Linna walked slowly in the direction of the restaurant, taking her time. It wasn't too late, the sun only just beginning it's descent behind the office buildings of Neo-Tokyo. She wasn't expecting company, so she jerked a bit in surprise as she was cheerfully hailed. She whirled around to see Nene waking up to her. "You look good, Linna," Nene said cheerfully, looking over the tight green dress Linna was wearing. "I bet you've got a date," Nene said eagerly, "who is it?" "I'm just meeting a friend," Linna said to her quickly. She blushed a little as she thought, 'What do I say? It's not like I can tell her I'm going out on a date with Sylia.' She smiled as she thought of Nene's likely reaction to that statement. "That's too bad," Nene said with a despairing sigh, 'it'd be nice if at least one of us was succeeding at romance." Then, as if she was reading Linna's thoughts Nene asked her, "So how's Sylia been doing?" "Not so bad," Linna managed to get out an answer. She frantically ran the last few days over in her mind, wondering if she had somehow given Nene some clue to how she was beginning to feel about Sylia. Nene gave her a look as if she were a total dunce, tapping her foot impatiently. "I meant," she said, super patiently, "is the dragon lady still really angry at Priss and me for ignoring her emergency call last night?" Linna relaxed a little bit, smiling wryly at Nene's obviously displayed self interest. "Well, I think she's gotten past the 'enraged' stage and has now calmed down to just being furious at the two of you," Linna said dryly. Nene sighed, "How was I supposed to know it wasn't another one of her false alarms?" She angrily kicked a small tin can down the crowded street. A few minutes later, and they were sitting together at a open air drink stand. Nene had some sake, while Linna decided to stick to fruit juice. 'Don't know how much I'm going to be drinking later,' Linna thought, and then suddenly had the amusing mental image of Sylia getting her drunk and taking advantage of her. Linna wiped the smile off her face when Nene curiously asked her, "So what happened last night?" She froze, and Nene frowned as she asked, "With the boomer?" "Oh, right," Linna said, a faint blush on her face. "Standard 'distract and strike' maneuver. I got the hostage clear, and Sylia took it out," she explained. "There's something wrong," Nene said, giving Linna a thoughtful look. Her eyes lit up, "You're hiding something from me, aren't you!" "You're just imagining things," Linna said to Nene hurriedly. She looked suddenly nervous, something Nene instantly picked up on. Nene looked over at her thoughtfully. "You've got a boyfriend," Nene suddenly exclaimed, "and you don't want to tell me!" "I do not," a very relieved Linna managed to protest, trying her best not to laugh aloud. Nene had a bright eyed look about her, like a small dog chasing a scent. "That's got to be it! But why the secrecy unless," Nene looked thoughtful, then her eyes suddenly grew wide. "You're seeing a married man! Oh Linna, those never end well! You've got to break it off before it's too late," a worried Nene urged her. It took all of Linna's self-control not to choke on her mouthful of juice. "Nene, I'm not dating a married man," she tried to reassure her even as she resisted the urge to smile. The girl was just clueless, totally clueless. Nene just shook her head mournfully, "Keeping a secret like this from your fellow Knight Sabers. How low can you let yourself go?" Linna sighed softly to herself. If she didn't get Nene off this topic soon, she was going to laugh and ruin a serious makeup job. "All right Nene, you've wormed it out of me," Linna said, faking a large sigh of defeat. As Nene eagerly leaned forward, Linna quietly confided to her, "You see the honest truth is that I'm dating a woman." Nene's eyes got wide, and a flush darkened her cheeks. "You're kidding," Nene said to her weakly. Linna just smiled as she got up off her stool. "I'm going to be late for my date," Linna said to Nene with a cheery wave as she quickly walked off down the street. Nene watched her go in astonishment. Priss Asagiri coasted her bike to a halt at the lookout. She stood there a moment, gazing out at the waves, as she felt the familiar sting of tears at the corners of her eyes. She reached into her leather jacket to draw forth a photo of two young women, smiling happily. Sylvie and Anri. A tear dropped onto the paper, then two, and Priss just let them come. They had met at one of Priss' concerts, and discovered a common interest in motorcycles. They road together up and down the coast together, spending more and more time together. She had fallen for Sylvie so easily, let the shy, mysterious beauty quickly work her way into her heart. "I want to be free, Priss, like you," Sylvie had often said to her. Priss sighed to herself softly. She hadn't known then that Sylvie and her sister, Anri were in fact both boomers, sexaroids who had escaped from an orbital research facility run by Genom. In her more honest moments, Priss had to admit she wouldn't have much cared even if she knew. Sylvie had stolen an advanced military mech, using it to steal the human blood she needed to sustain her and her injured sister's lives. But on a information raid into a Genom facility, things had gone horribly wrong, and fate crossed hers and the Knight Saber's paths. To save the entire city from the mech's prematurely armed nuclear self destruct device, they had to stop the mech by whatever means necessary. They had to stop Sylvie, who had somehow become linked to the mech's own systems. When Priss' visor was shattered by the mech, Sylvie pleaded with Priss to kill her, to save herself and Anri. In the end, it was the only thing she could do. She remembered Sylvie's body jerking as she fired the fatal shot from her rail gun. As the connections released, the woman had fallen out of the mech into the sobbing Priss's arms. She rocked the dying boomer back and forth, even as Sylvie pleaded with Priss to complete her final task, bringing the life saving data to Anri A deeply grieving Priss had brought the data disk to Sylvie's little sister, Anri, and tried to comfort her the best she could in the wake of Sylvie's death. Priss had tried to leave the Knight Sabers then, only to return when she discovered that Anri had fallen under the influence of the mad super-boomer, Largo. Anri had died to save Priss, to help buy her the time she would need to stop Largo's plans. She scowled as she remembered Largo's smile as he laughed at Anri's death. He hadn't cared about anyone, just his own power. Priss sighed. She had let both of those women into her heart in different ways, and both of them had died. She wondered sometimes if her love wasn't some kind of jinx. First Genom killed her lover, then Sylvie, and finally Anri. She put the one photo carefully back into her pocket and then slowly drew out another. Sylia Stingray stood calmly at the center of the image, Nene and Linna joking around her, and Priss stood scowling at the back of the room. Priss had clearly seen Sylia's pain the past few weeks, and suspected she might be the cause of it. What Sylia had told her tonight just confirmed it. She pushed her hair back, and leaned tiredly against her cycle. It had been hard, to act so coldly when Sylia had been talking to her, to ignore the peace overtures the normally reserved woman was making. But Priss wouldn't risk hurting her any more, and she suspected that it was all that Sylia would get from a relationship with her. A ghost of a smile teased Priss' lips. Besides, Priss had seen how Linna had stood so protectively at Sylia's side late last night. She might not be the smartest of the Knight Sabers, but Priss could read people like a book, and she had strong suspicions about how Linna felt about Sylia. Priss just hoped Sylia had bought her act, is all. She didn't want the woman carrying a torch for her. 'Linna,' she thought, looking up into the darkening sky, 'you'd better take good care of her, or you'll answer to me.' She slid the group shot back into her jacket, then brooded a bit longer as she gazed out at the waves, the sunlight fading away. She stretched and smiled a bit as she thought, 'Enough of this.' Priss climbed onto her bike, headed to the nearest bar, and proceeded to get bombed. The property damage caused by the bar room brawl she started would eventually be a new police record. Priss herself would know nothing of this as she ended up sleeping it off in a jail cell, only to be bailed out early the next morning by Nene.
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