Looks like I'm slowly catching up again and getting back on schedule.
We should be back to normal next week, sorry for the confusion. Take care and good day.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Azkaban 10
Azkaban Episode 10
It was coming to the point that Alicia was practically living out of the hospital ward. This time it would only be for the weekend, yes, but still it was another stay in a long string of stays she has already endured in the hospital wing. Snape, near nightfall, brought her a toolkit from the women’s dorm in Gryffindor (he did not elaborate as to how he came by it though). Inside was a set of old crafting and forging tools, something she taken from the body of an Assassin Guilder who tried to put a bullet through her skull last year (and failed). The bullet, forged from the broken remains of Oliver Wood’s broom (shattered during the rogue bludger incident) gave her an idea. At night, while Potter slept (with the “help” of a sleeping draught “accidentially” left by Snape in her care) she forged the remains of her old Nimbus 2001 into long range “SpellAirius” spell breaker ammo, loading them into the “bottomless” clip of an old Glock she had from the old times (the spell scrawling on it maintaining it’s indestrucible status glowing red in the magic rich environment of Hogwarts).
She knew she was being a tad paranoid, turning her old broom into ammo, but it kept her hands busy and idle hands were only going to get her into masturbating (and thinking about Hermione) if she wasn’t careful. She didn’t share the same sentiment about it as Harry did his broom, which did seem to bother him abit but not to the point of confronting her about the way she handled her broom’s remains. “Next he’d probably expect me to give it a proper burial and last rites.” she muttered as she turned over another handful of SpellAirius shells for the gun.
She could only work at night, though, since the daytime was occupied by a constant stream of visitors and a wide awake Harry. All of these visitors had two objectives in mind : one was to cheer Harry up, the other to cheer Alicia up (one way or another).
Hagrid sent both of them a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages, (“Not yellow cabbages.” Alicia noted with disdain, half a flower sticking out of her mouth “Maybe I need to flour, panko and fry these to make them taste better… roll in a hotdog or some other meat while I‘m at it… use a beer batter… be half drunk when I eat the next flower… something.”).
Ginny Weasley, bright red from her excessive girlhood crush on Harry blushing, turned up with a get well card she had made herself which sang shrilly… but before Harry could stick it under a fruit bowl to silence it Alicia took it straight away and (for once) used her wand to change it. One tap and the words “Accentuate, deliverate, pronounciate, sing” made the card sing well. She put the card next to Harry and said “Young ladies grow up into beautiful women, and beautiful women sing the most lovely songs.”
(She then smacked Harry on the head and said “ingrate” before lying down again).
Gryffindor team visited on Sunday morning, this time bringing the now mostly recovered Oliver Wood with them (who did more than hide in the shadows of the doorway delivering product information on Nimbus brooms). Wood, speaking in a rather hollow dead voice, said he didn’t blame Harry in the slightest. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence there.” Alicia muttered, catching a shellshocked sad look from Wood as he turned realizing she was listening. “Shake it off. I’m just kidding you.”
Ron and Hermione only left the duos bedsides at night, which again made it near impossible to forge the SpellAirius ammo in anything but nighttime conditions. Harry, for the most part, was walking wounded as nothing anyone could say could shake him out of his suckitude that he was in. Alicia gritted her teeth everytime she thought of him, and wondered just what happened to him with the Dementors to make him such a basketcase now all of a sudden. It didn’t matter to her, though, since she had her own troubles.
Blitzkrieg was upping his attacks. Once content to sit quietly for an opportunity it was now cranking out more and more drones at a steadily increasing pace. Soon attacks may become almost daily occurances as he becomes embolden by repeated progress in his attacks (this attack landing Alicia once again back in the infirmary). Then there was the matter of Black and his obsession with Potter, though she felt Black would most likely stick to that fascination and not include her in his plans… yet.
Finally there was the Dementors, who were steadily becoming harder and harder to control. After the incident on the field they had snapped back into full obedience mode, but once their “hunger” returned it would be only a matter of time before they became uncontrollable again. She had already contacted Azkaban about rotating the Dementors on a more frequent basis, pulling the most “weakened” back to replenish before sending full “controllable” ones out again, but according to them they were doing the best they could under the circumstance to rotate them as often as possible… not good enough, but there was a hint that there would be more attempts to keep the rotations going at a quicker pace to keep this from happening again.
