Keiko seemed to have things well in hand.
The seven aggressively annoying little men, who preferred to be called
the "Seven Towering Giants" were giving Keiko a hard time because she
and Eve had inadvertently wandered into their male "retreat" and Keiko
had the "nerve" to give them lip at their bickering and complaining.
As she and the seven "giants" had at it, Eve waved to Keiko and asked
"I'm going to take five, is that OK?"
"Sure, no problem!" Keiko waved back, bashing aside a "giant" at the
same time, "Have fun!"
Some of the giants started screaming about Eve "defiling" their male
sanctuary, which made Keiko even more angry and got her even more into
their little faces.
Eve decided it was best to get away from Keiko for a bit and leave her
to her work, taking a little stroll into the woods where she found a
cute little pond untouched by the "male bonding" practices of the
"towering giants". From a tesseract pouch on her belt she produced a
beautiful golden ball which she squeezed in each hand to keep her hands
limber for spell thrashing. Today she decided to amuse herself by
tossing the ball up and down, catching it with a little hover spell
cast on the palm of her hand which kept the ball floating a few inches
from her hand each time she made a "catch". While doing this she
accidentally "caught" the ball wrong, and it bounced off the hover
spell at an awkward angle and fell into the nearby pond. With a tired
sigh Eve rolled over and looked into the pond. The water, clear as
glass yet quite deep, seemed to stretch on for quite a bit. She didn't
cry, she merely made a mental note not to become distracted in thought
while playing "catch" with herself.
Suddenly, a little voice called out "I can fetch that ball for you,
miss."
Baffled by the voice, Eve looked about a bit, her eyes falling upon the
form of a small frog floating in the pond where her ball fell in. "Oh,
no." Eve replied, smiling, "That's OK. It's not that big a deal and I
don't want to burden you with my problems."
But the frog wouldn't take no for an answer, saying "What if we made a
deal on a contingency basis instead? I'll get your ball for you if you
do me a favor in return. Deal?"
Eve thought about it for a second, then agreed (mostly to not insult
the frog by refusing his generous offer). The frog quickly dived under
the water and soon emerged once again, with the golden ball in his
mouth. He spat the ball into Eve's hand, and said, "Now that I've done
you a favor, I'd like to explore your views on physical attraction
between the species."
Eve's face scrunched a bit and she sighed, "Now it's just not right for
everyone to call Keiko a evil bitch from hell, because she's just not a
female dog at all and--"
The frog's eyes widened a bit, then he stifled a chuckle, "No, no, I
didn't mean that -- I don't know a Keiko to begin with." ("Oh." Eve
replied, face blushing red) "I meant to say that I, as you see before
you, am not really a frog at all. I used to be a man, but an evil
sorcerer cast a spell on me-- and I was wondering if you would consent
to change me back to human form by -- well, kissing me. The only thing
that'll break the spell is the kiss of a princess."
"But I'm not a princess." she retorted, but the frog had a response
ready for that. "But your manner, poise and grace screams Princess. But
I'll tell you what, if you kiss me and your not a princess then nothing
will happen, and I'll relent to your position and apologize for my
rudeness in judging you by appearances alone."
Eve leaned back, hand up to her face in a nervous gesture. She pondered
it, then agreed. Slowly she bent down and kissed the frog on the
forehead. Instantly the frog grew and changed, until she was confronted
by a man in a golf shirt, loud plaid pants -- middle-aged male,
stooping a bit, and losing a bit of his hair on the top. Eve was a bit
taken aback by this. "What made that sorcerer so angry? You cheat on
your golf game?" she asked, confused by this turn of events.
"Well, no. You see, I'm a real estate developer, and the sorcerer
thought I was cheating him in a property-line dispute. So he invited me
out for a round of golf, and just as I was about to tee off, he
transformed me."
"So --" Eve asked, dreading the answer, "Did you cheat him?"
"Not exactly. It was a fair dispensing of the line but he didn't see it
that way, I guess he and I had a difference of opinion on how the law
of the land applied to his property line. In any case I found my time
as a frog to be most productive!" he said, turning to gaze at the land
about them. "I've gotten to know every square inch of these woods, and
I think once those annoying "giants" are thrown out that this would
make for an ideal industrial park slash residential area slash resort
complex! The location's perfect, and so is the numerical logistics of
it all! The bank wouldn't lend me credits as a frog, but now that I'm
human again that should be no problem at all!" he quickly turned and
gazed at Eve, his mind working a mile a minute as he stared at her.
