The Steel Rose
Chapter Seven:
“I Don’t Need Forgiving”
--January 16th, 9:36 PM--
“We need a plan!” Hitasa exclaimed. “We can’t just waltz right into GP headquarters and demand that they release two traitors who just so happen to be in jail for treason!”
Ryoko shot her daughter the most slyly challenging look she could muster. “You wanna bet?” She chuckled a little then, and said, “No, you’re right. The idea is to not get bounties on all of your heads, eh?” The space pirate shook her head, racking her brain.
“I’m all for the whole waltzing in and demanding release idea,” Narika offered. “It sounds kinda fun.”
Ryoko laughed openly as Hitasa shot the other woman a look. “Damn, Narika, I like you more every day!” she exclaimed. “But, unfortunately, Hitasa’s right. As notorius as I am, even I don’t wanna try that.”
“Well, what other options are there?” Narika asked impatiently.
“Don’t lose confidence in me so easily. I have connections,” Ryoko explained. “We’ll just have to rely on my friends in high places.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hitasa demanded, but Ryoko just ignored her and headed off to the bridge. “Ryoko, don’t walk away from me!” Hitasa followed at the space pirate’s heels.
Narika grinned and jogged to catch up with the pair. “Damn, this is already turning into one Hell of a wild ride,” she observed gleefully.
-------------------------------------------
They ended up going to Ryoko’s planet, a small world of lush forests and ancient temples, featuring the space pirate’s headquarters, which appeared small above ground but was actually an extensive city of tunnels underground.
At the heart of the city was Ryoko’s personal dwelling, and currently in residence there was...
“Ayeka?!” Narika’s yelp sent Hitasa’s nerves on edge and the fiery-haired woman slid into her fighting stance.
Ryoko just smiled and walked up to the former Queen of Jurai, wrapping her in her arms. “I missed you,” she said bluntly.
“I missed you, as well,” Ayeka returned, snugging her own arms around the space pirate. “Next time, I’m coming with you. I hate being apart like this.”
The ruffian loosened the embrace so that there was just enough room to kiss her lover as Narika and Hitasa watched on in mute amazment.
“Well, that’s not in the history books...” Narika noted humorously.
Hitasa nodded, swallowing, and said, “That’s definitely new...”
Ryoko and Ayeka broke their kiss, both giggling and unable to continue, finding the other women’s shock incredibly amusing. “What, you think just ‘cause I’m your mother I can’t have a little fun once in a while?” said a mock-offended space pirate.
The warrioress shook her fiery-haired head, saying, “No, I figured you had more than your share of fun--”
“But isn’t Queen Ayeka supposed to be like dissappeared, or dead, or something like that?” Narika cut in.
“Technically, yes,” Ayeka said, still comfortably nestled in Ryoko’s embrace. “You are both now two of the few priveleged people that know where I have been all this time.”
Hitasa threw her hands up in the air, completely giving up on the situation, while Narika instead asked, “Well, what are you doing here?”
Ryoko’s happy mood sombered a bit as she replied, “That’s a story for another time,” in a quiet tone of voice. Ayeka kissed her on the cheek and rested her head on the space pirate’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.
“So, who are your friends here?” the former queen asked to change the subject.
As she’d hoped, Ryoko brightened at the question. “This is my daughter,” Ryoko grinned at Ayeka, “Hitasa, and her girlfriend Narika.”
Ayeka delicately shook Narika’s hand first, saying to her, “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
The girl replied with, “The pleasure’s all mine, I assure you.”
The former queen nodded, then turned to Hitasa and openly embraced her, exclaiming, “You’ve grown so much!” as Hitasa sort of stood in surprise, a little in shock at the gesture.
“Umm...” she stammered, “I guess so...”
Ryoko and Ayeka both chuckled as the former queen released Hitasa and took a step back to look at her. “Tsunami, I haven’t seen you since you were a baby...” she marveled.
“I honestly don’t ever remember seeing you,” the warrioress admitted.
Narika punched her lover on the arm and exclaimed, “May you never become a diplomat, Hitasa!” at which the group dissolved into laughter.
As her mirth subsided, Ayeka managed, “Of course you don’t remember me, you haven’t seen me since you were perhaps a year old.”
“Well, that makes sense, considering I’ve been living with your sister for as much of my life as I can remember, and up until a day ago I thought she was my biological mother,” Hitasa rambled. Narika hugged her lover comfortingly, remembering the pain that had shown all too clearly across her face only one night ago.
