The Bonds of Time
Chapter 18
Andrew Joshua Talon, with many thanks to Kanako Urashima
DISCLAIMER: Love Hina is not mine. I'm not making any profit off this fanwork, and the authors used own themselves. "The Love Hina Fan Boy War!" is the property of Kanako Himekazi-Urashima, which she gave me permission a while ago back to write a prequel to.
Therefore...
***~''~***
Yes, more filler, until Tuxy finishes his chapter. *sigh*. I'm not being bitter, given that Jack has other concerns to attend to, like a job, bills, and a girlfriend. I'm just unhappy that things are going slowly. In any event, enjoy.
(Note: The passage below was written by Kanako Urashima herself. With help from Mint, probably… In any event, it's supposed to take place in between Suu's rediscovery of NORAD, and Tuxedo Jack's arrival at Cheyenne Mountain.)
***~''~***
The Void is not a friendly place. Dark, having no sun, moon or star, the paths are lit by a sickly purple flame. To be trapped there meant being trapped in a place where time exists in an altered manner. A day in the normal world could easily transform into well worth a century in The Void. Only a few beings with great power could even come to observing the events of the normal world. And, on occasion, the shadowy nature of The Void itself would select from those exiled within its ethereal borders someone who could see into the normal world. These were few and far in between, even the dark Demon Princes of The Void do not have what it takes to escape the darkness of the world. However, among the few who could observe, but not interact, with the human world, were two less than humane sisters, who had wandered into the Void, amazingly, by mistake. This would not be their last time in the realm of darkness, but they would escape.
At the moment, the two were watching a small group, one guy and two girls, walking along an over-grown vineyard.
In the human world, another being that was less than humane walked with two younger looking girls. None of their group was truly human but only he had fully despised his humanity from the very start. He was a Necromancer, a being with no sense of mercy and as he licked the human blood right off his sword's chipped blade. He had just engaged himself in a one-man massacre, slaughtering anything that dared move too close to him. The gangs and hordes of mutated beasts were all over the land that used to be known as New Orleans now. Picking up a fine looking bottle of burgundy, he tucked it into his knapsack and kept walking, making sure to keep an eye on the girls walking behind him. When his ears ceased to pick up the sound of light steps on dead corpses, he turned back to see the girl he was tasked to guard praying over the dead and at the same time, light coming from her was healing those who survived. He waited patiently; popping the bottle open and drinking down half of it in one go. Then, the girl looked at him scornfully.
"You disapprove of my methods?" he asked.
"Clearly, she disapproves." The older of the two sisters in The Void commented.
"Yes, yes I do." The girl, the goddess Shinobu, answered. It was the first time she had ever even looked him directly in the eye, let alone look like she was about to scold him. "We've been traveling under your supposed protection for almost three years now. All this time, I've watched you cut down and slaughter everything. Mutated animals, mad humans, everything! I just…can't stand it anymore, Kana-san."
"The lucky ones are already dead." Kana hissed. "But if it will make you feel easier about this, I know a route with barely any other living beings along it but it'll delay our arrival by a good five years. In five years, the Colorado Springs we hope to find can be a very different place. Humans have the innate skill to ruin anything and everything they get their hands on if given enough time."
"He's absolutely right." One of the sisters in The Void agreed.
"Don't think so badly of people, they're not as hopeless as you think."
Kana simply let it slide and walked off again; knowing Shinobu and Su would follow. "Let's go."
In The Void, one black-haired girl and one blue-haired younger girl looked on. The older, Kanako looked carefully at the Necromancer. She smiled; she liked the rather embittered young man. The Cataclysm and her exile in The Void with her accursed younger sister gave her a similar hatred and disdain towards humanity. Following along as best she could, she noticed her younger sister following as well. She didn't care as she noticed almost a week pass by and they arrived in the location of what used to be the Sandwish Islands wedging itself between North America and Europe. The islands had scattered all over and much like the rest of the world, chaos reigned there. A monsoon was coming and Kana and his group had opted to take refuge in what was left of the country's maximum security prison, where the smell of the corpses of the inmates who died during the Cataclysm still lingered on. However, Kana stood outside, in the rain. Kanako leaned closer to him, as best her ethereal limits could, and gently leaned close to him.
"Such magnificent hatred, such beautiful rage and such eternal darkness…" Kanako whispered in his ear, though she knew he could not hear her. "We will meet again and rivers of blood will flow across the land."