All in all this was setting up to be one entirely lousy year.
Which could only get worst once she went back to schoollife and her first day back at Lupin’s class (with Lupin).
* * * * * *
Returning to the main hustle and bustle of schoolife was a relief to Potter, but not so for Alicia as she knew she’d have to face Lupin later that day after her “coup” of the class with Snape days earlier. Malfoy, however, was at least easier to handle than Lupin in her opinion. She got out early that morning and used that time to make an appearance to Malfoy in front of the painting to Slytherin (guarded by a rather nasty looking image of a “gentleman” who seemed as nasty as the students he was “guarding”). As he walked up to her, insult in mouth, she simply held up a little brown envelope and said “The most amazing things some can find in people’s heads when they’re at the controls.”
Malfoy, at first dumbstruck, turned red quickly as he snapped the envelope away and looked at it with first anger then resentment. “Keep those if you wish, I’ll just make more.” she said as she turned, walking away without another word.
After that Malfoy took off the bandages and contented himself with occasionally tormenting Potter, but steered clear of Alicia from that point forward.
“One less git in my life.” she muttered, working her potion with the usual flair as she tried not to make this one explode like one from five weeks earlier.
It didn’t take much to silence him, in fact it almost hurt her to do it.
Before she went to see Malfoy she stopped, and opened the envelope to glance at the photos. “Is there any real affection in this, or is it just the acts of disturbing individuals.”
“To attribute affection to one like Malfoy seemingly would take an act of the almighty, and yet I can assure you…” (tapping moving image of Malfoy and his mother making love) “…this is nothing but pure affection and love. I dare say if father snearest was out of the way she’d so bond with him as only a wife could… Oh, and don’t get that sick in the face look because she’s technically NOT his mother… kinda…”
“Say what…” Alicia muttered, “Is she mommy or not?”
Jack shrugged as he allowed his holoimage to fade away from behind her, “Kinda.”
She decided to leave it at that and not try to figure out the mating habits of evil people.
* * * * * *
“If Snape’s teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I’m skiving off.” Ron said as they headed towards Lupin’s classroom after lunch. He motioned towards Alicia and said “You’re pals with him, why don’t you stick your head in since he won’t snap it off or anything.”
Alicia groaned, but did just that as she peeked into the classroom. “Oh bother.”
“What?!” Ron hissed, “Is it…”
“Lupin.” Alicia noted, opening the door wide to show it was indeed Lupin in the class. Ron cuffed Alicia as he passed, mumbling “Don’t do that!” as he did. Professor Lupin, as she knew it had to be, was back to work. It certainly did look, however, as though he had been ill. His old robes were hanging even more loosely on him than before, and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes. Nevertheless, he smiled that same disturbingly chipper smile as the class filed in and took their seats. This quiet was short lived as the class immediately set to voicing their objection to Snape’s class the moment they sat down.
“It’s not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?”
“We don’t know anything about werewolves…”
(‘Still?!?’ Alicia thought to herself, wondering why they even bothered talking about it if all that valuable information slipped right out of their brains over the weekend).
“…two rolls of parchment!”
Lupin, frowning slightly, asked the obvious question. “Did you tell Professor Snape we haven’t covered werewolves yet?”
The wave of babble broke over the “wall” once again, like a tsunami wave.
“Yes, but he said we were really behind…”
(‘And being a bunch of behinds.’ Alicia thought.)
“--- he wouldn’t listen ---”
“--- two rolls of parchment!”
Professor Lupin absorbed all the complaints even handedly, and smiled at the looks of indignation from all the complaining students. “Don’t worry. I’ll speak to Professor Snape. You don’t have to do the essay.”
“Oh, no!” Hermione choked out, “I already finished it!”
The rest of the class interested everyone except Alicia, who tried to block it out of her mind… especially at the point where the hinkypunk tried to balance it’s light while bouncing on a basketball that somehow ended up in it’s possession in front of Alicia.
“I hate my life.” she muttered absently as it fell over, the ball flying ghostly through the enclosed glass box and knocking Neville over.
