Jo turned another corner, her fingers clamped around Meg's wrist, as they navigated through the mazelike building. Through a steady stream, guards were trickling out into the hallway, and therefore limiting their movements and making it that much harder to get down to the first floor of the building. Even though she was in disguise, it wouldn't be a good idea to throw themselves in a situation where a guard could ask for a keycard. She had one, but surely they would notice that the badge ID didn't match up with the owner. They could guess why guards were steadily coming out as most likely Meg's captors had already figured out she was past missing. They hadn't run any alarms, as those captors must have guessed that alerting the prisoner to their knowledge of the situation would be less advantageous than letting them think they were in the clear. Jo knew this, but even with this knowledge it still surprised her when bullets rained down from the side of the building, effectively shattering the windows and scattering the dangerous shards all over the ground. The black RAPT troops had mobilized so stealthily and quickly that it was like a completely different unit. Jo guessed they had specialized training since they were guarding such an important top-secret research facility. "Crap!" She heard Meg curse, her bare feet unprotected from the shards of glass on the ground. They were currently ducked under a window facing outside; the black RAPT troops stationed right outside, automatic rifles pointed at the building and their other hands gripping onto the repel they'd used to scale down the skyscraper from the rooftops. "We have to make a run for it." Jo told Meg and Meg looked horrified at the idea of having to hallass down a hallway littered with jagged glass shards. "Don't worry." Jo said flatly, like that would help the oncoming pain. Then Jo stood and returned fire with both her pistols. She was able to take out a majority of the troops, giving them some time before more scaled down the walls. Jo tucked one of her guns in the waistband of her pants, the cold metal pressing into the small of her back as she adjusted it so it wouldn't fall out. She then pulled Meg to her feet, and without missing a beat, grabbed the other girl around the waist, bent her own knees slightly and hoisted Meg over a shoulder. "Ooufff." Meg made a surprised sound and reflexes made her pull on the short hospital gown to keep it from showing off more than she wanted it to in one day. "Don't move around too much." Jo told her, hefting her one more time, so she knew she had a secure hold on Meg. "I don't want to drop you." Meg very much agreed with the idea of not dropping her and kept as still as possible. As Jo began to walk, the glass under her leather boots crunched and shattered further under the pressure of their combined weight. Jo, walking faster, the reeling of propel ropes giving her a good idea as to how close the enemy was, broke out into a run when she saw the red of a laser light flickering across her chest. She skidded a corner and her luck was shit when she realized that she'd run into a barricade of guards. Pistols in hands and SWAT shields set up. She shot at them while backing up into another corridor. A guard was sneaking up on them, and Meg with her eyes to Jo's back, spotted him and grabbed the gun tucked away in Jo's pants. She flicked off the safety and took him out before he could even lift his gun at them in defense. Jo didn't pay attention to what was going on at her back, as she was steadily taking out the shielded guards behind the corner. Guards were coming in from the back now, trying to cage them in, but Meg kept picking them off. She reached into Jo's pocket for extra ammo and reloaded the gun. Jo put her hand out, and Meg realizing that the other girl had run out of ammo, handed her the reloaded gun, taking the empty pistol being offer to her and reloading it so she would be ready to take on another set of guards when they came. Meg slipped down from where she had been bent over and shot some approaching bad guys over Jo's shoulder. "We can't let them box us in. I've cleared the front. We should move." Jo grabbed Meg's arm and bolted down the corridor. Meg ignored all the blood and the groaning bodies in their path as she ran over some of them. Jo flung a shield out of the way and continued to run with Meg. However she skidded to a stop when an automated guard-bot, bigger than a door crashed through the corner they were about to take. Meg threw the gun she had been holding towards Jo, and the other girl opened full fire on the machine. She was able to take down an arm, but it crashed forward towards them and Jo spotting a door, kicked it open and pulled Meg inside. Meg spotted a window and ran towards it, while Jo watched the door, her guns ready to blast whatever came through. Meg slid the window open and peered out, the cold blast of air hitting her