How the Dead Men Wake part III

[windfallswest]

part I
part II



Yusuke yawned and watched the shadows out of the corners of his eyes. Everything ached, right down to his toenails, and it was barely breakfast. Or whatever. Stupid training. At least he was done fasting. That had sucked. If Derevko was going to consider murder attempts part of his education, the least she could do was not starve him to death on top of it, the loony bint. How she found the time to hound him like she did and still run things, Yusuke had no idea. He thought she had him night-side, but it was hard to be sure. He was pretty well isolated from everything, down to his meals and computer access. Meals he ate with Derevko or alone, sometimes with the goons. Computers were remarkably absent.

Normal people in themselves were a novelty. Cee didn't count. According to Derevko, he wasn't even human. Yusuke would've been more inclined to scoff if he hadn't seen the guy first. He had interrupted Yusuke's training once. Yusuke hadn't been able to takes his eyes off him.

"Yusuke, this is Terrance Cee. I believe I have spoken to you of one another."

They exchanged guarded nods, sweat beading on Yusuke's hairline and prickling uncomfortably over his scalp. Cee conversed quietly for a moment with Derevko, then left. The door slooped shut behind him.

Derevko turned to find Yusuke trembling, those lovely brown eyes of his wide with fear. Not at all how he regarded her; even now he met her eyes.

"What the...what the hell is he? There's something wrong with him," Yusuke stuttered.

"He's a vampire," Derevko told him.

Yusuke stared at the door Cee had left through. "This is nuts."

Just thinking about it again made Yusuke's skin crawl. Forcefully, he shook it off, hunching his shoulders and glaring at the floor in front of him. His hands clenched rhythmically in his pockets.

The double doors of Derevko's lavish control chamber slid smoothly closed behind them. This time it was Oz at Shizuru's back. McHenry was in the pilot's seat, ready to make tracks as soon as they were finished here.

"I have it," Shizuru announced.

"Captain Kuwabara. I was just about to have some tea. Please, join me."

They advanced to a low table along the same wall as Derevko's throne. Oz took up position behind Shizuru as she seated herself. One of Derevko's servants appeared and poured steaming water from a tastefully understated teapot over the curled tealeaves.

"Did you experience many difficulties?" Derevko was perched on a small, cushioned step at the base of her throne, just high enough to make sure that Shizuru, sinking into the rugs on the other side of the table, had to look up at her. She claimed one of the cups and spooned a dollop of honey into it.

"Nothing we couldn't handle."

Derevko smiled. "Wonderful. It pleases me to see that you're safe."

"I'm at least as pleased as you are."

Yusuke looked at the door. Then he stopped. He looked left and right. For good measure, he rolled his eyes upward and looked at the ceiling. Yep. Totally and completely lost.

"This is so stupid," Yusuke complained. As close as he could figure, he'd been here for two months now, and he still couldn't find his way around. This entire level of the station seemed to be reserved for Derevko's private use. Whoever'd designed it deserved a swift kick in the pants. He kind of thought it had been Derevko. She definitely deserved a swift kick in the pants.

"Yusuke Urameshi."

Yusuke's perceptions swirled on their heads as he realised it wasn't the place that had him disoriented.

"Turn around."

The words cut through Yusuke's confusion and he spun to face Cee.

"Terrence." Yusuke attempted to inject a trace of mockery into his voice, but it sounded wary even to his own ears. "You want somethin', or are you just gonna stand there being freaky?"

The look Cee gave him was, if anything, more contemptuous than ever. Great. He sneers and I get the shivers. He does anything, I get the shivers. I am not a vibrator, gorrammit.

Cee's fist came out of nowhere. There were stars, and stumbling. Some of Cee's lackeys (they were standard issue lackeys, really, but right now they were obviously following Cee's instructions and so once Yusuke stuffed Cee's legs to the kneecaps up his own butthole they would share the pain) blocked him in.

Another punch, then a kick; they kept connecting. It was all Yusuke could do to keep his ribs intact. His punches missed; his blocks were in the wrong places. Cee wasn't faster than some people he'd fought before. Stronger, maybe, but not faster. Yusuke'd landed hits on Derevko (occasionally); her henchman should be easier. He just-couldn't concentrate. It was like the only part of his brain that'd ever shown up for duty (according to some people) had suddenly decided to skip town.

