Sylia was riding along fast when she saw a crossway ahead. Without warning, Priss' horse went racing by in front of her. The animal was scared as it raced by, its body cut up and bleeding. Priss was nowhere in sight. Sylia immediately realized that something was wrong. Turning her horse, she began to race her mare down the side road where the horse had just come from. Fear started to grip her when she thought of what could've caused such injuries to her fellow Knight Saber's steed. ------ Reika watched as the woman in front of her continued to back away, pulling a glass shard out of the wound to her abdomen as she did so. She could hear a stifled cry escape her enemy from the pain both in her abdomen and her other wounds, especially the one in her wrist. She wasn't expecting the sight in front of her. The Knight Saber didn't look like a demon, nor was she laughing maniacally like a villain in a play would when the end was near. The woman in front of her was bleeding, in intense suffering, and scared. Even with the faceplate on the front of her blue helmet, Reika could tell from her body language she was afraid. She had tried to prepare herself for this. The woman in front of her was an enemy. She was evil. She'd killed her unarmed sister in a Buddhist temple. And now, she was receiving the punishment she deserved. All Reika would have to do now would be to use her blade on her and it would all be over. Why was she hesitating? The sound of hoof beats pulled her out of her thoughts. As her opponent passed out from blood loss and pain, Reika saw a second one, in silver armor, appear from around a corner. The second Knight Saber started to race toward her, when a knife thrown from a nearby alleyway took down her horse, causing the rider to land in a nearby snow bank. Even in the absence of any streetlamps, Reika could tell who'd thrown the weapon. "Kou!" she shouted, as a group of armed men, all wearing similar white tiger masks, surrounded the silver warrior. One of them, slightly taller than the others, turned to her. "We'll take care of this one." he yelled back, "You finish off the blue one." As the men surrounding the other Knight Saber all pulled out their swords, Reika turned back to the prone body in front of her. The enemy was still breathing, but wasn't moving otherwise. "Why do you hesitate?" Kou shouted. "Kill her!" Reika stared at her opponent, and felt her chest tighten. The Knight Sabers were evil. They were responsible for her sister's death. And as she continued to watch her chest rise and fall, a tear ran down her cheek. She couldn't bring herself to do it. She couldn't kill. "Irene, forgive me." she whispered, "I failed you." A gunshot blast pulled her attention away from her fallen foe. ------ One of the assassins surrounding Sylia fell at the gunshot. Four more blasts, followed by four more dead members of the White Tiger, quickly followed. In the darkness, a horse and rider shot out of a side street. The rider jumped off the horse, pulling out a long katana and landing on the nearest clan member. Sylia took advantage of the distraction to slip something onto her hand. Unable to see their opponent, the men rushed forward into the darkness. The rider leapt over one of the enemy, twisting her body in midair and landing on her feet facing his back. She sliced down his back, turned to her right, and kicked a second one in the scrotum just before decapitating him. A third tried to come up behind, only to be run through when she turned the sword in her hand and thrust the weapon backward. Walking out of the shadows into the moonlight, her spurs jingling as she strode forward, she came into view of Sylia and the few White Tiger members left. "No one," Jeena Malso yelled as she pointed at Sylia with the tip of her blood stained sword, "Gets to kill that bitch but me!" Taking advantage of the fact that everyone's attention was focused on the one-armed swordswoman, Sylia swung at a nearby Tiger member. Her fist shattered the bottom of his mask and broke his jaw, just before she slashed his chest open with her sword held in her other hand. The tall one, who appeared to be the leader, yelled something in Chinese. At that all the assassins retreated, including the woman by Priss. Jeena was about to run after them, when Sylia grabbed her. "Let me go." she growled. Sylia shook her head and motioned over to Priss, at which point Jeena's demeanor changed. She turned from Sylia and ran toward the prone figure, images of her friend Hibiki-chan being murdered in front of her racing through her head. Jeena reached the fallen Knight Saber first, Sylia coming up seconds later. As the leader of the Knight Saber removed the brass knuckles from her hand, Jeena sheathed her sword and knelt sadly down by Priss. "Congratulations." she said acerbically, "You killed another." Sylia's lower lip began to quiver behind her faceplate as she fought to keep her eyes from filling with tears. Jeena grabbed hold of the shuriken and yanked it from Priss' right wrist. Priss' eyes opened wide at the sudden intense pain and she let out a scream, swinging out blindly with her left fist and punching