and making goose bumps on her arms. "Geez this is going to suck. C'mon Jo, let's go." Meg called and Jo glancing back behind her, didn't say anything, only followed the red-head outside the window, while getting a pretty good view of Meg's panties in the process. Meg looked down at the space between her and a very messy death. She gulped, knowing that if she fell from this distance, they'd never be able to put her back together again. Jo without batting an eyelash lowered herself from the concrete jut they were precariously standing on and with her enviously perfect balance she landed on all fours on the ledge under them. She shattered the glass in front of her with her boot and then unlatched the window, her body disappearing inside for a moment, before she poked her head out and stretched out her hands. Meg, closing her eyes and not believing she was doing this, let herself fall. She landed on the ledge but since she wasn't Jo and didn't have freakish cat jumping abilities, her landing tipped her back. However Jo grabbed her by the arm before she could plummet to her death and Meg tipped forward, landing right into Jo's waiting arms. "Whew. God that took at least ten years off my life." Meg smiled at Jo and Jo staring back at the girl, suddenly realized something as the red head leaned into her. "You're lighter." "Huh?" Meg asked, not at all expecting to be hit in the face with that. "I said you're lighter." Meg thought Jo's face couldn't get more expressionless if she was reporting the evening weather forecast to her. "You think?" She said, and she really knew this wasn't the time to be discussing her weight loss, but if Jo noticed then who was she to deny it. "Yes." Jo said flatly. Then her eyebrows furrowed together in a strangely cute expression. "I don't like it. You should eat more." Jo responded and moved away from her, walking towards the door and pulling out her guns in the process. "You...you don't like it?" Meg who was still stuck on this topic and for good reasons, as she didn't understand how Jo couldn't like it, appealed to the other girl for a second time. "How could you not like it?" Jo gave her a look that asked quite plainly, ‘why they were still on this subject?' "Don't gimme that look. I lost weight for you." Er...technically she just lost the weight because the stupid scientists wouldn't give her anything to eat dammit, but Jo didn't need to know that. "Then you should put more weight on. I like you when you eat." Jo said, and Meg just couldn't understand how the other girl's brain worked. She liked her when she ate? What kind of logic was that? Seriously Jo needed a lesson in how society worked, because obviously she wasn't getting it. Meg, pouting at the fast dismissal of all the lost calories that she had been proud off, put her hands on her hips and started up in lecture mode, while Jo opened the door slightly to check for guards. "I can't believe...Fine then, if you want a fat girlfriend. I'm more than willing to provide. I'll be so fat...well I'll be fat." Meg said and hmmped at the same time. Jo plainly looked back at her and then all of a sudden, her eyes strayed down to her ass. Meg a little bit—okay a lot bit—taken aback by the sudden ogling coming from Jo, couldn't open her mouth to say anything. Jo's eyes came back up to her face, like she hadn't just been staring at her ass, or like she had no idea she'd been caught staring at her ass, and then said, again like she was reading from a boring book, "Okay." "Okay?" Meg didn't think she would ever understand her girlfriend. Not in a million years. "There should be some stairs on this floor. We'll get off on the 20th floor and if the keycard for the elevator doesn't work, we'll manually open it and scale down using the cables to the remaining floors." "I'm not Spiderman." "What?" "Never mind." Meg said, sighing and at the same time preparing herself for the impossible feats that her girlfriend wanted her to perform. Geez it was hard being in a relationship with an overactive partner. Jo checked the hallway again, and then both sneaked off to the stairwell. Jo knocked out a guard that had been positioned at the door, and Meg found herself clapping at how cool Jo looked when she got the big guard and put him in a sleeper hold. Meg to her horror realized that this felt all too much like one of their dates. Her innerself crying at the realization of what a date should actually be like. What happened to movies, and flowers, and romantic Ferris wheel rides and holding hands under the stars? Seriously? Well they were holding hands now, and well...this was kind of like a movie. Except it wasn't a date movie, it was more like one of those horror flicks Jo enjoyed so much. Also, the last time she checked guns weren't flowers and don't even get her started on the Ferris wheel of doom that she had experienced moments ago, when she had jumped off that ledge. They were so going on a