"Sister…" the blue-haired girl asked.
"Yes, Mint?" Kanako answered bitterly as she walked away from Kana.
"Who is he? Why do I feel so…drawn to him?"
"His rage, his hatred, his distaste for humanity is what draws us to him." Kanako answered as she walked away, prompting Mint to follow. "We will see him again, little sister. So I am telling you now, hands off. He's mine, find yourself a second-rate substitute. I am warning you already, the Necromancer is mine."
"What if he likes me better than you?" Mint asked playfully.
"Then I'll kill you."
"You'd kill your own sister over a guy?!"
"He's no ordinary man. Even you can sense that, Mint. Besides, we're all going to die sometime, better sooner than later for you." Kanako hissed, grabbing her younger sister by the throat and choking her with one hand as the shadowy darkness wrapped around her arm. Kanako smiled viciously. "So, for once that cockroach Naru was right. We're not human anymore; we're transcending anything we were meant to be."
"What do you mean?"
"Destiny, my dear sister, destiny calls us." Kanako smiled softly as she let go. She let out a demonic, maniacal laugh filled with disdain and sadistic glee. "I always knew my years studying the occult would pay off for me one day. Come, Mint. We have for ourselves a dragon to send to his demise."
Meanwhile, Shinobu was starting to worry. She still held on to her disapproval of Kana's methods, his disregard for all life but she did owe him her life. His brutality and barbaric tactics saved her and Su's life on thousands of occasions. And just that morning, she saw her sitting on a rock in a field of flowers, holding a single white rosebud in his hands. He was looking at it almost kindly, his expression filled with gentility and his eyes more angelic than even she could have imagined. She avoided her being detected by him and looked on as he simply stared at the flower amidst the white cherry blossoms beginning to swirl around the garden.
Then, as he closed his eyes, a single teardrop fell. Yet, mere minutes later, he was back to his cruel self and they were off and moving again until they decided to take shelter. She couldn't sleep and so she stood near the door, away from the torrential downpour and tugged at the sleeve of his coat while he stood there. He stood with his sword at the ready, a small force of skeleton warriors ready to aid him nearby. He was stern and grim, nothing like the one Shinobu saw holding the flower that morning.
"Come in, it's late and you'll catch a cold if you stay out there like this." Shinobu said, almost as if she were pleading with him. Whether she liked it or not, she cared about him.
"I'd rather not."
"You're required to obey my commands, right?"
"To an extent and as long as it does not interfere with my task, yes."
"Then I'm ordering you, come in and rest." Shinobu said, taking his hand and smiling softly at him. She wondered if she could somehow melt through his armor and find that gentle youth she saw with the white rosebud earlier. "I barely know anything about you, tell me about yourself."
Kana sighed and went in, not once releasing his grip on his sword's handle. "There's not much to tell. Besides, I don't like talking about myself."
"Where were you born? Where are your parents?" Shinobu asked, sitting beside him. Oddly, despite his cold demeanor, his body was quite warm and inadvertently, she found herself creeping closer to him. He didn't react at all. "You know; the basic stuff. At least tell me how you seem to know everything."
"I was raised by an order of lesbian necromancers and assassins with no actual name. They lived by the motto 'Viator Intervigillium Vividarium' [Latin: The Messenger Sleeps in the Garden] and they trained me." Kana answered as he noticed Shinobu's body lean into his, resting on his weary body. Her eyes were closed but she was clearly awake. "They made no claim to be my parents. They admitted they killed my parents and kidnapped me. I didn't care. I was trained to feel no emotions."
"That sounds so…horrible."
Kana ignored Shinobu's comment. "I was training in the mountains that day and when I came back, a bunch of over-zealous clergymen were burning the only home I ever knew down. The entire order was wiped out except for one woman, the one they called 'En Sabah Nur' [Ancient Egyptian: The First One], the leader. I managed to save her. She was a lovely woman and before she died, she gave me two things."
"What were they?"
"A kiss, passing on her powers as a Master Necromancer to me."
"And the other one was?"
"Her real name, the name she hid from everyone, even the other women of the order." Kana closed his eyes and opened his coat pocket, revealing a white rosebud in his hand. "White roses decorated her kimono when I burned her funeral pyre, as well as the others. They're the only reminders I have of the order."
