rest of pt 5
The rest of Lawkeeper pt 5
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Rini looked at the four sisters dubiously but Bunny had promised that they were safe now and she should know. Still, it was hard for her to forget that they were the same ones who’d chased her through time to capture and use as a hostage against her mother. Then again, if she had not known them before, it would be hard to imagine them wanting to hurt anyone... other than each other that was. Even as she thought that, Rini saw the two younger sisters unite against the elder pair.
“Don’t you dare say that we’re babies,” Catzi screeched, “We are perfectly capable of holding our own!” Even if she wasn’t too fond of the four women, Rini was glad that Catzi hadn’t taken Rubius’ death too badly. Bunny had told her that the youngest sister had been fond of the villain but, in truth, Rini thought that it was Bunny herself who regretted his death the most. Not that it was that unexpected; the more Rini came to know Bunny the more she seemed like the future self that Rini knew and loved... just a lot more mischievous... and louder.
“Oh come on!” Avery protested shrilly, “Rini outsmarted the both of you.”
“That would imply a certain lack of maturity,” Prisma agreed.
The two eldest sisters had adapted to their powerless state very quickly. When Bunny had fetched her after the mission was over, she had taken Rini to the apartment Catzi and Bertie had rented and Rini was able to watch her ‘cousin’ work on them. She was still too young to understand most of what Bunny had done but Rini knew that it wasn’t as easy as the other scouts seemed to think it was. It was seeing how the elder Lunarian played down her abilities with the others that made Rini really believe what Puu had told her, the Meatball Head routine was all an act. She’d always believed what Puu told her but now she believed and felt a lot safer in the bargain. Of course she’d never be able to prove it to anyone else, like the girls who were the scouts, but then Bunny obviously didn’t want them to know. All in all, Rini felt very good to know that Bunny trusted her with the truth and so she watched the gathering with interest and Bunny most of all.
Rini’s mind drifted away from the sisters’ argument to consider the strange girls that Bunny had introduced her to. Of course Bunny didn’t know that Rini knew them, well their future selves, but Rini would never have guessed who they were anyway, just like with Bunny. They were all so different from their future selves. Mina was so... boy crazy! And so was Lita... it was kinda weird. And Amy was so shy and Raye was so bad tempered. When Rini had whispered something about it to Bunny earlier, the blonde had laughed and said that they were all just teens, they would mellow as their hormones settled down and until then she was going to enjoy the fun. Rini shook her head. The best thing was still finding out that Darien was Tuxedo Mask. It was nice to know that she could really trust him but now she was curious as to why he’d stopped arguing with Bunny. Yesterday they wouldn’t stop and now he just looked at her as if she were an alien... Maybe... Maybe he’d found out that she was a Lunarian and that was why he was treating her so differently.
Rini’s thoughts were interrupted when Darien sat down next to her. She looked up at his face intently and tried to see if he knew the truth. Her intent gaze didn’t scare him, he merely smiled at her kindly and sipped his coffee. Then Mina’s voice caught her interest.
“They may be younger than you but at least Catzi and Avery weren’t caught without a fight. You two didn’t notice a thing when Lita and I snuck up on you this morning!”
A quick glance at Darien showed that this was news to him as well and Rini paid more attention.
Avery flushed and motioned wildly. “Well who could blame us? We were watching those two,” she quickly pointed at Bunny and Darien, “Charging down the most guarded corridor on the whole ship, arguing their heads off and destroying all of the unseen watcher droids and even the primary warrior droids which guarded the bridge without even breaking a sweat!”
Mina nodded to concede the point. “I’ll admit it was pretty cool but your screen thingy went black as soon as they entered the bridge and we didn’t get to see more than a second or so...” She turned to Bunny and mock scolded, “And you promised that you wouldn’t misbehave today!”
Bunny wrinkled her nose and whined, “But he started it!”
Rini glanced at Darien who just stared at Bunny strangely. The girl wondered what he thinking about to look so serious. Maybe he thought that she should act like a Law Keeper should but Rini was sure that Bunny wouldn’t let him know what she was, even if that meant hypnotising him the way they both had hypnotized the Tsukinos.
“You can both stop pretending now,” Raye retorted slyly, “Everyone knows that the pair of you are a natural team!”
Bunny’s protests were joined by Darien’s, but both were strangely half-hearted. That’s what Rini thought anyway but the others didn’t seem to notice. Something her uncle once told her came back to Rini, he was talking about the most natural partnership he had ever met. Rini looked up at Darien again with new insight. She already knew who Bunny was in the future, was it possible that she would know Darien as well? Could he possibly be...? She looked away, deep in thought. That would mean he had the Imperial Silver Crystal! That made her job a little easier and it explained so much. She turned to look at Darien again and discovered that at some point in her musings he had left her side and started toward the balcony doors. A quick glance showed that Bunny was missing and, on impulse, Rini left her seat and slipped unnoticed through the crowd.
