Chapter 44

Last Chapter Mariko and her girls were returned to the Cave, where Mariko left them to be protected by the Team. Now Mariko's on route to end Savage—and I know what you're thinking, what's this covenant Mariko's entered with Klarion? All will be revealed in time. On a side note—WE ONLY HAVE TWO EPISODES OF YOUNG JUSTICE LEFT!? It's true I looked it up, we only have this coming up episode and the episode after that, and then they're ending the series. Is anyone else mad about this or is it just me!? O.Q I want more yj! I demand more Young Justice! *cry* oh well….ONWARD TO THE BATTLE FIELD!

"Careful what you do, cause god is watching your every move," Mariko sang as she made her way—with Tony to the building she once occupied while working for Savage.

"Miss Mariko," Tony mumbled, Mariko paused and looked over her shoulder.

"What?"

"What do you hope to find here? This place was abandoned by Savage wasn't it?" Tony asked, Mariko smirked and kicked the door down.

"Looks can be deceiving Tony-boy," She said, "Klarion let me in on a small secret a while ago, a certain someone was still here."

"Huh? Has Mr. Klarion been helping you all this time?" Tony asked, Mariko looked over to him.

"Yeah, what of it? He's a good ally—so long as he's not bored." She said walking through the building.

"You sure took your time getting here." Klarion mumbled, Mariko narrowed her eyes.

"Not my fault, if you had helped me get my girls back I wouldn't have used up so much time." She hissed, Klarion pouted.

"Whatever, he's in there." He said pointing to a door.

"Who?"

"My ace in the hole." Mariko said, "Klarion I realize that certain confrontation bothers you, but I'm going to need your help in this."

"Wait what's going on? Who are you talking about?" Tony asked, Mariko shrugged.

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten about him, he won't be happy about that." She said, "Come on let's go."

As they rounded a corner Tony realized who they were talking about as in front of them was a pod, holding the one and only full cryptonian clone; Match.

"Miss Mariko, last time you tried to use him he knocked you across your lab, are you—uhm wait…" Tony mumbled, remembering that Mariko would be the only one crazy enough to try and use Match a second time. Mariko nodded.

"I'm aware of that," She said ignoring his half spoken comment as she began typing on the key pad to the pod "However this time I'm going to use a more diplomatic approach."

The pod opened as Match fell to his hands and knees and growled, he looked up to see Mariko, and grabbed her by the throat. Mariko gasped as he pinned her to the wall.

"I see we haven't forgotten past grudges." She said doing her best to gasp for air, "Hello again."

Match let out a growl of anger and lifted her off her feet. Tony went to help however Mariko told him to stay put.

"I didn't want to use this, but you leave me no choice Match-book." She mumbled, then pulled out the small green stone from her pocket. Match howled in pain and fell to his knees as he released Mariko who gasped for air. She then sighed.

"Sorry there Match, but I like to breathe." She said, "Now listen, I didn't want to put you in that scary pod. Honest, that was mean old Savage's idea."

"Liar!" Match growled.

"He talks…" Tony mumbled, Mariko narrowed her eyes.

"Duh." She huffed, then looked to Match, "Honest, he's the big meanie who put you there and left you here by yourself. I don't work for Savage anymore, and I've come to take you away."

Match glared up at Mariko as she held the old necklace Savage had given her intertwined in her fingers. Mariko, sensing the boy's discomfort—after all she was the one causing it—placed the stone back in her pocket.

"I'm going to take you out of here, provided you do me one small favor in return." She said, "Do this for me, and I'll send you to your little brother Super-boy."

"Super…boy?" Match groaned, Mariko nodded.

"You know the big black haired boy you had an encounter with on my roof tome some time ago, hm now that I think about it, that was almost an entire year ago." She said, "Anyhow first you've got to do me a favor."

"…what?" Match mumbled.

"Help me kill Savage." Mariko said, "You know the big meanie who forced me to do such horrible things to you. Do this and you'll be free—well actually you'll be with Superboy, the Team, and maybe my girls."

"Miss Mariko…" Tony mumbled, noticing she didn't include herself in that pairing. Mariko looked over her shoulder.

"What?" She hissed, "Stop interrupting me, it's rude and I don't like it Tony-boy."

Tony bit his lip and kept quiet the remainder of the time as Mariko conducted business. Mariko looked to Match as he stood, a bit more clear headed.

"So do we have a deal or what?" she asked, Match glared.

"You sent me after my brother." He growled, Mariko shrugged.

"Technically I only brought you to the surface, you brother battle royal was your own doing." She said then turned, "But I can see you've gotten pretty clear minded as of late—which is good—so I will ask again do we have a deal, or not?"

"You have a deal." Match growled, "If this Savage person's the one who keeps me here I'll happily kill him."

"Good, but you know this is going to be a partnership," Mariko said looking to Match as she stood on her tiptoes, "You can beat him down, but I deliver the final blow. Got me?"

Match nodded as Mariko smirked, she then turned her back on him and looked to Klarion and Tony.

"Well that's good, now come along, we have much to do." She said, then started walking off when Tony grabbed her by the arm. She stopped.