"And I know you now! Of course! Who could mistake that kiss? So full of
passion and beauty, you're definitely a princess if I ever been kissed
by one and I know my kisses! This Keiko, you say? She know that
you're--"
The former frog was rudely cut short when Eve shoved her ball down his
throat, and proceeded to snap his neck with one twist. She then shoved
him into the pond and watched as he sank beneath the rippling water.
Seconds later a ball of light rose from the water and flew into the
air, leaving her there alone. "So he's being reborn -- as it should
be--" Eve noted, eyes misty, "I can't tell Keiko who I am -- she'd
never accept it -- I don't want to lose her -- but he was half right
--" (a tear rolls down Eve's face) "The kiss of a princess can cure
curses -- or in my case --"
"Eve?" a voice called out from behind, the voice belonging to Keiko.
She quickly dried her tears away and turned, smiling, "All done?"
"Yeah, turns out their female "house guests" was the Queen of this
kingdom and her "daughter of step" or something like that. They were
pretty miffed to find out those little perishers were a bunch of pervs
after -- oh, never mind. Long story." (looks down) "You dropped this."
she noted, passing Eve back her golden ball. "Is something wrong? You
look like you were crying--"
"No, no, nothing. I just -- misplaced my ball."
"Well, there you go. Now dry your face and come on, I want to find us a
nice inn where the food is hot, and the giant sized bath is hotter."
Eve stands up, leaning against Keiko as she did, "Ok, I'm game."
As the two walked Keiko nudged Eve gently, "You OK? You seem a bit --
off."
"I'm fine, I'm fine-- never better."
As the two walked away, Eve left any thoughts of the former frog slash
developer behind.
And while some may have noticed the disappearance of the frog, no one
ever missed the real estate developer.
-----
As Keiko was a good-hearted soul, she often did things that helped
others while, in the end, burdening herself with unwanted tasks. So it
was on this day that she helped a family return to the hustle and
bustle of economic fulfillment -- and all she had to do was --
"Buy a cow." Keiko groaned, not even bothering to look at the huge
thing standing next to her. However it was something that Eve couldn't
overlook, even if Keiko had wanted her to. "Well, she's rather cute and
well mannered for -- well -- a cow." Eve remarked, trying to cheer
Keiko up.
"Don't remind me." Keiko groaned, pulling the cow along as they walked.
"One good deed, ONE GOOD DEED, and I get stuck with this. What am I
going to do with a cow, of all things?!?"
"Milk it?" Eve offered, to which Keiko snarled incoherently. "Ok, maybe
not."
On the way to the next village the two met an old mage who warned Keiko
of the dangers of eating beef and dairy products.
"Buy the stinkin' cow or die." Keiko growled, to which Eve replied "You
have to forgive my companion, sir, she's rather fond of meat and
cheese."
"Look," Keiko snapped, nudging the old mage aside, "move it, we just
want to sell the damn thing (maybe get a cheeseburger or five while I'm
at it). Is that too much to ask?"
The mage looked at her and frowned. "But by doing that, you'll just
perpetuate the cultural mythos of beef, ignoring the negative impact of
the cattle industry on our ecology and the health and social pro--" At
this point Keiko grabs him by his cloak and hauls him upwards, growling
"Buy-the-cow, or D-I-E. Get it?"
"How about I trade you the cow for magic beans that have as much
protein as that entire cow but none of the fat or sodium?"
"How about you DIE?!? Just get out of my face!!" Keiko growled, shoving
him aside and pushing the cow (and Eve) along. "Don't turn back, he's
an eco-nut, lord knows what kind of sick ritualistic madness he had
planned for this cow."