"Gorrammit!" Yusuke swore, jumping back. He had just enough time to wipe the blood from his mouth before one of the back-up singers shoved him forward. The feeling of Yusuke's fist on his face was all manner of satisfying. He levelled a glare at Cee. "I thought I told you to stop being freaky."

This time, Cee was faster.

"You misremember," Yusuke heard Cee's cold voice say as he slipped away into unconsciousness.

Bwack.

Bwack bwack kaZOOT!

"Mom, I am going to kill you." Just when he thought she couldn't sink any lower.

Yusuke worked his mouth a little. It was...dusty. Dry, too. When he rubbed the back of one hand over his eyes it felt gritty. The hell...?

Something warm was beating on his face. When Yusuke peeked up at it from under his arm, it proved to be the sun. He blinked and sat up.

Pain. Bruises. Dirt of the planetary variety. This was already more normal than the last time he woke up somewhere with no memory of getting there. Plus, he still had his clothes on.

"Gorrammit, I'm gonna kick your tailbone so far up between your shoulder blades, Cee, just as soon as I get back up there!"

Yusuke paused as another kaZOOT sounded and he realised that he was standing in the middle of some sort of unpaved lot shaking his fist at a strangely un-grey sky. Not a lot. Waaay too big too be a lot. The only thing over two feet high he could see were the half-dozen or so slumpy blue things with floppy ears and wicked black beaks, sort of a cross between a pathetic haystack and an armadillo. They were kind of hard to keep track of on the off-blue dirt and the subtle patterns on their scaly hides made Yusuke dizzy if he stared too long.

There had to be water somewhere. People, something. Yusuke didn't feel starved or drugged. Probably, Cee had just dropped him on whatever the fuck planet was below Jervis. Yusuke spared a moment to wonder why Cee had bothered to announce himself if he was just going to sucker punch him anyway. Things Derevko had said made it sound like there was some sort of serious opposition here, so there had to be a spaceport. That meant city. Well, one direction was as good as any other. Yusuke started walking.

Yusuke hated the country; a few kilometers was more than enough to remind him of that. The sky was not the overpowering vastness he'd experienced on the Heart of Darkness, but it ballooned outward in agoraphobic primrose wonder like some kind of limbo. Heat rose in green ripples, giving Yusuke the weirdest sense of unreality. He felt almost as though he could reach into the sky and pull down the rain like a curtain.

With effort, Yusuke dragged his attention back to the ground. The blue things were still keeping pace with him, well out of arm's reach, legs invisible below their fringy hides. There was barely so much as a rock to stub his toe on.

Light collected on the creatures' black beaks and made them ominously shiny. Yusuke wasn't sure, but he didn't think that was quite what light was supposed to do. He tried to count the things, but they kept bubbling out of the ground and sort of deflating back into it.

Yusuke was starting to consider the possibility that he'd eaten some bad fruit (that much fruit wasn't good for anyone, he didn't care what Derevko said) and was now higher than the Zouprom palace on Londinium. Deja-vu, too. If this is a hallucination, my back-brain is drastically boring. Where was the booze? The naked dancers? The fighting for his life, or at least giant techni-colour bugs popping out of the sky and trying to teach him the bosanova? And on top of it, it felt like a re-run. He felt gypped, was what.

"If you're willing, I have another job that would benefit from your services. Provided, of course, you have brought what I asked for."

Shizuru removed the strainer from her cup of tea to a ceramic holder. The first sip was scalding. Whatever else one might say about Derevko, her tea was always hot.

"Go ahead."

On cue, Oz produced the refrigeration unit. Shizuru held the next swallow in her mouth and let the astringency play over her tongue as Oz slid the unit onto the table, beside the last cup of tea.

Yusuke blinked. The spot he was staring at on the freaky green horizon retained its bluer tinge. Blue. Water was blue. Water was good. Yusuke stopped, sucking in the abrasive air. This wasn't nature, it was an oven; and he'd been in it forever. At least, the sun was in a radically different location than it had been when he started, unless he'd managed to get turned around.

C'mon he told himself. just a little farther. How far can it be? Yusuke ground back into motion. I mean, it's all flat ground. He staggered another few steps, slightly more certain.

Right. Water. There's the plan. Now try running. I don't think I can take much more of this, Yusuke thought grimly. At least he'd outpace his floppy blue entourage.