She reached the balcony door to see Bunny staring out over Tokyo while Darien talked to her quietly. The girl moved as close as she could and ignored her conscience so that she could eavesdrop.
“Why?” Darien demanded harshly, but quietly, “Why do you insist on playing the fool?”
Bunny didn’t turn to look at him when she answered with a strangely sad voice. “Do you know that this,” she waved vaguely at the sprawling city, “Is a holiday for me?” She bent down so that she could lean her elbows against the railing. “Here I have no responsibilities except those I choose and no one expects anything from me... I can be flippant or scatterbrained without worry of censure and you have no idea how free that can make you feel.”
“So you act like an idiot to let out steam,” Darien replied.
Bunny shook her head and turned to face him. “No,” she laughed, “I act like an idiot to bugirritate you!”
Rini saw Darien stiffen. “What?!” Rini had no doubt of who he was now. She knew that particular voice too well for her liking.
Bunny wasn’t afraid of the cold tone though, for she replied softly but proudly, “The first day we met, we didn’t get off to a good start but the second time, I did prove that I was competent. However when we met for the third time, you remembered only the bad things you knew of me.” Her voice became rebuking in turn, “You judged me unfairly. You did not wait until you had enough information and you dismissed what did not fit with your picture of me. When I saw you there, by the window that day, I was prepared to forgive and forget but you ensured that that wouldn’t be possible. So I decided to give you what you told yourself you saw. Every time you irritated me, I responded in a way best calculated to annoy you. Whining, klutzing out, acting like I’m scatterbrained... though I will admit that I am quite loud given the chance even in ordinary situations.”
Darien looked confused, many different emotions playing across his face. Mainly he looked like he didn’t know whether to be angry or embarrassed.
Bunny walked past him and back to the door. Rini huddled back, under the curtain, but a quick wink showed that Bunny had seen her. Before Bunny left the balcony, she turned back to tell Darien one last thing. “You remember the day we met Darien?”
He laughed bitterly and Rini knew with a sudden perception that, although he wasn’t happy with her, it was himself he was most angry at, not Bunny. “Of course I remember,” he snapped, “You were spaced out and knocked the both of us into a creek.”
“Actually I was tracking the local energy fields,” Bunny informed him gently, but that gentleness seemed to hit him with a force as great as a blow from a fist, “There were abnormalities that I was trying to discover the origin of. They’re why the wood was rotten in the railings by the way.” With that she walked past Rini, rejoined the women talking in the lounge room and left Darien alone.
Rini watched Darien for a while but when he showed no interest in returning to the gathering, she went out to join him. For a little while they just stood next to each other but somehow, as time passed, Rini found herself being hugged close to him. She loved the feel of his strong arms around her and the smell of roses and musk that she missed so badly.
“It seems she’s not a Meatball Head after all,” he finally said, “She never was one.”
“Yes she was,” Rini disagreed, “It might have only been for fun but it was real.”
“You were right Munchkin.”
Rini remembered that she’d told him that Bunny might have just been pretending when they’d been at the pool and he hadn’t believed her. But that was no reason for him to be so sad. “What’s wrong?” she asked him.
“I owe her an apology,” he answered, “I behaved very badly towards her.”
“Because she tricked you,” Rini felt obligated to remind him.
He was silent a moment before he spoke again and his next words scared Rini more than anything else she’d heard. “We almost died today.” She looked at him in shock and he smiled at her miserably. “We didn’t tell the scouts and I don’t know why I’m telling you this but Rubius trapped us and was killing us. I don’t know how we got out of it but when we woke up Rubius was dead and we were free. I don’t remember much of what happened and she doesn’t either but it was then that I realised that she was only pretending to be an airhead. I should have known earlier but I was too stubborn to admit it.”
He heaved a huge sigh. “I was wrong and I hate being wrong but do you want to know what’s worse Rini?” She nodded at him and his lips twitched in a wry smile. “I hate apologising even more and now I have to apologise to the Meatball Head!” He shook his head in mock pain and Rini giggled. “C’mon Munchkin,” he said and began to lead her back into the apartment.
“Are you going to say sorry now?” she asked.
He shook his head and winked at her. “In front of everyone? Of course not! That’s adding insult to injury! I’ll wait until I can talk to her alone... promise me that you won’t tell her?” Rini nodded earnestly and he smiled again. “Thank you. Now let’s get an ice cream, all these gossiping girls are getting on my nerves. Why can’t they all be sensible like you?”
Rini grinned at him. He was a lot more like Bunny than he realised.
***
“So you’re not sure what happened?” Andrew asked. Bunny and her twin lay on the roof of the Tsukino’s house where they discussed the day’s events while they stargazed.