In town she sold the cow to a Nekochanian for slaughter, and made quite
a bundle. The cow was subsequently sent to a huge valley of weed and
grass and commissioned to "slaughter" said growth until a park could be
built -- truth be told, Nekos cherish a lot but the three things they
cherish the most is money, land and milk. And since female cows could
provide all three (clear the land while making fertilizer from which to
grow flowers and crops, which makes the land usable, which brings in
money, and makes milk while clearing said land) it made female cows a
cherished commodity for purchase by Neko real estate developers (male
cows were only good for breeding more female cows which cleared the
land, and provided fertilizer for crops, which made milk and so on and
so forth).
"What about the magic beans?" Eve asked, to which Keiko answered "Want
to find a magic beanstalk growing into the clouds the next day, and out
of sheer curiosity end up climbing it to find a city in the sky filled
with giant people with funny speech impediments who hoard golden harps
and gold egg laying chickens?"
"Uh -- no."
"Me neither, that's why we skipped out on that -- what the --" Keiko
stopped, and turned back. On the sign that they just passed was a
notice. It read as follows --
"YE MODERN TOWN OF HAMELIN SEEKS PERSON TO ERADICATE PROBLEM OF YE'
BOTHERSOME PORPORTIONS. GO TO HAMELIN CITY HALL TO APPLY."
"Color me curious buuuttttt-- I think they need our help."
"Most certainly." Eve replied with a nod of the head.
----
The problem, it seemed, wasn't quite what Keiko had in mind when she
showed up at the city hall. "The picturesque town of Hamelin Proper has
everything a upright decent community could possibly want or need." the
town spokesperson rambled, walking alongside Keiko and Eve as they
observed the long line of old men portraits in the City Hall's "Hall of
Leadership". "We have non-polluting industries, a very effective mass
transit system, a well balanced ethno-religious diversity. In fact
we've managed to insure the quality of our lives remain pure and
productive up until THEY came--"
At this Keiko stopped, and frowned at the man leading them, "We'll have
a talk about that "management" part later, but for now what do you mean
by "they"?"
The man, now quite nervous, shifted his eyes back and forth warily
before whispering the words he dreaded to speak. "The trailer park."
One of Keiko's eyebrows shot up, and a perplexed visage overtook her
features. "Trailer park."
Eve, confused, repeated the words "Trailer park" which made the man
wince at each saying, "Yes! The-- the--"
"Trailer park." Keiko repeated, which got another wince from him. "You
see, Miss Judgment, the trailer park is on the edge of the city and
it's -- well -- it's a civic embarrassment!"
Keiko once again frowned at the man, "Most of the time people ask for
help on demon eradication or evil organization removal -- this is the
first time I ever been asked to remove a -- a -- trailer park?"
"That's what the man said." Eve noted, "Trailer park."
"But you two don't understand! Not only is it a terrible eye sore, with
it's horribly rusted and unclean pickup trucks and trash heaps in every
-- "backyard" -- as it were with them, within it's confines dwells some
of the most unregenerate and irredeemable souls you've ever seen!"
"Uh-huh." (Keiko rolled her eyes as she spoke) "Are we talking 'Goin'
to hell' irredeemable, or 'they bring down my property value by being
alive' irredeemable?"
From the man's sudden paling and nervous gait Keiko surmised it was the
latter.
"They're horrible people!" the spokesman continued, eyes narrowing.
"Murderers of non-domestic animals! Former clientele of the Dreaming
Correctional System! Off road bikers! And more!!"
"Yeah, those can be horrible." Keiko agreed, again rolling her eyes at
the man while he spoke, "I bet they even have rapists and child
molesters."
Suddenly the man stopped, "Actually they ran those types out years ago.
They don't seem to tolerate their kind amongst them -- but they kill
"bambi" on a weekly basis!! "Bambi!!""
"Bambi as in deer hunting, or Bambi as in they run around with paint
guns shooting naked women?" (stops and looks at Eve whose giving her a
strange look) "It's some new fad the Darklings cooked up! Anyway it's
harmless just as long as it doesn't spread to the waking world -- then
it'd be a disaster. Anyway, which is it?"
The man shudders before answering, "Deer hunting --" (stops, blinks)
"--they actually run around shooting naked women with--"
"Like I said, it's a Darkling fad." Keiko repeats, "--and the women
actually participate willingly in it -- well, it's always succubus and
it's kinda weird seeing grown men with guns chasing naked bat-winged
women with burning red eyes and long whiplike tails giggling and
laughing their heads off as they're "shot" -- anyway they're into
everything weird and kinky and the "shooting" always leads to sex
because all the running and shooting gets them hot and -- never mind
--" (Keiko clears her throat, blushing abit at the thoughts in her
head) "About the trailer park?"