* * * * * *
“How’s the “work” going?” Snape asked quietly, drawing Alicia into the quiet teacher’s staffroom.
“Done.” she noted, pulling the old Glock out of a hidden tesseract pouch in her robes (recently added in a previous “stay” in the infirmary). “Got enough ammo to last the rest of my stay here I dare say.” (clicks the gun once, checks her sights, then locks it back into safety mode and puts it away again) “The Dementors sway back and forth from obedient to out of control the longer they’re not fed. If only the Azkaban people would rotate them more this wouldn’t happen…” (sighs) “…how angry was Dumbledore that day?”
“I can’t ever say I saw Dumbledore as angry as he was that day.” Snape remarked coldly, “The Dementors apparently weren’t the only ones who were past due for an outburst.”
“So I see…” Alicia muttered, her hand involntarily reaching up to touch her arm that had been damaged time and time again recently, “…Dementors.”
Just then inspiration hit. She quickly dived into another pocket and fished out a few tesseract gems, going through each one (holding it up to the light to check it’s “content” before emptying one of a small pocket book, holding up said book to show Snape). “Let’s ask the Book of Knowledge about it.”
“The book of what?” Snape asked, expression changing from cold to curious as he followed Alicia to the chairs. Quickly she sat, plopped the book on the table, and said in a clear voice “I need a reference check on Dementors as they relate to this present reality that we are in.”
Silence. The book did not move. For the longest time it sat there, and Alicia (dumbfounded) muttered “Maybe it’s broken.” before the book snapped open, flipped page onto page until it came to an entry entitled “The Tormented, a Dimensional Crossreference” and began to “read” in Alicia’s own voice.
“Dementors are a misgiven slang to refer to halflife human souls known as The Tormented. The Tormented as humans who are neither alive nor dead fully, stuck between realities in a half life. Often humans of a low class status these tormented souls hide in the dark filthy places that they dwelled in life, craving only to absorb the happiness and love from the living they were denied in life. Normal humans (aka “Muggles” in realm talk) are not affected nor hunted by Tormented for they remember in shards being “Muggles” once themselves, they prefer to target the “mystical” community as they see them as an “elitist” species that caused their suffering in life (be this fact or dementia caused by transition into Tormented form is not yet clear at the time of this reading).
Though they will not affect “Muggles”, they can sense the presence of the Tormented, in essence still having an ethereal connection to their “fellow” man even if they did not share that “connection” with them in life. If a Tormented feeds on a humanoid long enough said being will be dragged into a living hellish state similar to the Tormented themselves, hollow of bright feeling yet craving said feeling from others to the point of becoming violent towards said individuals exhibiting traits they yearn for (happiness, love, etc).
Cross Refernce “Dementor’s Kiss” for more info.
Snape made a sudden motion with his arm shutting the book as it wrapped up. “That is abit to absorb.”
“You don’t say.” she muttered, snapping the book up and putting it away. “I wonder if Dumbledore would feel the same about these so-called “Dementors” if he knew the truth?”
Snape - “Hard to say.”
Alicia reaches out to take the book, but stops. Instead she draws it closer to her and says “I need a reference check on a place called Azkaban, located in this present reality.”
Quicker, the book flipped open and fluttered for abit before settling down, on the page was the words “Azkaban the Water Prison”
“The Fortress Prison Azkaban is located on an artifically created island in an undisclosed location. The island is in a constant state of dimensional flux, dimensionally slipping from location to location at the rising of the sun. This keeps it’s present location a secret though a few entities have been able to locate the prison without the aid of the Ministry of Magic’s Shards of Suffering (mystical devices made solely for the purposes of tracking the last remaining Fortress Prison in exsistence).
Prisoners are locked away in this antiseptic environment and watched over by the Tormented (Dementors) who serve the dual purpose of keeping the populace docile while inflicting torturous conditions upon them metting out “justice” onto the wicked.
WARNING! Azkaban Prison is presently under a review by the Goddess Council for gross breeches of humanoid rights violations. The Prison’s case is presently being supervised by The Goddess of Sorrow, who is expected to turn in her report on the prison in two year cycles once a complete 10 year cycle evaluation is done to insure all data and info have been processed and gathered.
