Author Disclaimer: I own nothing belonging to Burst Angel, nothing at all; least of all not the opening animation to the Infinity OVA.
Author's Note: This was easier to write, even though I have no idea how the mechanics for an underground gang base would work. It was fun to slip into Sei for a bit and see how she operates.
"Avenging Angel" chapter three
"…Reunited?"
Meg leaned against her motorcycle and dragged hard on a cigarette. The landscape was desolate and open and she had opted to stop her bike in the middle of the highway to calm her nerves. The nicotine was helping, but she was still nervous. Leo was bringing up the rear in the trailer, but she had gained quite the lead on her supped up chopper; no part in thanks to their loyal mechanic.
Meg's blue eyes scanned the flat landscape coolly as one gloved finger traced the handlebars. Leo had put the bike together in hopes of raising her depressed spirits; not to mention to get her to set foot outside the trailer. She could still remember the day Leo had presented her with her new ride…
"Come on, Meg, you've got to set foot in the real world! And this baby's gonna take you in style," Leo had grinned. Meg, clad in baggy pajamas and slippers, wasn't buying.
"A motorcycle? Are you kidding? Leo, that's not me! And we have enough money right now as it is, so leave me alone already!" Meg had crossed her arms, refusing to step down out of the trailer's main door.
The bearded mechanic had bodily picked her up, carried her outside, and set her on the bike's seat. "Come on, girl, we need to take more jobs, and you'll look like a total badass when you do. Give 'er a try… you may even like it," Leo had urged.
Meg had to admit, her first ride HAD perked her up (even if she had gotten stares for riding in her striped pajamas.) Even now, the experience of humming metal between her legs had soothed her tension. Meg finished her smoke and leaned up, catching sight of a vehicle on the horizon. Leo was finally catching up.
She flicked her cigarette away and swung a lean leg over the seat of the motorcycle. She revved up as the trailer advanced on her. Pulling her goggles down, Meg peeled rubber. Side by side, the two vehicles took off down the highway.
"Damn, you got way ahead of us. I sure did a good job on that bike, Meg," Leo said through her wrist communicator. Meg grinned.
"Ya sure did, Leo. How much farther is it?"
"A few more kilometers. " This from Takane. "When we get there, I'll have to do all the talkin'."
"Just get us in there," Meg said grimly.
'And then we'll see where we're at…'
A few kilometers as promised, Takane called a halt. Leo parked in the sand beside the highway and Meg pulled up beside the massive trailer. Leo and Takane walked down the steps toward the waiting redhead. Amy framed the doorway above them. Twin pigtails flowed around the small figure, caught in the hot desert wind.
"You'd better bring 'em back," she called. The door closed and Amy disappeared.
Leo scanned the landscape, confusion darkening his gaze. There was nothing to see, nothing at all. "This some kind of trick, Takane?"
"It had better not be," Meg gave lowly. The urge for a cigarette was never so high.
Takane looked around and her dark eyes lit up at a glint in the sand. "That's it! Come on…"
Leo and Meg shrugged at each other, trying to appear casual; but they knew they weren't fooling anybody. They were sick unto death with nervousness at what they might find. Sei and Jo had hidden themselves too well. They might not have wanted to be found.
Takane knelt in the sand and dug around. The sun reflected off a spot of metal and more was revealed as the policewoman brushed sand aside. A communicator station sat half embedded in the ground and Takane punched codes in while Meg and Leo watched.
A portal tube popped up in the sand a few feet away. Leo started in surprise but Meg was starting to catch on. The desolate landscape was starting to make a whole lot of sense. There had to be a secret location underground here. Way underground. The sand had to be a cover for an entire base.
Takane scanned in and led the two inside a metal passageway. The angle went down and slowly became more level. It was dark and cool and Meg surmised they had to be beneath the sand now.
"So is this Bai Lan's property?" Leo murmured. Takane nodded, her puffed eyes taking in the metal tube.
"All of this belongs to Bai Lan. When it all went down with RAPT, Sei-san's grandfather hid her here with his contingent forces. It's like a reg'lar military base down here."
Meg pressed her lips together, her lips thumping hard. Any harder and it might very well leap out of her breast and onto the floor. Her down trod organ thudded dully to feel boot prints upon it…
"Is she and… "Leo began to say when Takane watched them over her shoulder.
"You'll just have to see. I know Sei's not going to be pleased with me outing her location."
As if on cue, a line of armed Bai Lan soldiers formed up before the trio, rifles cocked and raised.
"Halt or we'll shoot!"
"Hey now, it's just me! Didn't you read my scan in code?" Takane raised her hands. One of the soldiers peered closer at her.
"Katsu Takane-san… who are they, then?"
"No outsiders; our orders are clear," another soldier aimed his rifle at Meg and Leo.
Just as fast, both drew a side arm as fluently, and held a soldier in their sights. Takane looked between the pair of armed men (and women) and groaned.
"Hold it right there, I'm takin' 'em in to see Sei-san! Yeu'll have ta take it up with HER why anyone's roughed up!"Takane gave.
Meg waved her gun, a fierce glint in her eye. "Or you'll have to explain why her guards got shot…"
"Damn straight," Leo seconded, grinning behind his raised piece. A cascade of clicks were heard as safety buttons were pressed off and hammers clicked back.
Takane groaned. Nobody was backing off.
