A/N: Hmm, and the mystery starts to unravel. . . When this isn't even supposed to be a mystery. ^^ - These titles are getting wierder and wierder- not to mention, longer. ^^

DISCLAIMER: Pretty girls attacking ugly youmas belong to awesome Naoko Takeuchi!

You're Not Giving Me Much Choice

(But Then, You Usually Face The Truth When You Look At It Differently)

Michiru wasn't a rabid fan of anyone or anything that had eyes and used them to peep on her, showering or not.

So when she noticed the small crack in the doorway and a pair of purple orbs peering at the three of them inside, she didn't stop and think- she slammed the door with a climatic bang.

"Eeek! Eeek! Eeek!"

Outside she could hear the hysterical cries of pain a chimpanzee let out.

Silence.

Then. . .

*BAM!* "Roar, screech! Raah, nyahahaha! Traaah!"

And Michiru paled.

She turned to Haruka, noting the disbelief in those piercing green eyes. Michiru had heard what Kiroto had to say, had been in shock, too, when she'd figured out the numbers didn't add up, but had recovered more quickly than her blond counterpart.

She'd had to, the animals were going berserk on the other side.

"Haruka? Kiroto-chan, what are we going to do?"

Michiru winced when an audible crack was heard, and a white hoof made its indignant appearance near her head.

"Come on, guys, THINK!"

Staring urgently at the two blondes, their eyes wide when they realized angry animals were shredding the door behind her to pieces, Michiru groaned. C'mon, they were PROFESSIONALS!

Haruka had been an agent even before Michiru had arrived at the job, had been assigned to teach her the basics and show her the ropes. And Kiroto had to be, since she was assigned this job and had gotten them in here without alerting the owners of the house.

"We know you're in there! Come on out, and we'll let you leave in one bruised, battered, barely-breathing piece!"

Oi. Scratch THAT.

Michiru took note that the dumb-sounding male who voiced the threat liked to use words that somehow associated themselves with 'hurt'. Yikes.

Skittering hurriedly to the other side of the room, Michiru pulled the panicking duo after her. Pointing out the window to a convenient pool six stories down, Michiru looked them both in the eye and thrust her hand out in a shake.

"I'll see you two later?"

Seeing her partner's 'stubborn look' coming onto those handsome features, Michiru grinned and lightly reached up, tweaking an ear and kissing the opposite cheek. Pulling away, she winked, whispering,

"Deal"

before turning to Kiroto and motioned her a thumbs up.

Taking a nearby lamp off the table beside the nearby cages, Michiru swung it around and smashed the window. Her initial panic when the window cracked but held shifted into deadly-training when the glass broke, scattering into a million pieces below, and she threw back a last grin as she balanced on the windowsill.

"Eeek, eeek! Oo, oo, ah, ah-ahh! Eeek!"

Again instinct took over as a pair of leering eyes appeared in front of her, and she planted a fist in the chimpanzee's ugly mug before she dove gracefully into the water below.

Before she hit, she dimly heard Haruka's concerned yell morph into a daring 'yaaargh!' as she dove in after her partner, Kiroto soon behind.

One thing was certain, Michiru thought, kicking freely under the water, dark in spite of the odd lights emanating from the bottom. Tight clothes were good for something other than seducing hot women.

Hot women with blond locks and a swirling green gaze on a windy day.

She did a small flip in the water, giddy inside.

This was her element.

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Haruka *glub-burble*d under the water, her leather clothes sticking to her skin and making her want to moan in pure bliss.

The water was a delicious warm, and with Michiru's shirt up, stomach exposed and showing, her grin lighting up the whole pool, it was Heaven.

*YANK!*

Oi.

No, it wasn't quite Heaven. For one, Kiroto was pulling like a drowned cat on her waist, and while Michiru's smile was a beautiful scrawl of sexy, the pool was alight with colored lights, all coming from a small door at the bottom and center.

A door. . .?

Pointing to it, Haruka dived down, lugging a terrified Kiroto behind her. More than likely she'd remembered the swamp from back home and was instinctively panicking. Touching the intricate patterns on the four-by-four foot door, Haruka felt a surge of something tingle up her arm.