Or not. The things popped and inflated like time-release versions of the souffle Keiko had made once. Lights started dancing around them, the pastel heat-waves come in to roost. Green and wet. He was getting closer, his face bathed in refreshing coolness. The thought gave Yusuke a new burst of energy.

He was delirious, of course.

A piercing shriek crashed through Yusuke's heatstroke. Less than three seconds later, the thing that made it crashed into him.

"Waukah," croaked Yusuke in a rather pathetic manner as he fell. A great deal of undignified flailing and inefficient thumping of fist on hide ended in contact with something hard and painfully hot.

"Ow! What! The! Fuck!" With much effort, Yusuke managed to kick the thing off. At which point three more of them landed square on top of him. Something hard sliced into Yusuke's arm. It burned.

"Xi niu!"

"Focus."

"Stop bothering me, old lady."

"Concentrate, minor league."

"Go away!" Yusuke punched the thing on his arm squarely in the side of the head. It responded by digging in deeper. "Waagh."

"Are you prepared to listen to me now, or am I going to have to wait until you lose the arm?"

Yusuke didn't respond.

"I will admit to being slightly disappointed, minor league. You might have retained one thing I taught you."

"Will you shut up," screamed Yusuke. He was on his feet and mauling an innocuous patch of air with glowing fists. One of the scavengers took the opportunity to get a hold on Yusuke's ankle. Yusuke fell on his right arm and the creature attached to it. Socking it to the one on his ankle resulted in a nauseating crunch like clubbing a candy-coated melon and an even more nauseating spray of slimy blue-grey particles.

At that point, the other scavengers decided that this particular piece of meat was not quite so dead as they preferred, and maybe they should wait a while longer or perhaps just pack it in for they day and go sun-bathing. Accordingly, they turned away from Yusuke and began quickly to lump off in a generally southwards direction.

"Oh no you don't," sputtered Yusuke who, it should be noted, was still not thinking very clearly and lunged after them. "You don't get away that easy."

Yusuke grabbed one, or rather landed on top of it. Alarmed by this unexpected reversal, the thing blared a panicked kaZOOT and disappeared into the blue dirt, taking Yusuke with it. Yusuke yodel-croaked a direly unhealthy sound when they broke ground, cut short as the creature sank once more. It bucked him above and below, stitching a frenzied line across the arid flats. Yusuke had visions of leaving important pieces of his anatomy scattered in their wake.

When it collapsed, it was sudden. Yusuke was thrown from his hot-cold fugue on the domed back. He bounced and rolled a few limp paces and then lay still. The creature's sides heaved weakly for a minute and then it, too, lay still. Around them, the blue plains stretched, baking.

It was a beautiful day, simply glorious. Not a cloud to be seen in the entire sky. Quiet, except for the engine's muffled purr. Already there were four carcasses in the back. One or two more and she could call it an early day. She was almost to town anyway; she could make a night of it.

Hello, what was that? Lying out there all alone and uneaten. The Thorntons moved in herds. It was very unusual to see a dead one, of course, let alone-she shaded her eyes-two?

She jumped out to take a closer look. "Well, I'll be. You aren't a bird at all, are you?

Nudging him tentatively with her boot provoked a groan. She crouched down and, biting her lip, rolled him over as though he might explode.

She heaved a sigh of relief; no especially ghastly wounds, just a couple nips. He was in rough shape, though. Clothes all torn and covered in dust. That shiny black hair had looked like a beak from the distance.

"Haven't seen your face before. Must be new hereabouts." She pulled out her canteen and unscrewed the top. A local boy wouldn't be caught here without water. A few drops produced a heartening consciousness.

"Bingo," she said, satisfied.

"Water..." he croaked, pawing at her hair.

"Whoa now." She brushed his hand aside and brought up the canteen. "Here you go. But not too fast, now; you're awfully dehydrated."

He tried to grab it from her, but she fended him off easily.

"That's quite enough for now. Do you think you can stand up? ...That's right, into the hovercraft. Oof, my you're heavy. What've they been feeding you?"

"Brussel sprouts," he muttered.

"Oh, that won't do. You need a good, grey-blooded meal in you."

She left him in the passenger seat and went over to inspect the other body with her club.