"Must I see to everything myself or can I not have one moment's rest?" a familiar voice called out. Leo gulped, his face reddening. A voluptuous figure slowly walked out of the shadows and made her way toward them. Leo's hand shook and he lowered his weapon.
"Sei…"
At the sight of their leader, the Bai Lan soldiers lowered their rifles and bowed their heads in respect. Sei looked a shade of her former self. Her black hair was magnificently pinned up and her clothes were expensively unexpansive (showing a good portion of her navel and cleavage as usual) but no amount of primping or make-up could hide the shadows under her eyes. A light cast encased her right wrist and her left hand clasped the head of a cane.
Before Leo could ask why, Sei moved closer. Her limping gait told volumes of the extent of her past injuries and although she may have been on the road to recovery, the going was still arduous indeed.
"Sei.." Meg said, her eyes softening with worry. If she came out this messed up, she wondered how Jo…
"So you two found me. I'd say good job, but I imagine Takane had a lot to do with it," Sei leveled a look at the Osakan woman. The policewoman adopted a look ripe with contrition and bowed slightly.
"Meg was very persuasive. An hell, Sei, ya'll were family. I couldn't keep them away," Takane said grimly. Sei noted the bruises and puffed lips framing Takane's face and raised an eyebrow at Meg.
"You've gotten harder," she noted. Meg's eyes narrowed and she holstered her hand gun.
"I kind of had to. Somebody up and left," the redhead retorted, sounding for all intents and purposes, like a cranky five year old.
Leo looked from one to the other and holstered his weapon as well. "Sei…we missed you. We couldn't just stop looking," he said quietly. The Chinese woman looked up into his bearded visage and her eyes softened.
"I am truly sorry for abandoning all of you. There is still so much for me to do, and we had to stay hidden to do it. For that, I apologize."
"Just save it for Amy. She's top-side waiting," Meg retorted as Sei led the three farther into the base. Her eyes nervously scanned the different people milling about. She couldn't find a hint of white hair anywhere…
Sei leaned on her cane and watched Meg with a resolute look on her face. "Takane, could you show Meg where Jo's room is, please? I'd like to rest for a moment," Sei explained.
Leo looked down at her, his eyes concerned. "I'll stay with you," he offered. Sei smiled genuinely.
"Yes, I'd like that very much…"
"Right, ma'am," Takane said and turned to Meg. "Ready, Blue eyes?"
"Just shut up and lead on," Meg grumbled. Takane shrugged and wound through a few snaking corridors and stopped at a row of doors. She stopped at the second one and gestured.
"Jo's in there. She must be resting… but she always seems to be doing that," Takane trailed off. Meg froze, her eyes glazing as she tried to catch her breath. Jo was inside this room, just on the other side of this door…
For once, she didn't order Takane to shut up. The police woman gracefully bowed out and left Meg to enter on her own. Meg's gloved hand lifted and shook, settled over the knob and froze. Her breathe came in and out harshly and she wondered if she'd lose consciousness.
Holding her breath, Meg turned the knob and walked into the room. It was dark inside. One lone track of weak light beamed from a small lamp on the tiled floor, reflecting a huddled figure sprawled half despondent in reflection.
As Meg's eyes got used to the gloom, she made out the thin limbs of a sullen warrior draped over on herself as she stared into space. Jo's white hair was so oily it looked a shade darker. Expensive toiletries and clothing occupied a dresser top, but Meg wondered how long it had been since she had bathed.
Or changed. Jo was clad in only an oversized t-shirt and panties. Her feet were bare and if she was cold against the tiles, she did not reach for the blankets folded neatly on the bed beside her. Red eyes stared into nothing and Meg's heart seized. Jo was a mess. She couldn't have wanted to leave her… and yet…
Meg walked closer to the down trod warrior and stopped a foot away. Her hands shook inside her gloves. Jo hadn't even seen her… would she?... respond in any way?
"Jo?..." she whispered. Red eyes widened and scanned towards her face. Meg's heart leaped at the confusion and longing warring in those ruby orbs and Jo reached a hand upward, her fingers groping. For her, she was trying to reach her… as she always had…
"MEG?..." One word only, her name, and the syllable conveyed a world of aching want. Meg clawed a glove off and dropped it, heedless, to the floor. Her bare fingers fit into the groove of Jo's calloused digits. Once their warm hands locked, relief pooled through Jo's taciturn expression.
Not many people would have been able to read anything from Jo's looks other than anger, or just plain nothing, but no one had been with Jo as long as Meg had. She didn't give much away, but "Oh my god" seemed to be the expression pooling in her eyes.
Meg stroked her other hand across Jo's cheek and the exhausted warrior closed the gap across them; she fell forward into Meg's lap, relief palpably giving way to blessed sleep. Meg tightened her arms around Jo's shoulders and cried silently. Finally, Jo could sleep…
…and so could she, once she stopped crying and they figured out what was going to happen.
Takane peered into the room, noting how Meg had relaxed Jo enough so she could finally rest. Without the usual elephant-dose of sedatives to help.
'She needed her. From the looks of it, they needed each other,' Takane thought. She gently closed the door on Meg's quiet sobs and walked away down the hall.
End for now.
End note: I imagine Jo wouldn't have a lot to say, but her actions would tell what she's feeling. A lot easier than I thought it could be.
Penpaninu
2/9/11