normal, key word normal date when they got out of here. And with that in mind, Meg followed after Jo as they ran down ten flights of stairs. She didn't know about thread mills, but this was definitely a better workout. When they reached the twentieth floor, Meg was both relieved and irritated to see that the stairs no longer continued on. "Is this why we can't take the remaining stairs down?" "They make it so that you have to take the elevator and use a keycard." Meg walked out of the door, but the sound of cocking guns stopped her cold in her tracks. She could distinctly hear the cocking of two guns behind her, as she guessed Jo liked to try and even out the odds stacked up against them. "Nice to see you again, 013." A distinguished gentleman, who looked like he was in his early forties marched out from the throng of RAPT forces, his gray, stylish business suit and movie star good looks making him stand very much apart from the crowd. "I see you came to pick up your...friend." The man put his one hand up, and two uniformed men stepped forward. There guns now in close proximity to Meg. "Um Jo?" Meg said in panicked fashion. Jo cocked her guns stubbornly, "You let her go." "And why would I do something like that?" The man asked. At that time, the elevator dinged open and he turned to it with a casual eye. "Oh, seems that our good doctors have arrived." And with that said, both Mavors and Bellona stepped out of the elevator, both clean and pressed in their own doctoral attire. Mavors strutted to the man's side, while Bellona walked in a business like fashion to the other. She carried a clipboard in her hand and Meg instantly recognized her. "That's the lady that kept force-feeding me carrots, Jo." Meg said, despite the desperate situation they were in, she just couldn't keep herself from commenting. Jo took note that the woman was Bellona. The female scientist that had been with Mavors the first time she met him. She was standing closely to the mysterious man, her head bowed, her glasses obscuring her face, as she positioned herself slightly behind her benefactor. Mavors was standing slightly in front, his face a mask, but his posture not submissive and trained like Bellona. "You've met these two before, haven't you, 013?" The mysterious man said, and he put his hand out in front of Bellona. "This is my secretary and personal doctor, Miss Maya Tsukimura. And this gentleman to my left is Mr. Lucius Bask." He introduced congenially. "Oh but it's rude to introduce others and leave out yourself. You might know of me, as I'm now the acting Governor for Tokyo. My name is Ricky Glenford." He said in a proud voice that belied all his so-called politeness. "So you're the bastard that kicked us out of Tokyo." Jo said, more than aware off Sei's financial problems and that a large backer had been manipulating her family's assets and "coercing" others into switching alliances within the Bai Lan circle. "Kicked is such an ugly word. More like displaced. By the way, how is dear Mrs. Sei doing? She hasn't given me an answer yet as to the idea of a company merge." "You mean hostile takeover." Jo interrupted, glaring at him as she realized he was the man behind all of this. "That's such an ugly word too. You see politicians like myself don't like ugly words. We'd rather have something that makes the people we govern feel better." "Asshole." Meg said, her mouth moving before she could stop the two syllables from leaking out. One of the guards nudged her in the side with his rifle in warning. Glenford looked at Meg carefully and then started up again, "Yes some may call me that, but I'm more of a revolutionary. I plan to make this world a brighter place, a place where firearms and violence do not exist. It is for this exact reason why I'm initiating the Tokyo restoration project. It is to restore light to the hope filled masses." He put his hands up as if he was pastor in a church, readying his flock for prayer. "And to do that I must recreate society as we know it. Pull Tokyo and the world from the dregs of civilization's wasted culture. I need the help of young people such as yourselves." He pointed to Meg and Jo, but his eyes had stayed on Jo as he continued on. "If you want a better world, it is best to follow an adequate leader who can properly guide you and help you along with the betterment of this beautiful world that's encased under dirty glass." He walked out from between Mavors and Bellona and approached Jo, but dared not to leave the circle of his guards. "You my child are going to lead my cause and put this world's future on the right track again. It may be hard, and it may be a bloody path, but it is for the good of civilization as we know it, my dear." Jo knew he was trying to appeal to her sense of what was right and wrong, like a preacher who was conducting a sermon to a room full of convicts, he spoke of nothing but the glory of good. But Jo was still wanting