"Oh." (man takes a minute to recover from his own "thoughts" on the
earlier topic) "After a particularly riotous road rally through the
trailer park, the town leaders had a meeting. And, after much debate,
we decided the best thing to do is to evict the trailer park
forthwith."
"And that's where we come in?" Eve asked, to which he replied "Well,
you two and one other who agreed to do the job."
Eve - "One other?"
"We're about to go meet him now, he's waiting for us in the main
chambers."
As they walked on, Eve nudged Keiko and asked "--does that
explain--?"
"Yeah. That explains that."
Eve nods her head.
It happened a few weeks ago.
Eve looks on in dazed disbelief as she stands near the pool, staring at
Keiko as she waves at her. "Come on! Food's hot and we just got here!
Hurry up!"
She had invited Eve to join her at a barbeque hosted by a friend who
just got married.
He wasn't a tall man, or a heftily built muscular man, but he was a
nice loving good souled man and his wife cared for him very much.
It's the wife that freaked Eve out.
There, next to this unassuming young male was a tall red haired
succubus, long batlike wings, longer tail, and red eyes, who stood next
to her husband dressed in a lovely outfit (with holes cut into it for
her wings and tail) and helped him set the plates and dish out the
food. Occasionally her tail would wrap around his waist and the two
would kiss or stand side by side in a tender moment showing their
feelings for each other openly.
Still, the sight just disturbed Eve greatly.
"Eve! It's fully cooked! Come on! Just because the last barbeque we
went to was a little off doesn't mean you'll need to visit the
emergency room to have your stomach pumped AGAIN!! Dig in already!!"
Back in the present Eve blushed abit. "There won't be a barbeque after
this mission, will there?"
"Not that I know of." Keiko replied, to which Eve sighed and said
"Good."
----
The individual in question was a odd fellow, to say the least.
Tall in height, yet light in body weight and long limbed. He wore a
strange patchwork combination of clothes that didn't seem normal, and
his manners plus his strange voice were something neither Keiko nor Eve
had confronted before.
Although he looked rather Amazonian in nature, Eve assured Keiko that
he was quite male (and not female Amazonain). Both he and Keiko quickly
gained the trust of the desperate town leadership, and both agreed to
the request. But the man not only agreed, but made this statement "I
will be able to rid your town of the trailer park WITHOUT the kind
assistance of the 7th Judgment," he said with confidence, which only
got on Keiko's nerves, "but you must promise to pay me 100,000 credits
upon completion of said task."
The town leaders looked at the two and pondered, rolling their gazes
back and forth. Certainly they wanted the situation with the trailer
park resolved, but they were also uncertain as to how Keiko would
respond to the problem. In light of her "dealing" recently with the
rogue prince of a different kingdom they were not so certain she was
the right person for the job.
They hired the man, and agreed to his terms.
Keiko, in a huff, was about to storm out when Eve asked if they could
monitor his progress and insure he didn't need any assistance. Before
he could balk she added "Our assistance is purely out of duty, and we
have no desire to infringe on the gentlemen's agreed upon payment nor
are we asking for any credits in return."
At this the town leadership winced. If they knew Keiko was offering her
services for free they would have swung her way instead, but it was too
late to change now so they agreed to the "monitoring" request by Eve.
Keiko was about to protest, but a squeeze of the hand by Eve dropped
any balking from Keiko -- at least, until later.
The strange individual immediately set to work, reaching into his
tattered knapsack and pulling out a sophisticated compact recorder. The
people, including Keiko and Eve, watched in amazement as he set the
recorder's settings and proceeded to mumble into the built-in
microphone. Eve's eyes narrowed as she watched. "He's spell weaving."
"He's what?" Keiko whispered back, to which Eve replied "Spell weaving.
He's chanting a spell which will trigger later when he thrashes it back
with music (no doubt pre-recorded already)."