Originally one of a quartet of prisons, it is the only one in active use.
Would you like to cross reference the fates of the other three prisons?”
The two exchanged glances warily, “I didn’t know there were three other prisons.” Snape said cautiously. “May I?”
Alicia motioned towards the book, “The book holds no restrictions on who accesses it’s information.”
In a clear tone, Snape says “Cross reference the three other prisons, their purpose and the reasons behind their closure.”
“Crossreferencing…”
The pages suddenly fluttered to life, shifting to another entry.
“Cross Reference to Schadazaar, the Fire Prison.”
“Originally erected as a prison for dark wizards of the Middle East and Asia, the prison became infamous for it’s mistreatment of women prisoners (magical and non) in both violent and sexual means. The prison was thus destroyed by the Winterian Alliance in 1350 in a multi-lateral magical community/non-magical community assault which brought forth prison time in the recently built Azkaban Prison for the warden and jailers of the Schadazaar Prison (those who were not killed outright by the Winterians or deported transdimensionally to Winterian PrisonStars. (See Winteria, Culture of Women for more information)).”
The pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Drumstragg, the Dark Winds Prison”
“Originally erected as a prison for BloodWizards, the followers of a dark cult that worshipped the serpent god Set (crossreference Ancient God Deities, Set and the Blood Wizards of Set) the prison fell out of use when the cult of Set fell out of favor and became a dead religion. Presently used as a school for dark wizards, the school’s dark heritage is not completely known or understood by it’s staff though a few may still be carrying on the practices of the BloodWizards to this day (if only in symbolic mannerism).”
One more time the pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Hades, the Underworld Prison”
Originally erected as a prison for Distruptors, wizards who openly broke the Seperation Act Between Muggles and Magicals, the prison was the setting of a prison riot called the Human Riot where the imprisoned fought to overthrow their wardens in an attempt to, in the words of the riot leader “win back their humanity” only to be killed in the uprising. Sickened by the sad brutal events of the horrible uprising the prison was exposed to the light of day, and the underground cavern flooded with water turning it into a lake. Presently it is a dwelling of merpeople and located near the present location of…”
“Hogwarts.“ Snape snapped the book closed. “That explains the more than usual excess of ghosts that surround the area. This used to be a prison area.”
“And if you think that’s something…” Alicia says as she retrieves the book, “Imagine what you’ll learn tomorrow. Speaking of which…” (motioning to Snape) “…I know why you called me in here. You want to check on the little “gift” we’re storing down below. So if you’ll follow me we’ll get to it.”
* * * * * *
November rolled on, and the first good news in terms of Quidditch began to roll in.
Ravenclaw annihilated Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match at the end of November, once again opening the door for Gryffindor to possibly take the Quidditch Cup for the year. Everyone’s mood lifted when they saw the gleam of chance to win the cup, and Wood quickly took that as a sign to work the team harder in practice to get their game just right for their eventual match against Ravenclaw. After all this was a chance, but it was also a last chance as failure this time would be a permament failure and no third chance would rise again. This maniac pace of training rolled out of November and right into December, this time Dementor free as they kept their distance after Dumbledore’s rage against them.
Two weeks before the end of term the sky began to lighten, and the weather started to turn around. Inside most of the castle there was an air of Christmas, most of the castle except the Chamber of Secrets which had been reopened and reconfigured for use. Compliments of Lazarus a huge complex of machines and magic synched technology was set into the Chamber, the remains of the Bassilisk removed from the water source and replaced with a water to energy conversion fusion generator to power the machines. The focus of attention in the room was the decapitated head of the Galerian assassin guilder, many wires and attachments sticking out of it as the machiens labored day and night to hack it’s internal core memory and dig out as much useable information from it as possible.
As expected this was slow going, especially since this was only a secondary lift since the prime core was in the guts of the Galerian drone (destroyed in the explosion). But still, any information no matter how small was better than nothing. Alicia would drop in a few days a week to check on progress, waiting for the download to finish… but it was slow, and days passed with no progress.
