Ms. Selly owns Fire Blossom, Annabellina, Frank, and Lynx. Nyneve owns Saxen Maverick and Moksha.
Chapter 19:
Jack. Secret. Relationship.
When Saxen walked into the cold brightness of the infirmary with Moksha and Van Helsing,she was no longer wearing a dress and appeared far more pleased than she had been before. Clothed in a black t-shirt and camo pants, she walked over to the medical table where the newest acquisition lay unconscious.
"Figure out who he is?" she looked at the distraught Effie pacing the room.
She shook her head. "No…and I don't think it's good that Dru like, drained every ounce of blood in the guy."
"Had to do it, love" Dru replied from the other side of the table, where she sat cuddling Miss Edith.
Fire Blossom rolled her eyes. "What happened to the others?"
"Tabby and Miyu are changing, and I believe your brother is busy stalking Duo."
The younger girl groaned and put a hand over her face. "I have got to have a talk with those boys."
Van Helsing was about to say something as Dru suddenly stood up, set her doll on the chair, and swept over to the medical table.
"Time to wake up now, dearie. You'll miss breakfast." With those gentle words, she bent down and kissed the man with surprising force. When she pulled away, he appeared a little less inebriated and a bit more confused.
"Now what happened here?" he looked around, then faced Dru. "Where'd you take me, lass?"
"It's home, silly" she grinned, then pointed to the others. "You see? With the red one, and the vixen, and the she-wolf, and the angel."
"A pleasure" he stood slowly and bowed. "Captain Jack Sparrow, at your service."
"Pleasure's ours, Jack" Effie replied. "My name's Fire Blossom, but everyone calls me Effie."
"Gabriel Van Helsing" the one Dru had called the "the angel" said.
"Saxen Maverick. This is Moksha" a tall tan woman introduced, pointing to the red wolf at her feet.
Jack squinted, then appeared to be counting. "Weren't there more of you?"
"Hell yeah," Tabby announced, walking in with Miyu, Duo, and Lynx in tow. She walked over and slapped him on the shoulder. "Good to see you up and about. Van give you some of his cure?"
"I don't know. Did you?" he asked. Van Helsing shook his head.
The blond girl grinned. "You're lucky. Nasty stuff. Yeah, anyways, in case you didn't know. I'm Tabby, and this little sweetheart here is Miyu. That's Duo, and Effie's brother Lynx."
The last man smirked and leaned against the wall. "Another guy, huh? That's good. This thing is overrun with chicks. Not that there's anything wrong with that," Lynx added quickly, after receiving a glare from Effie.
"Now mate," Jack said, putting one arm around Dru and another around Tabby. "Nothing wrong with feminine company."
Tabby's eyes flashed as she raised her hand and slapped him. "Hands off the merchandise, reggae-man."
"What?" he asked innocently.
She slapped him again, then walked over to Van Helsing. "Give him the nasty stuff. Like, now." With that, she made one of her ever-gracious exits. Jack simply shrugged and put his arm around Effie.
Duo glared, then yanked her away. "Okay, for the record, Effie's off limits."
"What the…hey, you don't own me!"
"Well, you want him all over you?"
Effie thought a moment. "Actually…no." She looked apologetically at Jack. "No offense. You're just kinda old for me."
"Not for me" Lynx smiled, then frowned as he inhaled the scent of alcohol. "But seriously dude, the rum or whatever has got to go."
"Give up rum?" the man repeated uncomprehendingly.
Lynx sighed. "No claims here."
"And for the record, Miyu's a vampire and she has a really scary demon bodyguard guy, so no hitting on her. That pretty much leaves you with Saxen and Dru," Effie supplied.
As the new addition's gaze fell upon her, the bounty hunter's face hardened. "You will die a quick but painful death." She threatened.
Duo grinned. "Saxie's a violent one."
Jack looked at the girl his arm was still wrapped around. "So I'm going to assume you're Dru."
"I am," she answered. "My name's Drusilla."
"She's a vampire too," Duo said matter-of-factly.