Keiko turned and looked again at the man, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
Abruptly he stopped "spell weaving" and stood up, telling the town
leadership that he needed a truck with a public address system.
Quickly one was found and he was set up with it. The vehicle, which
belonged to "The Division of Public Biodiversity" was quickly handed
over to the gentleman and the two women. As he set up in the front,
Keiko rummaged around the back of the truck. He looked over at Eve, a
curious expression on his face. "Are you and she--"
Eve, not understanding at first, slowly smiled as she realized what he
was asking, "Yes. We are."
"She seems to be a rather rude and aggressive person from what I heard
of the infamous 7th Judgment, aren't you--"
"Completely mismatched by being in love with her? I'd say so. But then
again love sometimes is simply a matter of opposites attract."
"Not from what I've seen." he replied, finishing his set-up, "More
often than not I've seen people gravitate towards others that share
similar interests and personalities that they do, not opposites. You
are simply kidding yourself if you think you and her would ever be able
to find enough in common to justify a relationship."
If this observation was meant to leave Eve feeling disturbed, it did
the exact opposite. She simply smiled her serene smile and said "Then I
guess we're the exception rather than the rule."
Keiko's voice calls out to them as the truck starts up, "I'll be in the
back if you need me."
He watches her step through the sliding door, closing it behind her,
before he puts the truck into gear and pulls out. In five minutes they
would reach the trailer park.
----
"I don't believe it." Eve muttered, flipping through the papers Keiko
had just handed her.
"This "Division of Public Biodiversity" is one big spy machine. The
entire back is littered with surveillance equipment and a "black list"
of people who don't fit the village's mandate on what's "pure". And
look at this --" (Keiko opens a page of the black list and shows it to
Eve), "Read."
As she does, her heart skips a beat and her eyes narrow, "This is -- oh
goddess -- it's a record--"
"Of who's who in town. Whose cheating on who, whose sleeping with who
-- who's straight and"
"That's just too much." Eve choked, slamming the book down looking
angry, "They can't do that. Policing people even in their own homes --
it's disgusting -- have they --?"
"No." Keiko picked up the book, pulling a lighter out of her pocket,
"The person who showed me the van told me to ignore this stuff because
he was just finishing his "Biodiversity" report -- sad to say he didn't
get to finish it --" (click) "--he had an "accident"."
----
The minute the van pulled out of the city hall parking garage a man in
a uniform stumbled out, dazed and confused. When his superiors tried to
question him he didn't remember a thing -- almost. He did remember --
----
"His fiancie's birthday?" Eve said, eyes wide.
"Well, I figured if I'm going to wipe his short term memory of his work
at least I'd put in something useful for a change. Guy needed a break
anyway since I also had to wipe the fact that his girlfriend is --
well, she's happier with someone else."
"Another woman?"
"Bingo." Keiko taps Eve on the shoulder to acknowledge her correct
answer, "Good thing I pay attention and noticed the cute little
secretary who greeted us who had the hots for him. And a little cupid
dance for me and some lucky coincidence that she walked in on me
brainwashing him and instant new couple." (smirks) "I'm a regular Chuck
Woolery."
"Well, before you arrange another "Love Connection", what about the
trailer park?" Eve asked.
Keiko - "We'll see what our boy up in front does, and if he screws up
we'll pick up the pieces."
Eve - "As always?"
"That's two right." (Keiko)
Suddenly music started to play through the loud system. "Well, whattya
know, it's showtime."
-----
The music, generally Country music, also was riddled with the
occasional classic like "The Ballad of the Green Berets" and "Ghost
Riders in the Sky".
Neither Keiko nor Eve could make heads or tails of this, that is until
Eve noticed something on one of the surveillance monitors. "Look!"
People were emerging from their trailers, tool sheds, and taverns. The
people had a certain glassy expression to them as they stumbled
mindlessly after the truck, mumbling to themselves.
The residences of the trailer park followed the truck, and as Keiko and
Eve watched, they were lead to the highway where they began hitching
for rides. That's when the truck turned back and returned to Hamelin.
The hour it took to get them out there and back wasn't wasted, however.