"Is that why you hate humanity so much?"
"No, I hated humanity long before that." Kana answered. "That incident just confirmed my hatred for all religions. There is no such thing as a real faith, a real religion or a one true god. Anyone believing in such doctrines is a fool."
"Are you saying there's no God, Heaven, Hell or The Devil?"
"Good and evil exist, mark my words." Kana answered, finally relaxing and letting his sword to the ground. By now, after almost a week with no rest, even he needed to sleep. "I just don't like representing them as God and The Devil. There is no Heaven, there is no Hell. Both of them are this world. It is just a matter of different points of view. Hell and Heaven are what we make the world, nothing more. Now, you sleep."
"Alright, I'll sleep but only if you sleep too, Kana. That's an order."
As Shinobu finally rested her body completely on Kana, he leaned his back to the wall and wrapped his arms around her protectively while readying his sword. He stroked her blue hair softly, gently closing his arms in around her. She was very beautiful and part of him saw hope for humanity in her eyes. However, he was too stern with himself to show weakness now. He closed one eye and kept one looking about wearily.
"Sleep now, viator lucis. [Latin: Messenger of Light or Lightbringer] Your guardian will not fail you." He knew that he was starting like her almost in a romantic sense but he could not afford that now. "My sword is yours, my life is yours and I will protect you until I die."
Then, as he was finally asleep, Shinobu leaned upwards and looked at his sleeping, quiet expression. He was asleep and did not feel it. She had no idea why she did that, a move made purely out of impulse. However, she slowly realized that anyone who would fall for him must be willing to lose him quickly.
"Good night, Kana-san." Shinobu whispered. "Maybe someday, you'll let me know more about you…"
***~''~***
"Kana Himekazi: The Necromancer, consort of Shinobu then Kanako, who, according to the history books, played only a small role in the Era of Goddesses…" Arney stopped talking, and looked up at Talon.
"But…?" Talon prompted.
"There's more to it. There has to be." Arney pressed. Talon smiled, and shook his head.
"All in good time, Arney… All in good time…"
"Still, may I ask one question?"
"Shoot."
"… You, Professor, stand for truth, light, and hope. You have preached the ultimate redemption of humanity, you have kept the faith of Christianity alive… You're basically, well, an angel."
"I don't think I've felt this embarrassed since Queen Mutsumi dropped her towel after taking a shower," Talon noted with a small smirk. Arney blushed, then took a deep breath.
"And… Well… Kana… He, he just… wasn't. From what I've read, he was a psychopath, a brutal, heartless monster who was tortured into a life of violence and darkness thanks to a sadistic and evil organization. So… How could you possibly be friends with such a.. A demon? How could you possibly praise him in your books?" Talon took a very deep breath, and looked out the window again.
"Probably because… I knew he was lying."
"… Huh?"
"Kana claimed to have no emotions, but that's simply not true," Talon mused, seemingly half to himself and half to his audience. "No matter how much training, how much indoctrination, no matter how much pain, we humans still have emotions. They can't be killed without killing the individual. I know this for a fact… Because of what I saw in his eyes, heard in his voice, when he talked about Shinobu." Talon smiled wryly.
"He loved her. Her gentle spirit, her kindness… Other women would have rejected him, resisted him, or simply ignored him, but she didn't. She actually reached out to him, and in her, he found a kind of peace. That is, I think, the whole reason for his apparent arrogance - Not heartless devotion to destiny, but love. He feared his emotions, and so tried to redirect them. If it had not been for Shinobu, I doubt he would have fallen in love with Kanako. Doubtless, he would have found a connection in her, but without anything beyond simple killing and hatred, love cannot exist. Though they'll deny this to Judgment Day." Talon sighed deeply.
"I never condoned his brutal actions, and I never will… But ultimately, because he gave his life to save the ones he loved, because he loved, I am still proud to have called him my friend. He had pride, and complete faith in what he was doing, which is something that few men can attest to. If it were not for this, I probably would have slain him… Or at least, died trying." Talon smirked.
"The great irony is, even if he didn't believe in God, he was doing His work."
"Oh? How so?"
"Simple: He knew what he had to do and he did it. He didn't know who gave him this directive-Not really as none of us can be truly sure - but he did it without question, with complete faith. And I have a firm belief he's up in Heaven right now… Probably still as stubborn as ever." Arney laughed softly at this, high-pitched but not unpleasant. Then, pausing, the girl gave Talon a look.