Ryoko’s eyes adopted a dark hue. “Hitasa, I’m sorry--”
“No, don’t apologize.” The warrioress waved away the hand that the space pirate rested on her shoulder. “I understand why you did it.” She smiled at her mother to show that she had come to terms with it. “Besides, you’re not all that bad, I guess,” and her smile turned mischevious.
Ryoko stared hard at her daughter. She could still see a glimmer of pain hiding in the deepest part of her eyes. “I’ll make it up to you,” she promised. Suddenly she knew how Washu must have felt all those years ago.
Hitasa let the subject drop, simply nodding and smiling in acknowledgment. “So then, why did we come here, exactly?”
The space pirate allowed one eyebrow to raise of its own accord. She pointed at Ayeka with her thumb. “Remember the whole friends in high places thing?”
Hitasa didn’t have to smack her forehead, Narika beat her to it. “I swear, Hitasa,” she said, exasperatedly shaking her head.
Ayeka hid her giggles behind her hand. “What are you going to use my over-extended powers for this time, Ryoko?” she asked after her laughter subsided.
The golden-eyed woman leveled a serious gaze on her lover. “I’ll understand if you don’t wanna do this,” she said. “But we need your help to free Kiyone and Mihoshi. I figured they could help us defeat the Asridians.”
The former queen smirked. “I was wondering when you were going to get around to that,” she replied. “I would be more than happy to help.”
“Thank you so much,” Ryoko said, relief painting her face. She swept her lover up in her arms, physically thanking her for her support. Ayeka giggled a little at the pirate’s antics, then trailed off as their eyes locked. Their lips inched inevitably closer, until they finally met in an earth-shattering kiss that made the onlooking Hitasa and Narika jealous.
Hitasa’s verbal warning cut off anything the other teenager would have said. “If you start swooning, Narika, I swear to Tsunami...”
--January 17th, 4:32 AM--
The alarm went off with a suddeness that brought a knife swiftly from its sheath and directly into the shrieking piece of machinery. Thankfully, Nagi had learned long ago to buy alarm clocks of the idestructible variety, and the knife only dented the small machine’s “off” button, subsequently silencing it.
“I hate mornings...” The ex-bounty hunter that the demonic machine had woken now sat up in her bed, her hair a tousled mess that would have been comical had she been able to see it. However, the mirror that used to be on the wall just opposite her bed had long since been removed -- she found it difficult to sleep when every movement she made was reflected right back at her. And besides, she’d had bad experiences with two-way mirrors.
With a sigh, Nagi managed to roll over and out of bed, falling onto the floor in a tangle of hung-over limbs. “I’m never going drinking with a Skigian again...” she quietly slurred/swore to herself. She stumbled into the bathroom, reaching out to the sink and supporting the whole of her body weight on it. Slitted eyes and sluggish hands searched through her medicine cabinet for the painkiller, and as soon as she had the small bottle in her hand she used the sink water to down four of the pills. She splashed some water on her face, trying to wake herself up, then tossed the bottle of pills back into the cabinet.
She stumbled into her kitchen wearing nothing but a pale nightshirt. Blindly she rumaged through her food stores, deciding on a piece of bread. No butter, nothing fancy. Whatever she’d had last night, it left her stomach feeling like a ship in the middle of a storm. A very empty ship, but a ship nonetheless.
She flopped back into a chair, rigid and metal, and took a moment to mentally remind herself to buy new chairs. “You suck,” she told the seat evenly. As she took a bite of her bread she turned her television on.
“--pirate Ryoko is still at large,” it told her, “and was last seen just outside of Earth, a small planet in the Sol System. It is rumored that she is holding the missing Ayeka Jurai, the former queen of Jurai, prisoner.” A snapshot of Ryoko talking to Ayeka on the bridge of her ship appeared in the corner of the screen, above and to the left of the announcer’s head. “If you have any information regarding the whereabouts--”
Nagi clicked the television off. The sound was beginning to intensify her headache. “So, you’ve gone back to Earth, have you Ryoko?” The ex-bounty hunter mused aloud. “Well, you just stay there and I’ll come get you.” She trailed off into slightly maniacal laughter, which she abruptly stopped when it began to hurt her ears.
To be continued...
Post Author’s Note: Wow... Oh, I’m sorry, I just can’t believe someone’s still reading this. Anyway, sorry this one’s a little short. See y’all soon.