"Hide's in good condition," she said to herself. "It's your kill; I suppose I'll just have to take it in payment for the transportation." Cheerily, Botan slung it over her shoulder and dumped it on top of the other carcasses in the back of the hovercraft.

Her rescuee was watching her muzzily as she hopped back into the driver's seat. She turned a dazzling smile on him.

"I'm Botan, by the way. You might've heard of me if you've been here any time at all. Here," she said, handing over the canteen, "but don't overdo it, now."

"Thanks," he replied after a couple swallows.

"Oh, no problem at all. I could hardly leave you lying there. Come to think of it, how did you get all the way out here? It's not exactly an afternoon stroll."

"Looks like I just wasted an afternoon, then." He took another drink.

Botan started up the engine. She stood and squinted skyward to get her bearings.

"Oh my! You haven't been out here all day, have you?"

"Well, kinda. Depending on how long I was knocked out," he appended thoughtfully.

"It's a miracle you weren't eaten! Or baked to death." Though he'd come awfully close on that last. Botan shuddered as she hit the acceleration. Her passenger yelped and fumbled the canteen.

"Whoops! Hold on," Botan told him cheerily.

"What, is your natural hair colour blonde?" he snapped.

"Now, now, you shouldn't say things like that." Botan waved him down.

He made a very interesting sound. "Hands on the wheel!" His face was turning funny shades too. He was liable to give himself heatstroke again.

"Anyway, I dye it like this for camouflage."

"Camouflage?"

"Oh, you know." Botan flapped her hands. "Anything that isn't blue stands out horribly on these flats. Hey!"

"We're gonna crash into something!"

"Don't be silly, there's nothing to crash into. And get off my lap," added Botan huffily. "Honestly. Don't they teach young people manners anymore?"

He winced in the process of extricating himself. "Nah, it must just be an old lady thing."

That did it. Botan sputtered.

"Old lady? Old lady? I'll show you old lady!"

Botan calmed down, eventually, and her passenger's white-knuckled grip on the side-casing eased, though he kept shooting unsettled looks at her for a while. Well, good.

"Hey, so what's with all the whaddayacallits in the back?"

The question caught Botan off-guard.

"I'm a trapper, of course. No one much off-planet buys the meat or the hides, but the beaks, now, that's where the real money is. Very unusual properties, as you must be aware. Don't think I didn't notice those love-bites. Not to worry, though; we'll get you all patched up once we hit town. You'll be fine in the meanwhile: the beaks cauterise as they go."

Silence fell between them again.

"Are you alive over there?" Botan poked him curiously.

He growled. "Piss off, I'm thinking. There any feds in town?"

"Yes," Botan answered cautiously.

"Good. I gotta see 'em about something."

Interesting, though not necessarily in a good way.

"If you say so."

It was going on dusk by the time they reached town. Botan pulled up in front of the outpost. She waved to the men on guard outside the gate.

"Gracian! Park this out back for me, will you? There's a dear." Botan nudged Yusuke in the arm and slid out. "Is the major busy?" she asked the remaining fed as the hovercraft whirred away.

"Not that I know of, ma'am," he replied.

"Good, we need to speak with her."

The fed shot Yusuke a suspicious look but waved them through. Out of the corner of his eye, Yusuke saw him talking into his cuff.

Botan led the way through a surprisingly primitive building scarcely cooler than the outside to an office in back with large windows onto the hall. Yusuke could see several people moving around the room through the slatted blinds and half-open door. Their voices drifted into silence as he and Botan approached.

"Hello major!" Botan exclaimed brightly, throwing back the door.

The major was a tall, hard-eyed woman whose authority in no wise suffered from the fact that she was built like a stackhouse and stripped to her undershirt in the close, lingering heat. Around the room, collars were open, uniform jackets unbuttoned, and sweat soaked through decidedly unregulation rumples. Every hip, however, bore a holster; and every eye was on Botan and Yusuke in the doorway.

"Botan. What brings you here?"

Botan clapped Yusuke heartily on the back. "I found this lying on the flats. He wanted to see you, or I wouldn't be here, of course. You might want to take care of these scratches of his. I think I'll go down to the Three Horn for a few hands of six-card Warhoon."

The major nodded.

"You're on your own," Botan whispered in Yusuke's ear as she turned and left.