proof of that goodness and she knew this Glenford wouldn't be able to give that to her. He was just a senile dictator, who to an extreme believed his way was right. "The start of a whole new war, a whole new fight that will rally those wanting a better world to come under my leadership. World War III. That is the ultimate goal of this institution and after years of biological and artificial-programming, I hope to give my good scientists the results they desire." He held her eyes like a hawk about to dive in for the prey, "0013, you may not understand your purpose but know that your parents have been working on this project and are waiting for its fruition." He walked back to the line that was made up of Mavors and Bellona. Jo felt her heart clam up at the word Glenford had used and the apparent suggestion of his walking back to Mavors and Bellona. "I did not introduce them properly before, but these are your biological parents, 013." Jo made a choked sound before she could cover it up, and Meg, her eyes flashing with worry for the one behind her, looked at the face of the man and woman before her. "Oh my god." The doctor had looked like Jo for a reason and here it was, staring her right in the face. She looked at the woman and noticed the indifferent way she stood, that silent, statue-like presence that Jo had seemed to master naturally. God, it was like that stupid saying, ‘the acorn never fell too far from the tree' or more likely the gun-toting acorn didn't fall too far from the psychotic-evil scientist tree. Meg needed to sit down and she wasn't even the one who'd found her long lost parents. Jo's guns were steady, but her eyes had a wild look to them that could only be described as an animal's fear. Her heart thumping like a rabbit in her chest, the pulse in her throat fluttering like a dying butterfly, and her lips dry like a cottonmouth. "With the aid of your parents 013, this project will come to its completion. Mavors," Glenford called, while putting his hands on his shoulder, "Named after the God of War and Bellona," he smiled at her and she bowed her head, "Named after the Goddess Enyo, Waster of Cities. Both God and Goddess of War will be more than sufficient to aid you in the summoning of a new war, a great ideological war." Glenford took both their hands and placed them on top of each other. He looked to Jo, "Come my child. Come join your parents and throw off the shackles of your old life." Meg, turning around and seeing Jo's face, pale with shock, eyes shivering in their socket, could no longer hold back her voice. "Jo..." She didn't know what to say after that, because these were Jo's parents. This was Jo's mother and this was Jo's father. Meg couldn't just tell Jo she shouldn't go to them. She couldn't just say they were bad people and that Jo should stay with her. Things were different now, much different. Jo with a hesitant step walked forward, her guns now limp at her sides, as she walked right past Meg as if she didn't see her. It hurt her, it hurt her more than she could ever say with words and it took strength of control she didn't know she had to not latch onto Jo's hand and beg the girl to stay with her. Jo came up to the now smiling Glenford, and stared both her parents in the eyes. She looked at her mother, who's solemn, quiet face was beautiful and stoic. She stared at her father whose face was more familiar to hers, more like hers in the straight aristocratic features and the skinny build. Mavors held out his hand to her and she could see those eyes, eyes that she knew were a spiritual reflection of hers. This man was her father. He would know what was in her heart before she could even begin to explain it, so it was with this that she handed him one of her guns. She stepped away and Glenford's smile was that of jubilance as he realized his plan was coming together quite nicely. Jo said nothing. She waited. She waited for her father and her soul's reflection to make his decision. Click. It happened in a split second. One of Mavors hands raised not in peace, but in war, as he held the mouth of the pistol up to Glenford's head and before Bellona could even gasp, he had pulled the trigger and splattered the governor's precious brain experimentation, green fluids and bits of specialized machinery, all over the cold concrete floors. "NO!" Bellona screamed and she was dealt the task of holding onto the now very headless body of the politician, as it fell into her arms. Jo moved faster than she had ever in her life, as she kicked away one of the guards from Meg and shot the other two times in the face, more blood spilling out on the ground to join the pools of it already there. The sounds of her other gun penetrated the air, as Mavors wielded it with a skill that a doctor of his profession should have never obtained, taking out RAPT members left and right. Between the two of them, they cleared the whole room. "Why? How could