As if to further depress her, students began to happily discuss their plans for the holidays. Since she really had no home except for Hogwarts she had no plans for the holidays. She would only travel back to Diagon Alley on the first day of holiday to go christmas shopping, as well as to buy a replacement broom, and then return to spend the rest of her holiday at Hogwarts. One bright spot of this plan was Ron and Hermione, both of whom had said they were going to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. They had their reasons, sure, but she knew they were only staying for herself and Harry (which she felt was sweet of them, especially since it looked like this would be her best chance to make a move on Hermione).
To everyone’s delight, except Harry’s and Alicia’s of course, talk of a new trip to Hogsmeade began to dominate conversations. “We can do all our Christmas shopping there!” Hermione said cheerfully, “Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!”
“Giving sweet floss to a pair of dentists?” Alicia said from her corner of the common room, “Is that legal?”
Resigned this time to her fate, Alicia decided to busy herself reading over the catalog sent to her from the shoppe over in Diagon Alley where she was going to buy her new broom. They had several models that each caught her attention for one reason or another, and she was weighting the choices before the trip. She had found an older broom put into her locker with a note that said “Loaner” on it, which was an old style HellFire broom that actually ran well. Sleek, dark, and well maintained for a broom that old, Alicia wondered if it was Snape’s considering it was meticulously maintained and he seemed the type. Still she couldn’t keep that broom for long, and wanted only to get her own broom again even if she was abit confused as to what broom she should be getting..
Taking her catalog with her to the Chamber of Secrets, after seeing Ron and Hermione off (“I’ll get you alone soon enough.” she whispered to herself as she walked down the newly installed hidden stairs placed in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom). There she sat down at one of the command chairs only for the computer to go off thirty seconds later.
“DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. FILES READY.”
“Oh NOW you’re ready.” she muttered, putting the catalog aside as she reaches for the keyboard, “This had better have been worth it.”
As she taps into the system she flips through file after file, each one a disappointing visual log of it’s short life and nothing else. One, logged 10/31, caught her eye. Nervously she waved the cursor over the entry as if she was afraid the system would self destruct if she clicked it, finally clicking the entry and leaning forward to watch. As the images came on she watched it carefully… scenes scrolling forward… until at last she saw something and stopped it. For the most part the visuals were unimpressive, mostly of the Galerian being outside or sneaking about, but then suddenly it pulled something out into it’s sight (a datapad) and tapped it… said something and watched as a complex mapping system (on virtual parchment) rolled out before it and showed it a path into the castle. It tapped the pad again with the stylus, said something else, and the images vanished. Quickly Alicia checked the rest of the footage, now more interested in knowing what it knew about her “situation” that night than what she just saw. However this only yielded one thing, which made no sense… an image of a hunched thing scurrying along the moving staircases away from the area where Gryffindor’s area was. “Is that it?” she muttered, looking at the image oddly. “Computer, can you figure out what this image is?” (taps the dark image) “Clear up the darkness and show me what this is?”
“IT’LL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS TO DO THIS. DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?”
“Yeah, why not…” she muttered, “Not like I have anything else to do… but now…” (pulls out a datapad and then scans through the files until she finds… “Marauder’s Map File.”
It takes a few seconds but it loads down onto the pad. As the pad comes to life the image of a blank parchment page comes on, and then nothing. The only thing on the page other than the parchment was a “voice” icon, with the datapad’s vocal device flashing waiting for input. Perplexed, Alicia sat there and stared at this for several seconds until inspiration hit. She quickly replayed the scene with the pad and listened, playing it over and over again until she was sure she got it right, finally lifting the pad’s stylus and tapping it down on the icon as she repeated the words from the datafile. “I solemly swear that I am up to no good.”
At once virtual ink lines began to spread like a spider’s web on the screen, they joined and wove about crisscrossing until a message was formed.
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Purveyors of Aide to Magical Mischief Makers of a New Generation
Are proud to present…
The Marauder’s Map Version 2.0
It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. Marking the location of every person in the castle, as well as every ghosts and entity within the walls.
“Dumbledore is pacing in his study, Mrs. Norris is on the second floor, Peeves is in the trophy room, Harry is here… what the…” (taps passages) “…this is how Blitzkrieg is getting in and out! These passages! But where…” (suddenly the map changes with the legend “To Hogsmeade” on each passage.) “…you gotta be kidding me.”
