Beyond The Shattered Glass

Written by Raining Dreams ("Bunny")

Yep. Still hot: Yeah, it's still hot in here. I have coffee though, so I'm happy. I'm realllll mad at my best friend for getting me to like it so well. I had planned on going through life despising coffee and drinking only tea... but if you add lots of creme and sugar ..; yum. Wakes me up, too. Yay for coffee.

Disclaimer: Man, I don't own Detective Conan OR Folgers!! This sucks!!

Beyond the Shattered Glass: File Four

Jimmy gaped at who he saw standing there. "Rache!!" he stuttered. Sure enough, she was standing there, her hair up in a loose bun, a trench coat on (it had been raining on and off all day), an umbrella in her gloved hands. Professor Agasa just backed away slowly into the other room while Jimmy advanced on her. "What's wrong? Is everything al-" he was cut off by Rachel holding her hand up.

"I'm fine Jimmy. As fine as I can be at the moment. Go get a coat. We're going for a walk." she said it all in such a manor that he couldn't say no to her. He walked into the other room, retrieving a windbreaker, and walking out with her with a soft sort of wave to the professor.

They were silent for a long time. It was roughly 3 in the afternoon, and everyone was already at work on this Monday, leaving it fairly deserted. They just walked for a while, side by side, silent.

It was that loud silence that frightened Jimmy. It was the same silence he'd heard that horrible night, and he figured it couldn't mean anything good. Then he heard what was, in his opinion, the worst noise in the world. A soft sob emitted from the girl to his right. She was crying... He blinked, "Rachel...please don't." he pleaded quietly.

"Why, Jimmy? Why didn't you tell me? Why couldn't I have known?"

"Because," he said softly. "I didn't want you hurt. The time you were kidnaped. It was because of me. I couldn't let you know."

She stopped, turning to face him, tears making her eyes shine with an odd brilliance, a splash of red over her cheeks and the bridge of her nose making her look pretty in a wilted flower sort of way. "Jimmy..." she whispered quietly, staring into his eyes with an undescribable look. One of hurt and something Jimmy couldn't put his finger on. Understanding, maybe? Love...? He inched closer to her, wanting to embrace her; to kiss her. God he wanted to kiss her right then.

But, in a cruel twist of fates, that kiss wasn't to happen. Not today, at any rate. The two had neglected to notice how close to an ally they were and a man emerged from the shadows, pressing a knife to Jimmy's throat and slowly pulling him back. Rachel instantly recognized him as one of the thugs that had taken her nearly 5 years previous. She let out a short gasp, before putting on her game face.

"You...evil! Let him GO!" she shrieked, lunging at him. Thug number two, however, came out and began to clobber her. Emotions and fighting didn't suit Rachel, and needless to say, this guy was LOTS bigger than her. She lay crumpled on the ground, clinging to consciousness as she watched them drag her childhood friend off. "Jimmy..." she whispered desperately as they shoved him in one of two waiting cars. The man she could recognize from her kidnaping was there as well, but there was a new face. A woman with light brown hair, almost blonde, was there, watching it all.

The apparent organizer pointed at Rachel. "Finish her, Sherry. Dispose of the body, retrieve the weapon, and get back to the base."

She nodded. "Gotcha, Whiskey." she said coldly, walking over to Rachel and pulling something out of her pocket. A pill. She waited for the car to pass, before saying in a soft sort of way. "Take this."

Rachel pressed her mouth firmly together, shaking her head desperately. Sherry rolled her eyes, pinching Rachel's nose until her mouth opened, shoving the capsule in, and covering her mouth until she swallowed it. Rachel suddenly felt severe pain shoot through her body, and she drifted off... No...Jimmy... no... were her closing thoughts.

It took several hours for her to re-awaken and for her vision to de-blur. Rachel discovered herself lying on a couch, a sheet placed neatly over her. She sat up slowly, raising a hand to her forehead. "Ugh. My head..." she murmured, before opening her eyes and taking notice of the fact her hand was TINY. "What the--?!" she sat up, swiveling to get off the couch, but mis-judging the distance and falling. "Who--what?!" Who in their right MIND would keep a couch that big?! Thought the bewildered girl, standing up to look around. Everything was so BIG! She felt like Alice in Wonderland... she looked down, noticing that she was no longer in her trench coat, t-shirt, and jeans. No. Now she was in what looked distinctly like a Catholic school-girl uniform. "What the HELL?!" she yelped. The woman from earlier came in, leaning in the doorway.