Yusuke glared briefly after her, then turned back to meet the major's expectant gaze. He waited until Botan's footsteps had receded into silence before he spoke.

"How would you like a chance at Derevko?"

"Why should we trust you?" the major asked through Yusuke's loud griping. Unshakeable, the medic continued bandaging the gash on Yusuke's leg.

"You think I wanna be stuck up there in Paranoia City with the crazy old bat for the rest of my life?" The next time Cee tried to kill him, Yusuke felt he would be much more direct.

"I'm still in favour of arresting him." The tall guy next to the major didn't even bother to lower his voice.

"For cryin' out loud!" Yusuke flung his arms in the air until the pain hit and he doubled around his arm, nursing it.

"Hey hey hey," protested the medic. "Watch those stitches."

Yusuke ignored him.

"You want the layout of the place or not?" he addressed the major's shadow.

"I think you'll tell us anyway."

This is starting to piss me off. "Hey, pal-"

"For god's sake, will you just-just sit down?" the medic complained, holding Yusuke still with a hand on his shoulder.

"I suppose you want to walk into Derevko's snake pits, then."

"Derevko doesn't have a snake pit on that space station."

"Gee, I wish someone had told me that before I slept in them for two weeks." Yusuke glared belligerently into the fed's ocular replacements.

"That's enough." The major stepped between them. Yusuke flickered a glance between her and stone-face.

"Look, you need intel and I need transport. Once we're up there, we go our separate ways.

"And after that?" pressed stone-face.

"What happens, happens." I hope I get to kick your ass into your eardrums. The well-masked satisfaction on the fed's lined face said he was thinking the same thing.

"Thank you," Derevko said, putting down her tea. She slipped out a cipher card identical to the one she'd given Shizuru and inserted it above they keypad, which she tapped in a complicated pattern. According to the terrible twosome, the keys were biometrically hoojiggered to some insane degree. Shizuru's key had been good for one use, and the refrigeration unit didn't start up until the lock was engaged. Derevko didn't take chances.

Derevko reached in and lifted out the still-glowing fruit. She turned it over in her hands. As she examined it, a genuine smile lit her face. Shizuru realised with a chill how strained Derevko looked, lines crinkling across her face, and how the tension in the air was not her own private apprehension. Something was up. Just so long as it keeps its nose out of my business.

"I trust you find the merchandise satisfactory," Shizuru prompted. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to be here.

Derevko glanced up. "Oh, yes."

A faceless minion came over and whispered something in Derevko's ear.

"And what about the other matter?" Derevko asked her in a low voice.

"Nothing as of yet, ma'am."

"Very well. This won't take too much longer. I want more information when I'm done here."

The minion bowed and skittered on her way. Shizuru, who had been politely scrutinising her fingernails for lack of safe places to keep her attention, now looked up. Derevko met her eyes with a look that raised Shizuru's hackles on tent poles and waved them in the air. She waited, trying not to give anything away.

Derevko smiled again.

Someone rounded the corner and stopped. Yusuke continued on. Behind him, the footsteps resumed at a faster clip, closing the gap. Yusuke flicked a tense and irritated glance at his unwanted company. It was one of Derevko's security goons, a young guy he'd seen with Murray trailing after Derevko and Cee. Eager and puppy-faced.

"Hey, where've you been hiding? The boss's looking for you high'n low. If I were you, I'd get myself found real fast and she might not tear the niushi out of you. Time ain't going to improve her mood much."

"Buzz off and tell grandma she can stick it where she likes. I'm gonna see my old buddy Terrance and pop him one." Yusuke cracked his knuckles in a show of anticipation.

"But-"

"Scram!"

The idiot took one took one look at Yusuke's face and fled.

"All right, everyone," Major Kusanagi began as soon as Yusuke was out of sight. "Batou, take your men and tail Urameshi. I don't want you to apprehend him until he's got whatever it is he's looking for, unless he goes straight for Derevko. Everyone else spreads out and looks for Cee. Saito, Quinn, you're with me. Let's move it!"

A few crossed wires and he was in. Once the guard was laid out, Yusuke worked his shoulder thoughtfully and stepped in over the sprawled meat-head. The bites still twinged, but much less now they'd been cleaned, sewed and run under fancy medical whoosits.