"And he's a pirate," Dru replied, looking at Jack.
Saxen raised an eyebrow. "Pirate?"
"The best. Why?" Jack asked.
"I hunt pirates for a living."
"Oh. That's not why I'm here, is it?"
"No. You're here because you're a god of something or another, but we're not really sure what," Effie said.
"God?"
"Yep. So are we. See there's this place called Jurai, and it already had some Goddesses, but they're don't waste time doing menial things like controlling the planet, so that's our job," Duo commented.
"Is it hard?"
"Don't know. Haven't actually done anything yet."
"Not hard, sheepies. Help the she-wolf and the vixen get their blood. Then we eat cake," Drusilla explained. "You are the naughty one. Take without asking, no cake for you. But steal cake for us, and she is pleased. Help us please, thief."
Jack shrugged. "All right."
"So this makes him god of…what" Duo asked.
"Thieves" Miyu supplied.
The pilot frowned. "How do you know"
"She's the judge, isn't she" Maverick pointed out, turning to leave the room. "She ought to know all the facts. I'll be in my cabin if anyone needs me."
"Okay" Effie replied cheerfully, then looked at Jack. "Well, let's see. You must be hungry."
"Famished" he answered nonchalantly. "And if you've got a drink..."
"We don't," Fire Blossom answered firmly.
Van Helsing smiled slightly and pulled a flask out of his coat. "I've got absinthe."
The hippie glared at him. "Aren't you supposed to be off brooding somewhere"
He laughed and ruffled her hair, then handed the bottle to Jack. "Don't blame me if they all jump on you at once to take it away."
"Right then," Jack nodded to Van Helsing. "Here's to you mate." With that, he took a deep swig…
…and looked as though he was going to be violently ill.
Lynx looked at the vampire slayer. "No way in hell was that absinthe. What was that stuff?"
Brown eyes glittered from beneath Van Helsing's shaggy hair. "Hangover cure."
Tabby yawned and stretched as she made her way down the hallway. With Miyu and Van Helsing hiding, Saxen meditating in her prayer hall, and the others all still hanging out with the pirate, she was becoming intensively bored. Rounding a corner, she came to her own cabin, a typical teenager's bedroom, complete from the dirty clothes on the floor to the posters of rock stars on the ceiling. After she had arrived on the Tsunami the others had explained how they had found rooms not unlike ones they were used to, or at the very least rooms they had enjoyed. She had been inside Effie's, Miyu's, Dru's, and Duo's, but never in Saxen's or Van Helsing's. Tabby shrugged. May as well go exploring for them.
After walking down an impossible number of hallways and down to what seemed the very bottom of the ship, she came across a dark and narrow corridor with only about four doors. One was open, and a dim light came from inside.
Poking her head in, she grinned. "Jackpot," she whispered as she entered Saxen's inner sanctum.
The first thing she noticed was that it was absurdly plain. The only decoration was a huge map of what looked like the entire known universe on the wall. The furniture was low and plain, and made out of what looked like fake wood. The light came from a lamp hanging over a desk in the corner, and shone on a stack of papers scattered across the surface. Walking over, she picked one up and began to read.
Ariens,
I hope all is well with you and the rest of the order. I was pleased to hear you had received my other letters. I was not sure Washu would be able to deliver them. I hope Our Mother does not find it offensive that she enters her house. Though if she did, I could certainly understand why.
We came upon another of them today. He is a pirate who calls himself Captain Jack Sparrow. I do not think he will be an interference, which is more than I can say for the others. I know they mean well, especially Fire Blossom, but I think they fail to see the differences between themselves and me. I also worry about Mr. Van Helsing. I find myself thinking of him often, and have come to enjoy his company. I fear he is becoming a distraction to me, but I am not certain of what actions I should take in order to keep him away.
There is little else for me to write here. Be on your guard always, and hopefully I will be able to meet with you before long. Vyasa keep you well.
Saxen
Tabby frowned. A letter? Washu was delivering letters from Saxen to someone named Ariens? Who the hell was that? And she wanted to get rid of Van Helsing?