"Something wrong?" She asked, Tony looked over to Match a Klarion.

"Give us a minute would you?" He asked, Match huffed and walked out, Klarion followed however paused to grin to Mariko over his shoulder. Mariko cocked an eyebrow.

"Ooh, you're growing a backbone Tony-boy, what's wrong? Are you mad that I left you with the Team?" She asked, slightly mocking the older boy. Tony looked down to Mariko a look of worry washed over him making Mariko stare silently.

"You said you'd be releasing Match to Robin and the others." He said finally, Mariko narrowed her eyes.

"You're point?" She hissed.

"You mentioned Riza and the twins but you did say anything about yourself." He mumbled, Mariko snorted.

"That's because I don't plan on surviving any of this." She said with a dead serious tone. Tony stared.

"What?"

Mariko nodded and peeled Tony's hand off of her arm she then smoothed out the wrinkled of her skirt and crossed her arms.

"That's right, when Savage dies so will I." She said, "Or at least that's what I believe, I made a contract with Klarion. He would guarantee that I would get my revenge, and in return he would do whatever he wanted with me. I'm not entirely sure as to what that may incline but it'll be worth it."

"B-but Riza, Haruhi, a-and Haruko—"

"Will have you to look after them." Mariko interrupted, "You're their big brother so start acting like one."

"You can't be serious." Tony said, Mariko nodded.

"I'm always serious Tony, you should know that by now." She said then went to leave, "Now hurry up, or I'm leaving you here."

"Miss Mariko."

"And stop calling me Miss, you're older than me, it's weird." She said, walking ahead. Tony stared after her. Finally after frantically debating on what to do next, he ran up to Mariko and grabbed her by the wrist, and spun her around to see him. Mariko stared.

"What are you—" She was interrupted by Tony pressing his lips to hers in a kiss.

~0~

"Inuyasha!" The twins shouted chasing after Wolf and Yukie on Happy Harbor's sea shore. Riza had asked if they could go outside, since it had been a while since they were able to leave. M'gaan and—to a lesser extent—Superboy agreed to watch the trio incase anything happened. M'gaan and Superboy watched as Haruhi and Haruko chased after the dogs.

"Are they always like that?" Superboy grumbled, watching them.

"Ever Mariko saved us yeah." Riza said behind them, the duo turned to see the young girl with a long sleeved shirt and pants on.

"Aren't you hot in that?" M'gaan asked, Riza shook her head silently.

"I have a hard time believing Mariko Miko can save anyone." Superboy grunted. Riza glared at the young cryptonian and crossed her arms.

"I don't know what you know about Mariko, but she's not nearly as evil as you think she is." She growled, "If you knew half the things that happened to us you might show a bit of pity!"

"I know…" M'gaan said, Riza frowned, "Sorry, it was sort of an accident, I read your friend's mind."

"Then you know just about everything? What happened to us all…" Riza mumbled clenching her fists, "Adults can be so cruel."

Superboy scowled hearing Riza's heart beat quicken.

"But I think out of the three of us, I had it better. I wasn't some pedo's slave." She mumbled, "I was a fighter, ever heard of blood arenas?"

The two shook their head.

"Believe me when I say you never want to. They fight things there, dogs, chickens…kids, and if you lost, you died." She went on, "At least in the fights you could leave, for Haruhi and Haruko…they didn't get that. From what our big sister Mimi(see Chapter 12) told me these 'clients' came in and did horrible things to them, they haven't been right ever since. At the time Mariko wasn't very close to anyone there,

But when she heard about Fujioka's attempt to sell the twins separately and have me throw a match, she didn't waste any time in trying to save us three." Riza said, "It might not have been the most moral way to go about it, but if there's nothing but survival, how can one believe in sin?*"

"Superboy!" Haruhi and Haruko shouted excited as the trio ran up to the boy of steal. He frowned.

"Come play…"

"With us?" Haruhi asked, as the two eached grabbed one of his hands in an atempt to bring him out to the beach.

"Even if they aren't right in the head anymore, they're happy, you know?" Riza said as Superboy begrudgingly went with the duo, "Mariko-san, saved us, and has done whatever she could to keep us safe. That's more than our families ever did for us."

"So you aren't in the least bit mad that she left you three here?" M'gaan asked, Riza shook her head.

"Mariko-san always comes back, she promised. That's just how she is." She said, "The twins know that, I know that. So why doesn't Robin-kun?"

"I wouldn't know." M'gaan said.

"Mariko's done some bad things, but she isn't bad. She's just lost in her morals," Riza explained sitting down on the ground and bringing up a handful of sand letting the grains fall absent mindedly, "We all are. Mariko's just the first to make the insanity of it all make sense. Funny, isn't it Miss Martian?"

One again I've made a short chapter with mostly filler. I was originally going to use this chapter to do some background on Riza Haruko, and Haruhi—I think I might draw those two sometime and put them on my deviantart page. Look me up some time, the username there is the same as this one. (*) part of a song by Anna Tsuchiya she's a Japanese signer but the song is in English. It goes with this story pretty well actually. Oh well, See you later armadillos—unless I see you first hahah!' REVIEW