you...Lucius...how..." the silent, stoic woman who Jo had come to see as her mother was now crying and clutching onto the remains of Glenford. "Why?" She asked again, her voice hoarse, her glasses having fallen off her face in her attempt to catch Glenford and hold his body upright. Her hair no longer in that neat, tight bun at the back of her head, but unruly, with sweat on her brows and her bangs sticking to her forehead. "How could you just kill him? Why would you do something like this? You had nothing to gain!" Mavors closed his eyes and waved Jo's gun so the girl would come for it. He sighed loudly and then opened his eyes when the gun was removed from his shaking grasp. His eyes were bloodshot. "I suppose there was no good reason...just a bit of jealously." He said and then a small smile came over his features. "You can hate me Maya, but I'll get used to it, like I get used to everything." He came to stoop right next to her and pried her elegant fingers from the death grip they had taken on Glenford's suit jacket. "You'll get used to it too, in time." She let go of Glenford then. She had no choice with Mavors hands around her shoulders. She let out a mournful cry and collapsed into Mavor's arms, sobbing into his shirt. Jo stood quietly. Meg coming up to her felt Jo's fingers slip over her hand. It squeezed around her palm and Meg leaned against Jo's shoulder in a tired slump. Mavors, who was still looking down at the crying woman in his arms, offering no words of consolation, but neither letting up the light embrace on her shoulders, looked up at the two girls in front of him. "I'm not good with crying women." He threw out, like there wasn't one in arms right now. "Me neither." Jo agreed and continued to watch her mother as she lost herself in superficial grief for a man that she must have assumed she loved. Meg felt a pang shoot through her heart at the woman's tears, even though she knew what the doctor had done was the right choice, it was still heartbreaking to watch this woman cry. "So what will you do now?" Mavors asked, his black eyes unfocused as he looked at nothing in particular, but only held onto the woman. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Jo said with the same look in her eyes. "Not if you want to hang around here and find out how many guards Glenford had posted." The woman in his arms flinched at the use of the name, but Mavors didn't look like he particularly cared. "I guess." Jo said, with that same detached voice. Mavors smiled down on the crying woman tucked into his chest and said with a bit of curiosity, "Will it bother you if you can't see us again?" Jo tucked her guns away in the pants she wore. "No." The man looked up at her, his dark eyes staring into hers for a good minute, before looking back down at the woman. "Then goodbye...Jo." Meg wanted to say something, anything to make those words change into other words, words that didn't include a goodbye from this man. Jo nodded at him and then turned around like he wasn't there anymore. Meg felt her eyes water and she ran after Jo as the other girl slid the doctor's keycard over a device in the wall. The elevator dinged open and when she got in, like some cruel joke, Meg had to face the picture of Mavors holding onto Bellona, his eyes no longer on the woman, but on Jo's face. He waved to her. The doors closed. And Meg started crying, because watching Jo, her eyes completely dry, her face bearing no emotion and her guns being taken into her hands yet again, she understood that the girl beside her couldn't cry. Wasn't capable of it and for that, and that only Meg would shed tears. She would cry the tears that Jo couldn't. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A/n: Hmm, well I hoped somebody enjoyed that. The character of Bellona/Maya Tsukimura is actually the secretary that we always see hanging around Glenford in the anime. I based her off that character because I thought why not give that woman a purpose. Anyhoo, next chapter is the last. Yes, finally the last chapter, some of you are saying. Well I hope this chapter made sense and somebody enjoyed it, and as always reviews much appreciated. For all those who are interested Mavors is just another name for Mars, in some of the poetry written by Virgil, this is what he called the War God. Bellona is a roman warrior goddess variously identified as his wife, sister, daughter or cousin of Mars. Enyo, which means horror, and known by the epithet "Waster of Cities" is the Greek counterpart to Bellona. She was usually depicted as covered in blood and carrying weapons of war. Bellona is derived from the Latin word for war (bellum) Another fun fact, all Senate meetings relating to foreign war were conducted in the Templum Bellonae (Temple of Bellona) on Collis Capitolinus. All definitions taken directly from Wikipedia as I am too lazy and it's a great source.
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