New icons, not the same as the one the map used, suddenly appeared. Alicia tapped one.
“ENTRANCE BLOCKED BY DEBRIS. UNUSABLE.”
‘This must be notes by Blitzkrieg.’ Alicia thought, tapping another noteicon.
“PASSAGE PATROLLED BY TOO MANY HUMANS. UNUSABLE.”
On the third tap the right message came up.
“OPEN PATH. ENTRANCE LOCATED IN BASEMENT OF HONEYDUKES.
Magical Entry required from Hogwarts side, use Whomping Willow path to Shrieking Shack for extraction. Magical means to enter as follows…”
Alicia’s facial expression changes as she reads on, a confused expression morphing into a devious grin. “Oh come on, you know I gotta use this.” she whispered to herself…”And I better hurry before I start talking to myself out of bore--” (sighs) “…damn.”
* * * * * *
‘Now what.’ Alicia thought to herself, finding herself standing in front of the statue in question only confused as to what she should do next. Pulling out the datapad she glanced at it looking for info., only to notice to her shock that a new image had appeared upon it, labeled with her true name. Quickly covering the screen, eyes glancing about madly, she began to worry about the “product” in her hands.
“Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can’t see where it keeps it’s brain.”
Words that were oh so clear now from the esteemed Mr. Weasley, and right now it made a whole lot of sense to Alicia at that moment. Carefully glancing back at the datapad she noticed herself standing where she was, tapping the witch with her little itsy bitsy wand with the words “Dissendium” appearing in a voice bubble next to little “Alicia”. Pulling out her own wand she tapped the wand and whispered “Dissendium”, at once the statue’s hump opened wide enough to admit a fairly thin person through. Alicia squeezed herself through, muttering “Must be the Super Model entrance to Hogsmeade…” as she did so. As she hit the ground glancing about the dark corridor (uselessly), she tucked the datapad out of sight into one of her robe pouches (sewn into the material) as she holds her wand up whispering “Lumos!”
She was in a very narrow, low ceiling, earthy passageway. It went on for awhile, which made sense since it was no doubt abit of a walk from Hogswart to Hogsmeade. Retrieving the datapad from her robe pouch she stares at it… and stares… only to realize she didn’t know how to shut it off. Suddenly a small notation appeared on the bottom of the screen, as if the map was reading her mind (which wasn’t making her feel any better about holding the thing).
“To Close, Tap Voice Icon and Say “Mischief Managed”.”
“Mischief Managed.” she said with authority, watching the map clear as she did so. Putting it back into her pouch once again she began to walk down the corridor, carefully observing the corridor for “Dead Man’s Hands” (packs of C4 left for the curious and unwary) as she walked. The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant wyrmbeast than a manmade tunnel (no doubt done to avoid underground building support pillars and people’s stone basement slash storage areas). Alicia continued her pace, stumbling now and again on the uneven floor as she moved, her wand held out in front of her as she let her visor (pulled from a different tesseract pouch she was storing it) scanned for traps.
It seemingly took ages but finally she reached the basement, an hour seemingly passing as she finally reached the rising towards the entrance to the Honeydukes’ cellar. She sped up her pace, her nerves itching to get through out of the passage and into Hogsmeade. It took another 10 minutes before she came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above her. Deciding to forego the stealth technique she quickly bent down, kicking off upwards and using a small amount of energy to levitate upwards (instead of risking drawing attention to herself with her footfalls on the stone steps), which made it quick for her to reach the top which was a solid trapdoor. Gently testing it to make sure it wasn’t blocked, she set herself down on the staircase and pushed the trapdoor open so she could peek.
As promised this was the cellar of Honeydukes, filled with wooden crates and boxes labeled with the contents of what a well stocked sweets shop should hold. Alicia rolled clear of the trapdoor, using her power to lightly bring it down soundlessly (noticing it blended perfectly with the floor so that you’d have to have had actually climbed out of it to even know it was there in the first place). She quickly moved to the door, using another boost of power to make her robes shift into something more civilian in appearance so that she didn’t stick out (suddenly she stopped, shrugged, then pulled a short red headed wig and glasses from yet another tesseract pouch putting it on) (’Didn‘t get to wear it for Halloween so now is as good a time as any.’), then she quietly slipped into the crowd outside the door and completely blended in.