Keiko and Eve proceeded to destroy every last bit of surveillance
footage and data colleted, making sure to make a visual data record of
it all for later prosecution, while not missing an inch of private
information that was left and could have been used against innocent
people. To make sure it didn't happen again, Keiko (after asking the
man in front to shut the music off) thrashed the back silently (yanking
microchips, circuits and memory boards turning the entire truck's
audio/visual equipment into very large useless paperweights) and
finished by pulling the plugs on the audio system so that she completed
the destruction of the gear. She finished by scrawling with her sword
blade a message on the truck's interior.
"INVASION OF PRIVACY IS PUNISHABLE BY JUDGMENT, WHICH I SHALL PASS!"
As the truck returned, minus it's entourage, the man jumped out of the
vehicle before the town leadership. "I led them all to the highway.
They're out thumbing rides for anyplace but Hamelin."
They looked at Keiko, and she nodded her head, "And I didn't do a
thing. He did it all by himself."
"Now the trailer park is free for you to use to whatever way you
desire."
The leadership began patting each other on the back, grinning like cats
who slaughtered a village of rats. "Marvelous! Now that they're gone,
we can commence with our plans for a Third-World Refugee Reorientation
Center."
Keiko made a silent note to bring back Judgment reinforcements and
"clean house" in Hamelin.
"Thank you, thank you."
"Now," the gentleman noted, holding his hand out, "if you will kindly
pay me the 10,000 credits we agreed to then I'll be on my way."
The leadership exchanged shifty glances, sweating, "Well, er-- about
that. Hamelin is striving to establish an economy that is based on
human capital and not the mere exploitation of physical resources."
"Then you should pay him since, by not doing so, your exploiting a
physical resource -- mainly HIS physical resources which he used to
your benefit." (Keiko snickers beneath her breath) "How quickly the fat
old men forget their promises."
"Now see here!" one of the "fat old men" muttered, holding something up
in one of his hands, "We are not without compensation for his work. To
this end, we'd like to offer him this coupon book, which entitles him
to such services in Hamelin as free massages and seminars on releasing
one's inner child. Would you care for one yourself, Miss--"
"My inner child wants to kill you. Think your seminar will cure me of
that?" Keiko hissed, staring down the man whose only recourse is to
back away from her slowly.
This obviously wasn't what the strange man had expected. "Don't be
absurd. We had a gentlemen's agreement. You promised to pay me 10,000
credits upon the completion of my task," he said, anger growing in his
face, "Now you will pay me what we agreed to, or there will be
consequences for your ill mannered actions."
This shook up the leadership, the mayor growing red in the face from
his threats. "Now see here! If you wish to abandon your responsibility
for making the world a more equitable place,"
"Like you have by refusing to pay him his equitable payment?" Keiko
hissed, making the mayor even more angry. "SO BE IT! Kindly remove our
guests from the city limits, and give each of them the official Hamelin
IOU, which can be redeemed for a--"
The next thing the mayor saw was Keiko's fist in his face, knocking him
flat on his butt.
Out came the badge, and her sword. "Alright, party's over. Everyone is
under arrest. The charge is invasion of privacy, abuse of authority,
the illegal gathering of private information for use against private
citizens, and a slew of other things that I'm sure will make many human
rights groups quite happy once your all dragged into court."
Some of the Hamelin authority tried to fight, while others jumped in
with Keiko to subdue them. In the end it was the bad authorities who
ended up knocked on their rears, with the few good ones victorious over
them. Others, including the leadership, tried to flee but were rounded
up by Eve's spell thrashing. Just as the last of the leadership was
caught they heard an eerie laughter. It was the strange man, who had
climbed back into the truck and now was speeding away.
"WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO?!?" one of the leadership screamed as Keiko had
them hauled away (lead away by the few honest authorities who jumped in
to help her during the fight). "Nothing. He's driving the world's
largest paperweight, there's nothing he can do with that truck.
Still--" (Keiko sighs) "--better go round him up. Come on, Eve,
let's--" (stops, looks around) "Eve?"
----
His fist smashes through the truck's PA system controls, breaking the
panel.
"Damn bitch must have dismantled it before she got off."
"That's very observant of you."
He snarled, eyes glancing behind him as Eve entered into the front.
"You."