She was about to pick up another letter from the desk when she became aware of eyes on her. Turning, she saw Moksha standing in the corner, gold eyes locked on her. He made no noise, but there was a clear aura of displeasure from the wolf.
Tabby laughed nervously and held up her hands. "Hey Moksha, old pal. How you doin'?"
He made no move.
She slowly backed towards the door. "Just read one letter" she explained. "You won't tell Sax, will you? Naw. Thanks Moksha. Um…good dog."
With that, she was gone.
Effie found Duo sitting in the main room, staring out the huge windows at the endless expanse of space. Walking up next to him, she pressed her face against the window. "What are you looking at?"
He laughed at her actions, and put his hands in his pockets. "Nothing," he turned away. "I've seen it all before."
Fire Blossom looked at him cynically. "You've seen all of space."
"Well, not all of it. But a lot. At least…the space around my world. I think it was my world anyways…"
Effie laughed. "It's a little confusing, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he smiled.
She paused a moment. "Duo? Why were you fighting in that war?"
He shrugged. "Didn't have anything better to do."
"Nothing better to do?" Effie repeated. "What about school? Your family?"
"Didn't go, don't have any," Duo's voice softened. "All I've ever known is fighting. And hunger."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Duo leaned against the windows and tilted his head up to look at the ceiling. "I never knew my parents. I think they died. The earliest thing I can remember is seeing our house get destroyed so that a new intelligence base could be set up. They were already gone by then. I was living on the streets by then with some other orphans like me."
"Oh Duo…" Fire Blossom murmured. "I'm sorry."
He smiled weakly at her. "Hey, don't worry about it. It got better. I was only an urchin for a few more years. Then I just got sick of it. I decided to go to Earth, and snuck on a salvage ship. The guy who owned it caught me, and it turned out he was a scientist who had built Deathscythe. He trained me to pilot it, and before I knew it I was fighting to protect the colonies."
"What about those other guys who you fought with? How'd you meet them?"
"Who, Heero and the others? That's kind of a weird story. They all came from different backgrounds, but sooner or later we were all in the same situation. It just made more sense to work with each other than against each other."
Something occurred to him then, and he looked at Fire Blossom. "Effie…the last time I saw them, they were on board here. What happened to them?"
She laughed nervously and pressed her fingers together. "Well, that's kind of funny…you see, they watched you and Saxie fight it out, and after she killed you, they got kinda mad. At me, in particular. Probably because I'm the brains of this operation," she smiled weakly, but Duo didn't seem to notice.
"Well anyways," Effie went on. "I talked them into not killing me, and then Van Helsing knocked them out. He's a tough guy, but I got pretty mad at him after that. At that point, Saxen had brought you back and dropped you off in the infirmary. She said it would be a good idea just to send them off with their own machines, so she and Van went off, buckled them in, and pushed them out. I wasn't sure it was safe, but I asked Washu a while later and she said they were all right. You can even ask her yourself next time she comes. Point is: they're all okay. Now the rest of us, we're screwed if we ever run into them again, because they think we killed you, but…please don't be mad."
There was an agonizing awkward silence, and then Duo burst into laughter and put a hand on her shoulder. "You are too much Eff."
She smiled back. "As long as you still like me."
"Yeah I like you" his expression softened. "I like you a lot, Effie. More than I could have guessed."
Fire Blossom noticed the change in his voice, and her heart began to beat a little faster. "I like you a lot too, Duo. We're friends."
"Just friends?" he asked.
She blushed slightly and turned away. "Um…well, if you want."
"I like being friends. I don't know if I really want to stop there though," he put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her.
"So…where do you want to stop?" Effie whispered.
"I don't know," Duo answered.
She closed her eyes as he leaned forward, and wrapped her arms around him as his lips met hers. For one brief moment, she forgot she was in the middle of space on a gargantuan spacecraft with several vampires, hunters, pirates, and who knew what else, on the biggest adventure of her life. She was happy.