*Release me from this prison, please. . .!*

Green eyes widened, then narrowed in surprise and wonderment. There was someone calling to her, speaking to her out of something akin to spiritual connection, and Haruka knew she'd felt this before.

She'd felt it on the winds, on the skimming breezes over the ocean waves that one time when she'd walked on the beach with Michiru, held hands with her as they'd ran for a nearby cave when the sky had opened up and the heavens had rejoiced their joining.

*Yes, please help me out of here. . .!*

The voice sounded again, rough and hoarse, and Haruka thought it sounded as if the speaker was female- a young girl of not teenage years. Shy and tentative, it resounded in her head, and Haruka frowned.

Someone had trapped her there.

And she vowed that someone would pay.

The waters stirred, swirling chaotically around her, but Haruka paid it no mind. While there was no knob to the door, the inscribed characters practically gleamed. Summoning something inside of her, perhaps her soul, Haruka traced those patterns until she memorized them full in her head.

Her mind ached, something was blocking her. . .

"Ummph. . ?"

Warm. Warm and soft, something was touching her, touching her so intimately, yet the gentle pressure was only on her forehead, delving into her mind, easing her pain and soothing her lost cool. . .

Haruka.

She tried to blink, tried to force her eyes open, because Michiru's lovely voice was inside her head, resounding just like the other one, gentle and sounding smugly amused. She then figured out, the aqua-haired woman must be touching the inscriptions also.

Tentatively, she reached out with her mind.

M-Michiru?

Yes, Ruka?

Now at that she DID blink, and gasped. What stood before her was a smiling Michiru, her trim waist flaring out into a beautiful ocean-blue gown, the colors swirling around her and hiding the pearl of a tail underneath.

Michiru was a mermaid.

Y-You. . .!

. . .Yes, Ruka, but. . . look at you.

Haruka looked down and gasped again. Suddenly, she burst out laughing. Snickering uncontrollably, she gave herself another once-over. Clad in gold, Haruka Teno'h had been redone over in feathered trimmings of fluffy wings popping out gently to her sides, the slightest shifting in her movement making her send out major gusts of winds.

Warm.

A regal crest was embroidered on her chest, done over in an eccentric style of graceful hawk, diving for its prey. Fire seemed to erupt from her feet and blast up to layer her hair once again, settling down atop a feminine tiara of Sky King.

She felt weightless, and it was like flying atop the heaven skies and swooping down into the fields of ocean blue, touching the surface with the tips of her wings and rejoicing in the alive feeling as Michiru swatted her with a wet wave from below.

Haruka Teno'h had been reborn.

With this power, she'd save the young girl trapped within that small door, and possibly, the life of one who would see another day with their future in bright eyes.

She was a phoenix.

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Kiroto stared at the glowing beings in front of her. Haruka-chan had turned into something that vaguely resembled a bird, but when those piercing green eyes opened, she knew she was something much more.

Michiru-chan had morphed into something easier to understand. Fore-going the obvious topless ways of mermaid-ism, she was a perfect specimen of the sea.

Without even moving, Kiroto could feel the obvious power they held leashed inside of themselves and shivered- she couldn't help it:

SHE POKED THEM.

Suddenly, chaos seemed to grip the walls of the pool above, and the 'sea' and 'wind' around her erupted into a ball of explosion. Kiroto was spun backwards, and it was like trying to swim against thousands of currents and waves, each battering you and stealing your breath with each stroke and pull you dared try.

*RABOOM!*

Darkness consumed her, but Kiroto was pretty sure, before she passed out, warm hands held her steady and gave her a small peck on the forehead.

A resonating whisper, and Kiroto let peaceful calm heal her.

'It's not your time to die.'

She took comfort in that.

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A/N: Cliff-hanger! ^^ (An' I used to hate those- I'd writhe, I'd scream, I'd be all over the place and my Dad would have an amusement fit when he'd see me going berserk. Yes, stories do that to me.)

Hint: There were a couple of hints in this as to who was behind the 'door'- hope you can find 'em! ^.^ - Don't worry yourself over it, though, it's no big deal. Just testing out a small 'theory' of mine. ^^ Hope you enjoyed!