Jeena in the right eye as she did so. As Jeena fell backwards, Priss slumped back down as she blacked out again. Sylia knelt down and carefully picked Priss up. "That broad's crazy!" Malso yelled as she clutched her face. "Jeena, I need your help." Sylia said. "You what?" she asked in disbelief. "We can still save her, but only if we get her to the Silky Doll now. Please." she finished in a pleading tone. Jeena looked at her former leader for a second or two before shaking her head. Bringing two fingers to her lips, she let out a whistle. Within seconds, her horse appeared and galloped up to them. ------ "...my eye. She popped me right in the..." "...how? Someone tell me how..." "You're precious Sensei's leadership, that's how!" Priss slowly became aware of the voices surrounding her and the warmth of the room she was in. From the way the voices were echoing she guessed she was in the pit. She could feel that her helmet had been removed, and someone was trying to unlace her body armor without jarring her. She could also feel a pair of hands holding her left hand, and a dull throbbing pain throughout her entire body. "Where's Romanovitch with the hot water?" "It's Romanova, and I'm right here. Henderson and Nigel will be down soon. They're getting the instruments ready." The voices sounded like they were under water at first, but slowly they began to become clearer. Priss felt her chest armor being slowly removed, and unconsciously winced at the pain it caused. Some of the blood from her abdominal wound had congealed and was stuck like glue between her and the armor and underlying clothing. As the garments were removed, it tore at her wound, causing intense pain. As the garments covering Priss were slowly being removed, she felt something like a warm rain drop fall on her hand, followed by a second. She opened her eyes a bit to see her beloved silently weeping, tears falling on the hand she held in hers. Sylia was removing her armor, Nene was setting up a tray for Henderson and Nigel to use, and Jeena was resting against the far wall, her arm crossed across her chest. The black eye she was sporting almost caused Priss to laugh in spite of the situation. Linna, who made it quite clear to everyone involved she wasn't about to leave her love's side, suddenly felt Priss' hand squeezing hers. She looked over to see her looking up at her, a forced smile on her face. "Koibito (beloved)." she rasped out, rubbing the back of her geisha's hand with her thumb. Linna sniffled a bit as she cupped Priss' cheek in her hand, bending over to kiss her forehead. "Ai shite'ru yo (I love you)." she said as she ran her fingers through Priss' hair. From across the room, Jeena rolled her eyes. "Not you too." she said in an annoyed voice. Looking over at Nene, she eyed her suspiciously. "Hey Romanovski, you're not..." "For the last time, it's Romanova! And no, I'm not." Sylia observed all silently as she finally finished undressing Priss. Nene turned away from her naked comrade as footprints at the stairs marked the arrival of Nigel and Henderson. Henderson looked down at Priss and winced. He'd seen her and the others injured before, but it still didn't make things any easier. He could remember a time before the Knight Sabers, before Sylia and even Dr. Steven Stingray, when he was a front line medic for the British back in 1850 during the Opium Wars, at the height of the Taiping Rebellion. He remembered those days, helping England enforce the opium trade upon the oppressed Chinese, with a great deal of shame on his part. Sylia always thought it was family loyalty that kept him with her. It was more than that. There was also the hope that, by helping her and her girls do what they had to do, he could maybe in a small way make up for sins of the past. Nigel, who would be acting as his assistant, looked over and saw Jeena. His normally stoic, emotionless demeanor gave way to disgust. "Malso." he growled. "What in the bloody hell are you doing back here?" Jeena grinned, "Well well, if it isn't my favorite limey Nigel Kirkland." As Nigel glared angrily at Jeena, Priss turned away from Linna to look at Sylia. "Where... are the other two?" she asked, "The... the bookworm and her friend with the big bosom?" Sylia chuckled in spite of the situation. "Yomiko and Nancy went out to see if they could find any sign of our attackers." she answered. She looked over to see Henderson produce a jar of something from out of a black medical bag. Linna likewise saw the jar. "What is that stuff?" she asked, both out of curiosity and concern for her love. Henderson looked over to the former geisha and smiled. "It's called ether." he explained. "It's been around for close to forty years now. I obtained this bottle on the black market. It's going to put Priss here to sleep until we're done fixing her up." "Black market?" Sylia asked, "But, how do you know it's safe? And why not just use chloroform?" "Because the supplier didn't have any chloroform, and this stuff is said to be better; it has less of a tendency to induce vomiting and it doesn't stink as badly. And as far as the safety level... If we do nothing, she's