away from his finacee and said, "Usako, there is someone I want you to meet." Turning his love around to face Jamelle, he said, "Usako, this is Minagawa-Smith Jamelle. She is working with me on that big project at work that I mentioned. Jamelle-san, this my finacee, Tsukino Usagi."
Jamelle looked at Mamoru as he finished. "Finacee? You never said anything! Congratulations!" the woman said in English. Returning to Japanese, she looked down at the young woman in front of her, and, bowing rather deeply said, "It is an honor to meet you, Tsukino-san."
The young girl blinked, but quickly bowed in return. "It is nice to meet you, too Minagawa-Smith-san." Usagi straighted and looked up at the tall woman in front of her. She was as easily as tall as Mako-chan, maybe taller, the young girl though to herself. She smiled at the young woman, who, after looking a little startled, smiled back.
Trying to cover for the fact that the satelite moon princess's entrance and smile knocked her slightly off based, Jamelle quickly changed subjects. "I don't mean to interupt time with your finacee. If the two of you want to stay here, I can go sign the lease on my own."
"It's okay, we don't mind going with you to sign the lease, do we, Usako?"
The young blonde shook her head, feeling like something else was going on, but she wasn't sure what it was.
"Thank you. Oh," Jamelle added, "do you know where I can find a moving company or something? I don't have a lot of stuff, but there is no way I can get what I have into my new apartment alone-"
"I'll help," Motoki volunteered before his friend could offer.
"Really," Jamelle attempted to confirm, not sounding a hundred percent happy about the offer. "I wouldn't want to put you out."
The blond man smiled. "No problem. I have time tomorrow and this way you won't interupt Mamoru's time with his finacee. Besides, we can trade stories on Mamoru," he added with a twinkle in his eye.
"Motoki, I'm not so sure that's-" Mamoru began, but Jamelle cut him off with her acceptance of his offer.
As they began to prepare to leave to sign the lease, Jamelle laughed and said to Mamoru, "Don't worry so much. We'd only be swapping stories between the two of us. We wouldn't do anything that wouldn't protect you."
And Mamoru again felt a little disturbed and strangely comforted by the American's use of the word "protect" again.
******
In another area, an angry force struggled against an already cracked seal. Finally, after a burst of energy, the seal exploded and the force was free. "Stupid, Alpha Rho," the force muttered in a feminine voice. "Did you really think that you could trap me forever?"
The force summoned its energy and tried to return to its post, but found its way blocked. Puzzled, the force asked, "Why would the gate deny me? I am its mistress, it would only deny me if there was a replacement-" The force stopped speaking abruptly. "Well, well, well, Alpha Rho," the force said after it realized what had happened, "maybe I did underestimate you after all. You put someone else at the gate of time so that I couldn't return there when the seal finally did break. But I wouldn't count me out just yet, noir one. As I cannot resume my duties, I'll make you fail at yours. Your prince and all of earth will pay for tainting the Silver Millenium." The force laughed, "and leaving you alive to watch your prince die will be more than enough torture to pay you back for all that you did to me."
And in this space, more laughter from a woman with a dangerous plan echoed all over the little frozen continent.
- to be continued -