"Awake, are we?" she inquired. Rachel pointed a trembling finger.

"Who are you?! What kind of sick place is this!!!" she paused. "And how the HELL did you get that tall?!" The woman rolled her eyes.

"You should refrain from saying 'hell'. And calm down. What ever happened to saying 'Hello Ai!!'?" Rachel batted her eyes, coughing lightly in surprise.

"Ai?!"

"Yes, although I'd really appreciate it if you called me Sherry." Rachel nodded dumbly.

"What's...what's going on?!"

"Let's let the mirror do the talking, shall we?" Sherry pulled out a long mirror she'd placed against the wall earlier. Rachel backed away, eyes wide.

"I'm...I'm three feet tall!!!" she whimpered, taking notice of the fact her voice was high now.

"Three and three quarters, actually. You're eight-years-old, Rachel."

"Eight?!" she whispered, going pale.

"Calm down." Sherry said sternly. "Come get some tea and I'll explain." she prepared tea, sitting both of them down. "Now. As Jimmy has undoubtably told you, He and I were transformed into children as the result of my making a rather bad poison. I've amplified that, and given it to you. With the original, you'd be thirteen and useless. Before you say anything, though, allow me to state my reasons. Jimmy Kudo has been taken by and they are merely awaiting for our leaders to get here to kill him. That's why we need to rescue him. That's where you come in. Rachel, you must act mean to Jimmy. Mean as you can muster. Make him CRY, if you can. It's the only way you'll be able to save him. Get them to trust you enough to leave you alone with him. You have to figure the plan from there. You will notice a necklace around your neck." Rachel took this moment to tug at the choker which, via a chain, had a small, silver heart attached. "Inside that heart is a tablet. It will revert you to normal. Be careful when taking it, however." Rachel sipped her tea, trying to take all of this in. The fact that her feet were dangling from the chair wasn't helping.

"You'll be able to piece together why I need you as a child when we get there. For now, we need to lighten that hair."

For the next few hours, Rachel had her hair dyed considerably lighter, and had freckles stained onto her cheeks and nose. Her hair was tied into a pair of pigtails secured with ribbons, and they just generally worked until Rachel had a hard time recognizing herself. They couldn't have Jimmy figuring her out, after all.

They got into a car and made their way to a house; apparently another 'base' (Sherry had explained that they had various bases scattered all over) and walked in. The men from earlier looked from Sherry down to Rachel. The one they called 'Whiskey' got up to inspect Rachel.

"A little girl, Sherry? This is the most satanic little brat you could find? Pfft. Some weapon."

"Don't call me little." Rachel hissed. "I killed both my goodie-goodie parents. I'll kill YOU in a heartbeat if you don't stop." Sherry raised a brow, smirking. Whiskey did a circle around the child, before nodding.

"Stats, Sherry."

"Little Megan here is eight and a half, has killed her parents and uncle, and has sent various other adults to the hospital. Smart as a whip, too. Go ahead, ask her anything your average highschool grad would know." Whiskey looked to her, before stooping to "Megan's" level.

"Alrighty. What is a plus 456 if a is valued at 230?" The child glared.

"Such a trivial, irrelevant question. But if you must know, the answer is six hundred eighty six." she said instantly. Whiskey raised a brow.

"Nice work, Sher. Vodka and Gin are sure to be pleased. Now it's time to test out how mean she is. Come along, sweetie."

"Don't call me sweetie." Megan snapped, glaring at him. He just smirked, leading her into another room Jimmy was huddled in the corner of a large dog-cage which was secured with two locks. One requiring a key and one needing a combination. The Rachel side of the child wanted to run up and comfort him, but she knew she couldn't. Finding her voice, she walked up.

"What sort of pathetic THING is this, and when to I get to kill it?" she said coldly. Whisky smiled a satanic grin.

"Excellent work, Sherry. Excellent, excellent work." he said, walking over and placing a hand on Megan's shoulder, chuckling in a twisted way as a bleary Jimmy stared in horror.

HEE!: Ha! I TOLD you you'd be given a big plot twist!! Beautiful, isn't it? Angsty and EVERYTHING. I plan to have a "Megan" character sheet up soon, so yes. Bow down to my smartness. I don't know when the next chapter will be up. I plan to write MOST of it tonight, but I don't know when it'll be done. I'm guessing either late Monday or Tuesday afternoon. Review, people. I want to hit 60 before my next chapter. REVIEW.