"Well… After that little detour… Can we get back on track to the Light of Evil?"
"All right, all right… Where was I? Oh yes. Kebinu and I had just left the airbase, and Lucia and Argus were left there, and while they were there, they had a discussion…"
***~''~***
Andrew's Air Force Base
"Listen, um… You're NOT considering making planes that think for themselves… Are you?"
Lucia Tanaka, greatest technological genius in the Otohime Union, and head of Tanaka Corporations, stared at Captain Argus with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, I wouldn't mind if they could do a few things by themselves, but no, not really. Why?" Argus sighed with relief, and smiled at the demigoddess.
"Terminator was on in the mess hall the other night. Someone managed to salvage a DVD projector and we just watched it. So, was just, you know… With Skynet and all…" Argus looked up at the aircraft that was the source of her concern. Sitting in the large hanger they were currently talking in (with a number of similar aircraft nearby), was a wide, light gray, flying wing.
It was an Otohime Air Force B-3 Aerowing, the standard heavy attack bomber in Mutsumi's arsenal. Only, instead of a cockpit in the center of the wing (like it's predecessor the B-2 or it's fellow bombers), there instead was little more than a gray bulge, as though the bomber had had it's view ports removed.
"Relax, Captain," Lucia soothed, "At best, this baby's as intelligent as a beetle, if that. It only does what it's told to do, and can only make some basic decisions regarding it's mission." Lucia smiled proudly up at her handiwork. She'd built this UAV bomber out of a chassis of an Aerowing under construction-More on a testing basis, than anything else.
After all, even with her new technological innovations for g-relief in the still-in-production F/A-22 (not to mention other aircraft), the main factor limiting the performance of supersonic aircraft was still a human one.
"I mean, we've been using the Global Strike Aircraft for a few years now, and it's completely unmanned. We can send them anywhere in the world in a matter of hours at hypersonic speeds, and let loose enough cruise missiles to total a small city, and yet, you weren't concerned about them turning on us?" Argus blushed, embarrassed.
"Sorry, Lady Tanaka…"
"Not at all, Captain. I mean, I've had some concerns about that myself," Lucia confessed, smiling warmly. "But trust me, they can't do anything against us, because they just don't have the ability to think about it, much less actually do it."
"Still, I've been a bit worried, Lady Tanaka," Argus spoke. She turned from the bomber, and walked out of the hanger, towards the air field. Lucia followed, raising a silver eyebrow.
"Oh? About what?" Argus had stopped in front of a line of F/A-22s, parked on the thoroughfare. They were undergoing maintenance, the crews busily prying open panels and adjusting wires, frames, and various equipment that made up the aircraft.
"About… Well… Our technology, you see. We're not the most advanced nation on Earth, though we're close…"
"Of course… I mean, it's hard to beat a goddess, after all," Lucia smirked. Argus nodded back at her.
"But, we're overall a superpower. But… Maybe General Talon's paranoia is rubbing off on me… But I'm worried. If we get into a war with the NE, you see…"
"You're afraid that, even with our strengths, we'll be no match for them?" Argus nodded. Lucia smiled, shaking her head. She looked down at her feet for a moment, before looking back up.
"Argus… Janet… I'm not good at getting close to people."
"I noticed," Argus said with a small smile. A short glare appeared on Lucia's face, but it soon vanished, and was replaced with an almost shy smile.
"And… Well, it's kind of hard, to… talk about this, to someone I don't know… Very well… But I'm scared too. I really am." Argus blinked incredulously.
"You? Scared? You can't be serious…"
"Oh c'mon, I am serious."
"With your powers and intellect? I doubt I'd be scared by much, if anything," Argus huffed, crossing her arms. Lucia smirked sagely.
"Oh? What about, being scared that your inventions and weapons fail on the battlefield? What about being scared at the prospect of hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people dying because of something you overlooked?" Lucia looked out over the runway, her eyes hooded.
"Someone… I care about… Dying because of my mistake…" Argus smiled shyly.
"You like him, don't you?" Lucia blinked awkwardly at Argus.
"What? Who?" Argus winked at her.
"Who else?" Argus then walked a bit away, and began a silly song and dance.
"Tanaka and Talon, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-"
"Oh, you're going to pay for that!" Lucia growled, blushing furiously, as she ran after the cackling captain. The maintenance workers looked up and smiled at the (not uncommon) spectacle, before resuming their work.