going to die. I trust the source, but if it is bad..." Henderson took a deep breath and continued, "Never mind. Look, this stuff is highly explosive, so I would strongly suggest you all blow out all the candles and gaslights down here except for that one in the corner of the back wall until I'm finished administering this. Otherwise, when I release this cork, we'll all be blown to bits." Priss and Linna squeezed each other's hands as Henderson placed an object over her mouth and nose, telling her to count backwards from one hundred as she did so. Soon, the pain, her beloved, and the entire world faded away as Priss slipped into unconsciousness. ------ "How do you do that? The paper stuff, I mean." A husky, deep voice asked. "I'm not really sure myself. It's just a gift I've always had." Priss opened her eyes to find that she was now in one of the rooms of the house Linna and her were sharing. She was wearing a very beautiful, feminine looking kimono, and someone had taken the time to braid her hair, tying off the ends with little paper ribbons. There was a throbbing pain from the stitches Nigel and Henderson had given her, and her ribs and abdomen were tightly wrapped in bandages. She looked over to her right to see Yomiko Readaman and Haruka Ten'ou lounging around drinking tea, Haruka in her police uniform and Nancy in her typical brown dress, her hair unkempt a bit around the sides. Her right arm in a sling, she sat up resting her weight on her left arm. Still light headed, she looked out the window to see the sun setting; she'd slept all night and through most of the following day. Yomiko looked over and smiled as she brought her hands together in joy. "Aah!" she cried out happily, "Priss-san, you're awake!" Priss smiled a bit. Normally, she hated chronically happy people and avoided them like the plague; they always seemed like fakes to her. With Yomiko it was different. She had a genuineness to her. Priss looked over to Haruka and raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised to see you here." She admitted. Haruka smiled. "Me and Michiru are becoming close." she said a bit sarcastically, "Because I like Michiru, I'm concerned about her and anyone close to her. Linna is her only living relative, and I don't want anything happening to the woman Michiru's cousin loves." Priss stared at her a few seconds before laughing. "Smart ass." she said, just before making a pained face. "Ow... it hurts to laugh. Speaking of Linna-chan, where is she?" "She's in the next room over with Michiru and Nancy-san." Yomiko answered before looking down. "I'm sorry." she added. Priss looked at her puzzled, "Sorry? For what?" "If me and Nancy-san hadn't come to you..." Priss shook her head. "We would've become involved whether or not you two had joined in." Turning to Haruka, "Have the police come up with any leads yet on either the flying machines or my attackers?" "Nothing yet." she said, annoyance showing in her voice, "This would have to happen with our foreign visitor here." Yomiko looked at her funny. "Foreign visitor?" she asked. Haruka nodded. "Reika Chang. She's visiting Tokyo to give a performance in a little less than three weeks. We're joining forces with the British Military to provide her with security. I..." she was interrupted by a low grumble escaping Priss' stomach. Yomiko smiled as she got up. "You're hungry." she said matter-of-factly. "I'll go see if Linna-san has anything to eat." As Yomiko left, Priss turned to Haruka. "Chang. That's Chinese, isn't it?" Haruka looked at her a bit puzzled. "Hai, she's Chinese. She's been living in France for the last few years. Why?" "My attacker was Chinese." Priss said. "Never mind, it's probably just a coincidence. So," she said, holding out her hand to the handsome young woman in front of her, "Want to help me to my feet?" Haruka smiled. "Sure." She said as she helped Priss up, allowing the older woman to rest her weight on her shoulder. As Priss slowly limped along, she turned her attention to her attire. "So tell me, who picked out this kimono for me?" she asked. "I think it was Linna." she answered. Priss chuckled. "Sylia and her are always trying to get me to dress more feminine." she said. "I expect you're going through the same thing with Michiru." "Actually, she's fine so far with the way I dress." "You're lucky." Priss said, reluctantly finding herself starting to like the officer. "Did Linna also do this?" she asked, taking her left hand off Haruka's shoulder to hold up a pony tail. "No, actually you have Nancy to thank for that. She was a bit bored, I guess. Yomiko helped." "Yeah, I guessed that." Priss said, noting the paper bow. She and Haruka entered the next room, to find Linna and the others waiting for her. ---To Be Continued--- End Notes: I chose the name "Hibiki" for the dead Japanese Knight Saber in honor of a former pen pal of mine (hello Roll Hibiki, wherever you are ) Next Time: With Priss out of commission for a bit, our two friends from the British Library decide to do some snooping on their own. Next chapter, fun with The Paper and Miss Deep.
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