The place was so busy you could have easily walked off with half the stock from the storage room without anyone noticing, the whole place buzzed with business as all the students of Hogwarts were seemingly attempting to jam themselves into this one shop at once from the endless amount of student surrounding her. Quietly slipping to the back of the crowd (which was more concerned with getting towards the wares than who was moving out of their way) she took a quick look about the room before exiting, noticing a few of her classmates but no Hermione or Ron. Oh well, she mused silently, they’ll be somewhere in town so it shouldn’t be too hard to find them. Deciding to come back later for a few purchases (on her way out) she left the store and began wandering the streets of Hogsmeade.
To Be Continued
It was coming to the point that Alicia was practically living out of the hospital ward. This time it would only be for the weekend, yes, but still it was another stay in a long string of stays she has already endured in the hospital wing. Snape, near nightfall, brought her a toolkit from the women’s dorm in Gryffindor (he did not elaborate as to how he came by it though). Inside was a set of old crafting and forging tools, something she taken from the body of an Assassin Guilder who tried to put a bullet through her skull last year (and failed). The bullet, forged from the broken remains of Oliver Wood’s broom (shattered during the rogue bludger incident) gave her an idea. At night, while Potter slept (with the “help” of a sleeping draught “accidentially” left by Snape in her care) she forged the remains of her old Nimbus 2001 into long range “SpellAirius” spell breaker ammo, loading them into the “bottomless” clip of an old Glock she had from the old times (the spell scrawling on it maintaining it’s indestrucible status glowing red in the magic rich environment of Hogwarts).
She knew she was being a tad paranoid, turning her old broom into ammo, but it kept her hands busy and idle hands were only going to get her into masturbating (and thinking about Hermione) if she wasn’t careful. She didn’t share the same sentiment about it as Harry did his broom, which did seem to bother him abit but not to the point of confronting her about the way she handled her broom’s remains. “Next he’d probably expect me to give it a proper burial and last rites.” she muttered as she turned over another handful of SpellAirius shells for the gun.
She could only work at night, though, since the daytime was occupied by a constant stream of visitors and a wide awake Harry. All of these visitors had two objectives in mind : one was to cheer Harry up, the other to cheer Alicia up (one way or another).
Hagrid sent both of them a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages, (“Not yellow cabbages.” Alicia noted with disdain, half a flower sticking out of her mouth “Maybe I need to flour, panko and fry these to make them taste better… roll in a hotdog or some other meat while I‘m at it… use a beer batter… be half drunk when I eat the next flower… something.”).
Ginny Weasley, bright red from her excessive girlhood crush on Harry blushing, turned up with a get well card she had made herself which sang shrilly… but before Harry could stick it under a fruit bowl to silence it Alicia took it straight away and (for once) used her wand to change it. One tap and the words “Accentuate, deliverate, pronounciate, sing” made the card sing well. She put the card next to Harry and said “Young ladies grow up into beautiful women, and beautiful women sing the most lovely songs.”
(She then smacked Harry on the head and said “ingrate” before lying down again).
Gryffindor team visited on Sunday morning, this time bringing the now mostly recovered Oliver Wood with them (who did more than hide in the shadows of the doorway delivering product information on Nimbus brooms). Wood, speaking in a rather hollow dead voice, said he didn’t blame Harry in the slightest. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence there.” Alicia muttered, catching a shellshocked sad look from Wood as he turned realizing she was listening. “Shake it off. I’m just kidding you.”
Ron and Hermione only left the duos bedsides at night, which again made it near impossible to forge the SpellAirius ammo in anything but nighttime conditions. Harry, for the most part, was walking wounded as nothing anyone could say could shake him out of his suckitude that he was in. Alicia gritted her teeth everytime she thought of him, and wondered just what happened to him with the Dementors to make him such a basketcase now all of a sudden. It didn’t matter to her, though, since she had her own troubles.