Bunny shrugged. “I think we got caught in a feedback loop. A telepathic channel opened between us because we were touching and it didn’t close when I moved away. His emotions grew too strong, I wasn’t prepared for them and they started to hurt me, which in turn made his emotions, mostly fear and anger, stronger. Then Rubius interfered, making things worse and both Darien and I exploded almost simultaneously. I caused the most damage but that’s only because I was a split second faster than him.”
Andrew frowned in confusion. “But the level of power I sensed... Those were two alpha level power readings, the silver was slightly stronger than the crimson but Mother agreed with me, there were two. How could Darien give off that kind of power? I know that a lot of your magic is hidden but he still shouldn’t have been able to match you so closely. He’s not even supposed to be beta level.”
“I think most of his power is latent,” Bunny mused after a moment, “In normal circumstances he would never touch it but then he got caught in the feedback loop with a warrior who is alpha level even after the restrictions on her power are taken into account...”
“You think he was driven to match you while your minds were feeding back on each other?”
“Yeah.”
“Divine Stars.”
“Yeah.”
“Our mother’s going to want to know.”
“Yeah.”
“This is going to change things.”
“... Not really.”
“Oh?”
Bunny turned her head to look at her brother. “It’ll only become important if he gets caught in another mind merge with an alpha warrior where the conditions are such that the warrior in question deliberately draws on his magic and catalyses his growth into full strength.”
“That would require a soulbond between him and the hypothetical warrior,” Andrew calculated.
“Yeah.”
“So, he’s safe.”
“Yeah.”
“I’d better call and tell our mother.”
“Yeah.”
“You get some sleep, I’ll wake you.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Yeah.”
They both chuckled.
***
She was sitting between his outstretched legs and leaning back into his chest as they both gazed at the night sky. This time, they were in a huge tree, one of the Jovian giants which had been destroyed in the Fall. The ground was lost in the mist below them and the Branches extended far over their heads, the topmost branch almost a kilometre off the ground. Their seat offered a beautiful view of the canopy of stars and, for once, the sky was calm instead of storm ridden.
His hands wandered over her naked body freely and she relaxed into his touch. As one of those warm travellers began to make its way up along the inside of her thigh, she gasped but not because of his touch. The night sky was suddenly lit up with hundreds of shooting stars. His hands stilled where they were and he exclaimed in delight. Together they watched the show and when it ended, he whispered into her ear, “On Earth there were legends that shooting stars were gods travelling through the heavens. Now, of course, people wonder if they’re UFOs.”
She giggled in amusement. “They’re neither,” she told him, “UFOs aren’t permitted into this sector until Earth has returned to space and if gods are stars, then they are the divine stars which sit in the council and guard the various sectors of space under the guidance of the Heart of the Universe.”
“So all of those stories of alien abductions...?” he trailed of suggestively and his hands became active once more.
She wiggled and laughed breathlessly. “Pure imagination, the only star travellers that would break the Interdiction would not be so... harmless.”
“I wouldn’t call the aliens in some of those stories harmless,” he protested and started trailing kisses down the back of her neck.
She shivered and tried to gather her wits to answer sensibly. “I... I know the... the strength of the... of the Llaw of Sel... Sel... Selene!” She pulled away from him and scurried along the branch a little before she turned to face him again. His deep blue eyes twinkled madly and he deliberately began to stalk her. She retreated before him, enjoying the game as she tried to finish her explanation, “The lLaw of Selene is such that only the really bad beings would come here and they make your ‘little green men’, even the worst of them, seem harmless.”
Her back came up against another branch and she couldn’t retreat anymore. He grinned smugly at her position and gently pressed her even closer to the branch with his own body.
“One last question,” he murmured as he nibbled her ear.
“Hmmm?”
“Who is the Heart of the Universe?”
“He is the closest thing to a supreme being to exist in this reality. He is the incarnation of order and is all that prevents the Darkheart from destroying the universe. Only the immortals who serve on the Council know much of him for he dislikes ceremony and so prefers to remain anonymous with those that he can. My mother says that he is very wise and very likely the oldest living being in the universe. When she was able to attend the Council regularly, he struck up a friendship with her but she has never told me much of him. All she will say is that when the time comes, she will take me to him.”
He abandoned his attentions to her neck and looked her directly in the eye, his dark gaze intent and perfectly serious. “Don’t be afraid, I’ll be at your side when you go-”
***
“Hey Usa.”
Bunny muttered and tried to stop her dream from slipping away before it got to the best part.
“Usa!”
She battered at the irritant that tickled her nose but it was a losing battle. With ill grace, she opened her eyes and stared balefully at her brother. He tickled her nose with her own pig tail one last time for good measure and then put the golden locks down.
“I’m going to get you Toki,” she growled.
“It’s starting,” he told her and pointed skywards.
She looked up and decided she might forgive her brother after all. In a dazzling display of light, the night sky was lit up with hundreds of shooting stars, the last remnants of Rubius and his ship.