***~''~***
Seventy thousand feet above Oklahoma City
The Global Hawk had been the first unmanned reconnaissance jet aircraft to ever have been successfully used in actual combat in 2002. The smooth, white, albatross-like UAV relayed communications from command to frontline troops and back again, observed enemy units, and mapped out different routes for ground forces to follow.
Such an aircraft, the Tanaka Corporation Global Hawk-II (only slightly bigger than it's ancestor), was cruising high above the American west, doing precisely that. The UAV had been monitoring troop movements of the NE Imperial Army for the last two weeks, loitering and conserving fuel. She could continue her mission for another two weeks if needed, the Otohime Command having made an excellent rotation schedule for the aircraft.
At this moment, the UAV had been surveying the terrain of southern Oklahoma, taking digital images that analysts back home would study, to see the status of the area's irrigation, farming, industry, and population, when something to the south caught the UAV's electronic eyes.
OU Global Hawks had two independently moving cameras turrets, and one had noticed a strange EM spike from northern Texas. The vehicle reported this new development, and per it's programming, asked if it would be prudent to change course and investigate.
The controllers back home received the message in a matter of seconds after it had been relayed through a high-flying communications balloon (the OU didn't have any access to satellites, so retrofitted weather balloons made up for this technological gap). The first looked at the data carefully, and her gaze then shifted to the window on the screen:
Alter course; Investigate new finding?
Y/N
The controller typed 'Y', and another few seconds later, the Global Hawk had shifted course, lowering it's altitude to sixty-thousand feet for a closer look.
The Global Hawk's passive radar systems soon detected another aircraft approximately thirty miles away. It hadn't been able to "see" it due to the aircraft's small size, but soon after contact, it was able to pick out it's exact profile.
Classification: Mecha Tama, Mk. VII-J2, Tracked Tama #1882
Type: Long-Range Reconnaissance Drone
Affiliation: SASA (Shinobu and Suu Alliance)
Course: 045
Bearing: 353
Distance: 46.5 km
Altitude: 94,400 km
Threat Status: None
The Global Hawk sent the Mecha Tama a standard greeting, that all OU and SASA aircraft exchanged when they caught sight of each other, just to clear up any misconceptions. The turtle-like drone returned the favor, and inquired about the Global Hawk's mission. The Global Hawk's controller received another message:
Report mission parameters to track Tama 1882?
Y/N
The OU controller hit 'Y' again, and the Tama drone soon reported it's same intentions: To investigate the EM spike in Texas. The Global Hawk and Mecha Tama thus began exchanging their data and reporting their findings as they closed to a better viewing location of the strange energy signature.
Both drones finally made visual contact with whatever-it-was that had excited the interest. Close-up digital images taken by the Global Hawk had discovered that the source of the energy was an abandoned penal facility in Houston. The images zoomed in, highlighting the strange effect of bizarre, ghostly white energy radiating out from within the structure. The Mecha Tama also saw the same thing, and correlated their findings. The operators on both ends of the data links were puzzled, so, through their UAVs, decided to close in much further.
The two aircraft soon descended into the stratosphere, reaching 30,000 ft. They flew almost parallel to each other, keeping a tight-beam, high speed data transfer between them at all times. The aircraft were able to detect radiological emissions from the old prison-X-Rays and even a few gamma rays. They could pick out various people congregating outside the facility, arrayed strangely. The Mecha Tama's cameras seemed to show the people chanting, in robes, and waving banners.
They closed beneath the clouds, both aircraft moving at about Mach 1. They spent twenty minutes approaching the strange pinpoint of energy, closer and closer and closer…
Abruptly, the Global Hawk adjusted it's cameras to focus upon the roof of the bizarre building. They could pick out a human figure, and (after filtering out the excess radiation it was receiving), zoomed in. It could distinguish facial features from only a few miles away.
The face was young, his eyes narrowed, his mouth opening and closing with the camera's snapshots. For a few digital frames, the young man seemed confused, his gaze shifting up. And, a frame later, he stared directly into the cameras of the two UAVs.
Zzzzzzzzzzz!
