Author's Disclaimer: I don't own anything that belongs to Burst Angel, nothing at all.
Author's Note: Ahhh, Maria makes an appearance. I rather liked her a lot by the end of the anime. Rewatching the episodes where she first encounters Jo is like walking into a forgotten past, at least it must be for Jo. That's about the only time you see her surprised. And the organization that made the girls seemed fascinating! I know it's been a few months since updating. Hope someone is still reading this! Dedicated to my wifey. I hope you enjoy, you old warrior soul.
"Avenging Angel" chapter ten
"Warrior's Capture"
"Again. Do the jump again." The balding doctor ordered. Maria, wearing a leotard and bandages, stood passively. Her red eyes gleamed as she took in the doctor. He was older, frailer. And his eyes were bad. His hands shook slightly as he held his clipboard, for kami's sake. He wouldn't be that hard to take out….
The doctor noted her questing gaze and signaled to his partner behind a glass-proof office area. A rivet of shocks swept through Maria's lithe frame and she gave a curdling scream of outrage.
"Mraaaaaah!"she bent double, arms around herself. When she glared up through her bangs, death was in her eyes. The doctor swallowed but signaled to the soldiers nearby when she took a step forward through the pain. Heavily padded in body armor and helmets, the men streamed forward, batons raised. Maria didn't even flinch as they brought her down to the ground. Her cheek hit the hard mat first, teeth rattling from the vibration. Her back and shoulders took the sharp blows, each ridged shoulder blade bruised. This was nothing…
"Maria, you have to complete the training sequences. You'll be punished each time you disobey," the doctor said quietly. Maria grimaced into the mat when the beating stopped and worked a tooth loose with her tongue. She lifted her head and spat it out at the doctor's leather loafer.
"You want we should drive the lesson home?" one of the soldiers asked. The doctor frowned and made a few marks on his clipboard.
"No, no…that won't be necessary. Maria, the jump. Now," he ordered. Maria crawled to her knees and wearily stood.
With a grin at the soldiers, she leaped ten feet, turned a flip and kicked off the wall, landing on one knee. The looks on their faces was reward enough for what they did to her.
"Son of a!..."
"What the hell?..."
"What IS she?"
The doctor smiled and signaled to his partner behind the glass. The other doctor nodded tiredly and took a sip of coffee from a white mug. He casually set the ceramic down beside the buttons set for electric shock. Maria watched his long fingers carefully. She smiled slightly when he couldn't look her directly in the eyes, even through glass. He was newer, he hadn't been there from the start.
The balding doctor before her, however…
And the soldiers quickly lined up, holding their batons in front of them. Let them think they had her. Maria raised her hands, a careful line of fondness stretching the corner of her lip. She and Jo had been through much worse…
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Jo stared into nothing, her hands slack against her knees. Meg was babbling in the background about topping for their pancakes, but she wasn't quite there. Meg slammed a cupboard and stopped midsentence, noting Jo's aloof gaze. Jo's eyes were partially glazed, her red orbs seeing something that wasn't quite still there.
Ever since the nosebleeds, ever since the attack on RAPT…. Ever since knowing what filled her veins and body structure…. Sometimes Jo went out like a light, thinking of all that was going on. Meg sat down beside her partner and gently laid her hand over hers. Jo told her that she thought of strange things, things that were in fact, memories; memories of another time and place when she was shorter and small. Meg knew Jo had no idea what memories outside of her and their union were, and extended gentle patience when Jo pondered over why she remembered things she had no knowledge of.
Maria had begun the dredging up process. She had to be there for Jo when she came back from these mental journeys.
Jo's lips parted and her mind saw flashes of silver and white.
~Flashback
White limbs, silver hair, in all styles and lengths. A long silver braid and fierce eyes. Maria. She was short, her figure slim and undeveloped. She was showing off bandages on her fists. Red speckled the knuckles but she didn't seem to mind.
"I learned a new fighting technique,' her childish voice called. "The doctor says I'm ripe for first ranking."
"I'll bet," her own voice murmured. The decibels were higher, her hands were smaller. "I'm as far advanced, Maria."
"You have to try harder, Jo," Maria laughed, trailing a small hand along Jo's cheek. "You shouldn't look at Maevel. She's Lava's friend, if you know what I mean."
Jo looked at her in surprise. "Friend? What do you mean?"
Maria clasped her hands behind her head. "They sleep in the same bed, and they have each other's back. Hey, we could have each other's back, Jo."
"Why would I want to do that?" Jo wondered. Maria's fingers traced her cheek again. She blinked.
"Just think about it, Jo. You wouldn't have to ask for extra blankets. I could keep you warm."
An older Maria, breasts defined beneath her battle leotard, stood in the child's place in the blink of memory's eye. "All bets are off, Jo. You always go off by yourself."
Jo was taller too, and her long silver hair swept her waist in tangled locks. Her breasts were smaller than Maria's. She knew, she had compared them in the shower once. "I'm going to win. You and Lava don't stand a chance." The very thought of the combat to come set a delicious shiver through her being. She couldn't wait to fight!
Even if they had grown up together.
Maria watched Jo with her red, red eyes and moved aside, her braid trailing. "You should have come with me. Now I have to defeat you…."
Jo knew what defeat meant. Their weaker sisters had been dragged away, broken and bleeding. Who knew where the meat went after that, but it wasn't habitable to learning new technique or handling new weapons. When your nimble fingers couldn't pull the trigger, or pull your hand into a fist and break through flesh, you were useless. The doctors had seen to that.
It was all she knew.