"Well, here's nothing," Yusuke muttered to himself. He picked up the book and turned to leave. Terrance Cee was standing in the hall outside. "Like I didn't see that one coming."

"You are looking for me. That's foolish." The look Cee had for him was rife with active disdain.

"What can I say? I didn't expect you to fall for a lie that obvious. I think I might be insulted." Yusuke narrowed his eyes in an effort to see past whatever it was about Cee gave him the unholy jitters.

Cee made no attempt to prevent Yusuke's movement into the hall. Cold blue eyes darted to the book tucked under Yusuke's injured right arm. In the slight changing of his posture, of his focus, of his eyes, Yusuke knew he was about to strike. Lovely.

Yusuke ducked the first punch and came in under Cee's guard in time to get a foot in his gut. He landed bad and felt the stitches pulling. Right arm, right leg. Gorram nature. Concentrate, he heard Derevko's voice in his head. Yusuke snarled.

Block. Uppercut. Dodge. Roll. Sweat was beading on Yusuke's forehead from the sheer effort of keeping his eyes on his opponent. Kicking was just a bad, bad idea. Oh, bad, oh, gaisi.

"Commander! Both targets this way!"

Fuck, feds. Yusuke rolled painfully to his feet and sped off in the opposite direction, Cee hard on his heels and a thunder of feds rumbling closer. Cee slammed into Yusuke, pinning him to the wall. Clutching the book with all his determination, Yusuke shoved him away with more than natural force and stumbled desperately forward. He was almost, almost there, and gods hope he hadn't lost himself. These corridors were harder to navigate than to remember. He staggered into the door and banged it open (This door was never closed). Cee's face collapsed in an agony of incredulity as he lunged after Yusuke.

The shouting behind redoubled as the feds realised where Yusuke was headed. He heard the major's dour shadow yelling for someone to get to K corridor. Cee flinched back from the uneven footing the seething mass on the floor and continued more cautiously. Yusuke concentrated.

Cee gained while Yusuke was climbing the other side one-handed. Yusuke grit his teeth and tried not to look at his arm or be distracted by the creepy movement. Extra weight, he told himself, it's just extra weight. Aw, who the hell am I kidding?

The second entrance was clear when Yusuke hauled himself over the edge; however, he'd barely got his feet under himself before two feds came pounding towards him. Yusuke yelled, charging.

Snakes flew through the air. Feds screamed. Yusuke ran past, free and clear.

All this racket had to attract attention sooner or later. Time to be elsewhere. Yusuke came to an intersection and turned at demi-random, still shedding snakes. Well, it felt like the right direction.

The money was finally on the table. Now was the time to take it and get good and out of here. Shizuru was having a bad feeling about the smile plastered on Derevko's face and the fact she hadn't done speaking yet. Time and more to leave this place behind.

"...and please, don't be a stranger. I can always find work for someone of your talents," Derevko was saying. A side door Shizuru had rarely seen used slid open and disgorged a federal marshall.

"Freeze!" he shouted. More poured through behind. The other two entrances, side and main, sprang wide for the feds. Shizuru took the opportunity to pocket the pouch on the table. Now, standing back to back with Oz, she felt resignation pour over her like cold rain. Her hand and Oz's hovered over guns: in all their dealings with Derevko, her parents had never surrendered their weapons and Shizuru had seized on their precedent with due gratefulness. In this place, there was no knowing what lines of fire would be drawn.

The clerks stood with their hands up, plastered against the walls. Derevko set down her blasted tea and stood, one hand lingering idly on the arm of her throne. Probably no one else could see the hurried working of gears behind those dark eyes. Derevko glanced, once, at Shizuru and Oz, estimation or calculation; and someone trained his rifle on the unnoticed presences.

"Hold it, buster," commanded a wholly unexpected voice.

Shizuru refocussed her eyes. Yusuke looked like he'd gone head-first through a cement mixer. He was thinner, firmer than when last she'd seen him. His clothes were ripped and smudged with blue, and bruises peeked around the bandages Shizuru could see through the holes. Yusuke stood at an angle to the large fed who had his gun aimed at Shizuru and Oz, only half through the doorway and masked to the room by the man's muscular bulk. In his right hand was something Shizuru couldn't see, but his left was raised at the fed, hand pointing like a gun at the man's head.

"I'd find somewhere else to point that if I were you," Yusuke advised. "Captain, you better come with me."