The SASA Tama pilot in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, and the OU Global Hawk controller in Nashville, Tennessee, stared at their static-filled screens in confusion. From their readings, it seemed that the two reconnaissance drones had simply gone dead at the same time…
***~''~***
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Colorado
"Sorry sir… It just went dead. Complete systems failure," said the confused Tama operator. Over his shoulder, in the central command center of what was once NORAD, Tuxedo Jack shook his head in his own confusion.
"Tracking?"
"Sir?"
"What's the status of Drone 1882?" The radar operator (one of several in the cavernous room), typed up some commands at his station and blinked at the results.
"It's going down, sir. That OU drone that was with it is going down too," he reported, running a few more diagnostics on the systems at his command. Jack rubbed his chin, his brown eyes narrowed.
"We have all the recorded data?"
"Yes sir, we do," the operator replied, looking a bit shaken. He'd only started a few days ago, and now he'd lost his first recon drone. Jack noticed the young pilot's anxiety, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Relax, private. It's not your fault, you couldn't have known what would happen. Now, just start going over the data, send it up to the science department, intel-Standard procedure, okay? Recon ops?" A thirty-something woman looked up from her computer display board, upon which were the current assignments and courses of the Mecha Tama recon fleet.
"Sir?"
"Re-deploy any available Tamas to sweep that area," Jack said, pointing at the glowing point on the main screen ahead. "And get in touch with the OU Air Command. Let's try pooling our resources to figure this out." With a nod from the officer, Jack sighed, rubbing his eyes. Things generally weren't this exciting around here. Sure, they'd had a few skirmishes with raiders they'd seen coming a hundred miles away, and the odd EN Imperial patrol getting too close… But this was whacked.
"Jack?" Jack turned, and was met with the lovely, concerned face of Lady Shinobu, the Goddess of Light. Jack bowed before her.
"Milady." Shinobu nodded, and when Jack's eyes met her own again, she pointed to the screen.
"I heard about the drone. What do we know about that… that building…" Shinobu trailed off, her eyes lowering to the floor, as though she were looking for something. Jack's brow raised.
"My lady? … Lady Shinobu?" The blunette blinked, and shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Jack… I felt… Strange, for a moment…" A midnight-black katana emerged between the two, and Jack followed the deadly blade up to the one wielding it. His eyes hardened.
"Kana." The Necromancer looked over at Tuxedo Jack, his cold, dead black eyes boring into him. Unbidden, a sudden hatred seized Jack's heart, a rage at this walking nightmare.
"The Goddess must retire. Now. It is too dangerous," he said in his cold, flat voice. Jack glared back at him.
"That's for her to decide, not you." Kana continued staring at him.
"I serve fate. It is fate's wish that the Lightbringer not come to harm." Shinobu sighed deeply, setting her mind for patience.
"Kana, please. I can take care of myself, you know." Shinobu raised an eyebrow at her "protector".
"Or, is my fate to be locked up in a cage and placed in a high tower for my safety forever?" Kana glowered, before sheathing his blade.
"No. It is not." Shinobu nodded appreciatively, and took Jack's arm.
"Kana, please oversee command here… Jack and I are going to take a walk." Jack was confused, but successfully hid the expression, as Kana wordlessly nodded, and walked over to the relative center of the control room. Shinobu and Jack walked away, into one of the numerous hallways on the base.
"… You don't like him," Shinobu said bluntly. Jack took a deep breath.
"No. I don't. He doesn't obey my orders, has taken you and Suu away when we fall under attack for years, has killed too many good people under his command because they didn't get the job done fast enough…"
"I know, I know… He is difficult to work with, Jack, I know." Shinobu turned to Jack, earnestness written in her very stance.
"But, I trust him. He is a good person, I know he is, and he has saved my life on many, many occasions. And, we'll all need to trust each other, if whatever is happening in Texas is… Well, the start of something large." Jack sucked in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. He refocused his ki energy, closing his eyes as he did so, and finally opened his eyes again, mirrored in the Goddess's twin cornflower pools.
"I'll try… I promise." Shinobu nodded thankfully, giving him a gorgeous smile, before releasing her second-in-command and walking steadily down the hall, leaving Jack to ponder what in hell was going on…
***~''~***
And the saga, yes, rolls on…
I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Like I said, Tuxy is taking a while…
Angry Mob: GET 'IM!
Talon: WAAAAHHHH!!! (runs away)
NEXT CHAPTER: Whatever Tuxy has finished, goes up! NO, NO! NOT IN THE FACE!