"It took me awhile to figure out what you were spell thrashing before,
but then I realized -- it's "Mass Suggestion" isn't it? What were you
planning on suggesting? A citywide riot?"
"Now, now, that's so academic and boring." he chided, his grin slowly
returning to his face. "I simply wanted to level the playing field, so
to speak, and what better way than through the city's children. They
would have protested unfair taxation, joined gun clubs, anything that
the city fought against would have been the children's new rallying cry
to form."
"Even if it went too far?" Eve growled, eyes never leaving him for an
instant as she watched, "The leadership is also against rape and
violence, would your "children" have violated women and killed
innocents because it's what their elders forbade?"
"You'll never know now, won't you?" he baited, "But then again if you
help me--" his eyes turn back to the road, glancing briefly at Eve
through the rear view mirror. There, in the mirror, for a brief second,
he saw her true visage -- and it shocked him.
In that second he jerked the wheel to one side, and slammed the truck
into a wall.
When the remaining good authority finally caught up with the truck he
was choking his last breaths. Eve was found in the back unconscious
from the collision, but otherwise OK. As she was taken to the hospital
Keiko oversaw his removal from the truck for his trip to the hospital.
As he was wheeled past her he grabbed her arm and gurgled "--sh--
shi-- sit-- sh--" and died right there.
Confused, the authorities could only stare at Keiko as they took the
now dead "Piper" of Hamelin away. Keiko would only say "Dammit." and
walked towards the nearest squad car to be taken to the hospital.
To Be Continued
----
Prelude to Trinity
"He's dead?" Eve muttered, looking confused. "But -- he was -- he was
talking to me -- only --"
"Want me to--?" Keiko offered, holding the mind wiper up, only for Eve
to decline. "It's OK. I'll get over it. It's just -- I wish he didn't
have to die with so bitter feelings towards people. I wish--"
"I know." Keiko smiles, leaning over to kiss her lightly on the
forehead, "Get some sleep."
As she turns to leave, Eve briefly mutters something but stops, "Yes?"
Keiko turns back, only for Eve to wave her off. "I'll see you tomorrow.
Good night."
"Good night."
As she turned off the lights, Eve laid down and stared listlessly at
the ceiling.
He saw. He saw her true visage and she knew it.
With a tired sigh she stood up from bed and walked over to the window,
fingers brushing the glass. She was tired. So very, very tired -- but
not from the need to sleep.
She was tired of living. If Keiko wasn't there to be her anchor and
support she'd never make it through the day.
"Damn you, Catherine -- why didn't you let me die -- why didn't you let
me die."
As she stared into the window she saw herself, her true self, and
stifled a bitter laugh.
She was shorter than her "borrowed" form. Not tall, statuesque, or
beautiful. She wasn't strong, it was her power which she tapped from
her new "power source" which gave her strength.
Her world, her Earth, died so long ago that she can't even remember
what it was like anymore.
Her few friends and loved ones are long dead. Keiko is now her only
family, love, life.
But she could never share with her the truth of herself -- not yet.
So as she turned to go to bed, she put herself back into her body. And
as Eve, Spell thrasher, went to bed she looked up and saw herself one
more time.
And went to sleep staring at Hotaru, the once and former Sailor Saturn.
The girl whose eyes now reflect only death.
Three walk the world who are death.
One from the past, one from the present, one from the future.
Keiko Yamanaka, death from the past who lived for over 400 years in the
Realm of Dreams. Her contacts and resources endless, her past shrouded
in mystery.
Eve, the tortured soul formerly known as Sailor Saturn. Born of a
different present than any of Edenina had ever witnessed or seen
before. Her full potential yet unrealized -- or is it?
And the last, the Raven known as Catherine Picadello, born of the
future (the 21st Century). Her power endless, but her hidden love for a
young woman she can't have may be her downfall.
One of these is the instigator of the crisis in the sky, the bringing
of CLAMP School-- their identity shrouded in mystery -- for now.
Three walk the world who are death.
One -- may yet bring death to countless billions of souls -- if such a
thing is possible for those who live in a realm of dreaming.
But which one?
End Prelude to Trinity
Tune in on future Card Captor Sakura-Remastered episodes and upcoming
Sailor Moon Remastered episodes for Trinity episodes.
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