~Flashback end
Jo blinked and stared at a stack of pancakes topped with chocolate syrup. She swiveled her head slowly, red eyes darting. The last of the thought titled memory made her wary but the very sight of Meg's red hair relaxed her limbs drastically.
She had seen her sisters defending one another in the last huge battle, but had understood that connection to be weak.
Meg was different. She was Meg. She was Home. She made Jo's blood boil to save, to protect. Meg was what she needed. She was Safety.
Then Meg lit up a cigarette and blew a puff of smoke that darkened Jo's warm thoughts. She coughed and leaned back in her chair.
"Meg, stop doing that," she said quietly. Meg watched her, honestly confused, as she exhaled a stream of smoke. Two cigarette butts lay in the ashtray on the table, already consumed while Jo was off in Jo La-La Land.
"I thought you were…oh never mind," Meg said, putting out her smoke. She bit her lip, irritated at the lack of nicotine intake. She took a noisy sip of orange juice and watched Jo's eyes which seemed very, very tired. She attempted to brighten and pushed the ashtray further away from Jo. "What's on your mind, Jo?"
"…Maria," Jo said, surprising the hell out of Meg. She sputtered and choked on her juice. Setting the glass down, she leaned back. Jo's red eyes met hers and they stared a moment or two.
"Jo, Maria's dead. You didn't see the explosion. That ship was gone!" Meg said, trying to make Jo understand. She laid a hand gently over Jo's long white fingers. Jo stared at Meg's safety enveloping her digits and felt her warrior spirit slake. It just wasn't….it wasn't…
"It wouldn't be right," Jo murmured. "Maria was strong. She couldn't have left…"
At least not without taking everyone else out with her. That would have been like her. But Maria, the strongest of her sisters and always so sure of her abilities? Impossible.
Meg squeezed Jo's hand. "Jo…. Maria was strong." She had laid Jo out flat, scaring Meg half to death. It had frightened her how good Maria was. The silver-braided girl had climbed on top of her and all but proclaimed her her own property. "But she wanted you to live. She didn't see a future after coming face to face with the doctor's reality. Jo, Maria wanted you to get away with me."
'And you left me to think you died, you jerk,' Meg thought vindictively. She didn't voice the concern, seeing the simple emotions warring through Jo's eyes. The simplest of terms were difficult to comprehend for the warrior girl and she had to be patient. Even if she felt like smacking her in the head sometimes.
Jo shook her head. "I just know she's here, Meg. She hasn't left with the other failures…" the simple analogy for death made Meg raise an eyebrow, but she figured the doctors hadn't bothered to explain further. They had to raise successes in combat, not nurture those who couldn't keep up.
Once again, Meg thought about those poor silver-haired red-eyed girls. She squeezed Jo's strong hand.
"If Maria's still out there, what are you going to do?" she asked.
Jo's eyes were grim. "They made us as we are. We'll destroy them all, is what we'll do."
Meg watched Jo and slowly nodded. Jo needed that, to close the minds of the sadistic doctors and scientists. And they had done things to Jo's body. She was strong, fast and fierce, but they might have installed limitations in her DNA. She loved Jo, but she needed her to live. To do so, she needed closure.
Meg knew Sei had done everything to find Jo's files, and Jo had burned them. She wondered if Sei wouldn't have foreseen that and made extras, so Meg was certain the original doctors and scientists, those left, wouldn't be needed.
Jo started in surprise when Meg walked around the table and hugged her. Meg stared into space over Jo's silver head and threaded her fingers through her hair. She couldn't comprehend the unfathomable sadness that threaded through her body. They were coming to the end of something, and Meg didn't want anything to change. Jo was changing and needed to evolve. She just wanted Jo to want her there with her. Not like last time…
Jo, always seeming to know her thoughts, wrapped an arm around Meg's slight waist. "You're coming with me there. Do not worry, Meg…."
Meg blinked back tears and nodded.
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"So, how is my genocide angel?" Chongkun smiled and leaned close to Maria's bowed head. Maria gazed up under her bangs, still red eyes murderous. Chongkun laughed and chucked the woman under the chin and moved smoothly away, before she could strain against her binds.
"You think you know it all, don't you?" she murmured softly and the well-dressed Chinese man turned. His slicked back hair shone beneath the lights. He smirked and his handsome features stretched unpleasantly.
"I do know it all. How dare you talk back to me. My money keeps your doctors in work and you alive," Chongkun plucked an invisible piece of lint from the sleeve of his suit jacket and flicked it.
Maria watched him, assessing each movement of his thin arms and long fingers. "I won the doctor's last battle, but I am not the genocide angel. You have no idea the world of hurt you're in for when she comes."
Chongkun sneered. "The silver girl? I do know about her. My cousin spirited her away and kept her on her leash. Come, give me some credit, girl. You thought I didn't know about Jo Carpenter, did you?"
Maria didn't move her head, but the corner of her lip moved in a slow smile. "If you do know about her, you should fear her. You're walking meat where she's concerned."
Chongkun lifted his hand and delivered a sound blow to Maria's cheek. She didn't resist and accepted the strike. She even smiled. A small shiver ran down the Chinese man's spine.
"You're never this talkative," he noted. Maria licked the edge of her lip which was beginning to swell up.
End for now
End notes: It's been awhile since I uploaded and I wanted to put a little something out, even if it wasn't much. It wasn't written horribly so that was my end goal in sight. Going more into my story. Hope you like it and if someone's still reading this, please let me know how it is! Thank you ^_^
Sincerely, penpaninu
12/25/11