Shizuru shot him a glare that said, quite simply, if you get me shot, you're dead, then fixed her eyes back on the man with the real gun, which hadn't so much as wavered. She didn't move.

"Lower your rifle, moron, and let the nice people out of your crossfire."

The gun twitched uncertainly, or maybe it was just the man's eyes.

"He's bluffing!" Someone had worked himself along the wall to a better vantage. "It's just his hand!"

Yusuke's fed turned, about to club Yusuke down, and then:

"Bang," flat and final as the fed fell limply forward.

"C'mon, " Yusuke yelled to her-no, to Oz-and the three of them fled.

"Take me with you and I'll get you to your ship," Yusuke offered as they ran. He was limping.

"Agreed." Shizuru hoped to hell he knew where he was going. The sound of gunshots erupted behind them, growing fainter.

"So much for Derevko," Oz said with equanimity.

"I doubt it. The old bat won't go that easy."

"You've certainly been busy."

Shizuru looked questioningly at Yusuke's back in front of her. There was something moving under his shirt. Loose end of bandaging? Shizuru wondered, until Yusuke reached in after it and drew out a pale grey length which writhed and tried to wrap itself around Yusuke's arm.

"Euuck," he said, and tossed it away. "Snake."

"Nasty," Oz commented. Shizuru only raised her eyebrows.

They ploughed through the mildly panicked chaos of the docks to Darkness's berth, Shizuru ordering McHenry to launch-prep over the radio and verbally kicking Kazuma's ass into the engine room. The hatch opened easily for them, and they were home.

"So what's with the book?" Oz was asking.

Shizuru spared a glance to see that yes, it was a book Yusuke'd been carrying all this time, then switched from the radio to the intercom.

"It's for my posture," Yusuke snapped back grumpily. "Can we please get moving?"

"Keep your pants on," Shizuru told him, and was glad Fred and George weren't there to make clever remarks. "Whatever. We're in; anytime you're ready, McHenry."

"Gotcha, captain."

Good. Shizuru drew a breath, her first in it felt like hours, and aimed herself at the bridge, then paused. Oz was staring at Yusuke, who was defiantly not toppling face-down on the decking, as he obviously was ready to do as soon as they turned their backs. Oz flicked an almost guilty look at Shizuru and retreated engine-wards. The clank of decoupling echoing around her, Shizuru continued down the stairs.

"Well away, captain," McHenry greeted her absently. "Did you enjoy your tea?"

"Aside from Derevko, the feds and the gunfight, just peachy. Anyone tailing us?"

"Not yet. I didn't think you liked peach tea."

Shizuru sighed.

"We did get paid, right?" George piped up.

"Right?" Fred echoed.

"Yes, now stop bouncing and find something useful to do. Monitoring the station's comm-traffic, for instance." Shizuru faced the shadow lurking at the edge of her vision. "I think I'm about to have me an enlightenment."

Shizuru watched in silence as Yusuke walked out the door to the kitchen. She'd known for a while there'd come a time she had to break with Derevko. Considering the conversation Yusuke's feds had interrupted, that hour had perhaps been coming on apace. What Shizuru had not been counting on was earning a place of honour for her head on Derevko's wall. She'd seen Derevko's expression when Yusuke'd busted them out. Shizuru would live a week on Kazuma's high-surge energy beverage of vim and power, guaranteed to put a spring in your eye and a sparkle in your punch, if Derevko didn't know whose ship had brought her...apprentice...to Jarvis in the first place. Not funny at all.

The sound of raised voices on the other side of the door-hatch culminated in a meaty thud. Yusuke'd beat the pants off Kazuma twice during the first trip to Jervis.

"Idiots," she remarked to Oz, who had wandered in sometime during the last ten minutes of Yusuke's explanation. "I'm going to have to put a leash on one or both of them before the day's out."

"At least he's not a redhead," Oz said in that deadpan of his.

"Then say 'thank you'," Shizuru told him. Two could play at that.

"Thank you?"

"You wanted another mechanic. Keep him and Kazuma from tearing the ship apart, will you?" Ah, yes: delegation. She won.

A different thought occurred to her, less encouraging. Was it wisdom to set the spooky leading the weird? Or just perversity? Shizuru's perversity was no news to her crew.

Well, fuck. This was going to be fun.