Blitzkrieg was upping his attacks. Once content to sit quietly for an opportunity it was now cranking out more and more drones at a steadily increasing pace. Soon attacks may become almost daily occurances as he becomes embolden by repeated progress in his attacks (this attack landing Alicia once again back in the infirmary). Then there was the matter of Black and his obsession with Potter, though she felt Black would most likely stick to that fascination and not include her in his plans… yet.
Finally there was the Dementors, who were steadily becoming harder and harder to control. After the incident on the field they had snapped back into full obedience mode, but once their “hunger” returned it would be only a matter of time before they became uncontrollable again. She had already contacted Azkaban about rotating the Dementors on a more frequent basis, pulling the most “weakened” back to replenish before sending full “controllable” ones out again, but according to them they were doing the best they could under the circumstance to rotate them as often as possible… not good enough, but there was a hint that there would be more attempts to keep the rotations going at a quicker pace to keep this from happening again.
All in all this was setting up to be one entirely lousy year.
Which could only get worst once she went back to schoollife and her first day back at Lupin’s class (with Lupin).
* * * * * *
Returning to the main hustle and bustle of schoolife was a relief to Potter, but not so for Alicia as she knew she’d have to face Lupin later that day after her “coup” of the class with Snape days earlier. Malfoy, however, was at least easier to handle than Lupin in her opinion. She got out early that morning and used that time to make an appearance to Malfoy in front of the painting to Slytherin (guarded by a rather nasty looking image of a “gentleman” who seemed as nasty as the students he was “guarding”). As he walked up to her, insult in mouth, she simply held up a little brown envelope and said “The most amazing things some can find in people’s heads when they’re at the controls.”
Malfoy, at first dumbstruck, turned red quickly as he snapped the envelope away and looked at it with first anger then resentment. “Keep those if you wish, I’ll just make more.” she said as she turned, walking away without another word.
After that Malfoy took off the bandages and contented himself with occasionally tormenting Potter, but steered clear of Alicia from that point forward.
“One less git in my life.” she muttered, working her potion with the usual flair as she tried not to make this one explode like one from five weeks earlier.
It didn’t take much to silence him, in fact it almost hurt her to do it.
Before she went to see Malfoy she stopped, and opened the envelope to glance at the photos. “Is there any real affection in this, or is it just the acts of disturbing individuals.”
“To attribute affection to one like Malfoy seemingly would take an act of the almighty, and yet I can assure you…” (tapping moving image of Malfoy and his mother making love) “…this is nothing but pure affection and love. I dare say if father snearest was out of the way she’d so bond with him as only a wife could… Oh, and don’t get that sick in the face look because she’s technically NOT his mother… kinda…”
“Say what…” Alicia muttered, “Is she mommy or not?”
Jack shrugged as he allowed his holoimage to fade away from behind her, “Kinda.”
She decided to leave it at that and not try to figure out the mating habits of evil people.
* * * * * *
“If Snape’s teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I’m skiving off.” Ron said as they headed towards Lupin’s classroom after lunch. He motioned towards Alicia and said “You’re pals with him, why don’t you stick your head in since he won’t snap it off or anything.”
Alicia groaned, but did just that as she peeked into the classroom. “Oh bother.”
“What?!” Ron hissed, “Is it…”
“Lupin.” Alicia noted, opening the door wide to show it was indeed Lupin in the class. Ron cuffed Alicia as he passed, mumbling “Don’t do that!” as he did. Professor Lupin, as she knew it had to be, was back to work. It certainly did look, however, as though he had been ill. His old robes were hanging even more loosely on him than before, and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes. Nevertheless, he smiled that same disturbingly chipper smile as the class filed in and took their seats. This quiet was short lived as the class immediately set to voicing their objection to Snape’s class the moment they sat down.
“It’s not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?”
“We don’t know anything about werewolves…”
(‘Still?!?’ Alicia thought to herself, wondering why they even bothered talking about it if all that valuable information slipped right out of their brains over the weekend).
“…two rolls of parchment!”
Lupin, frowning slightly, asked the obvious question. “Did you tell Professor Snape we haven’t covered werewolves yet?”
The wave of babble broke over the “wall” once again, like a tsunami wave.
“Yes, but he said we were really behind…”
(‘And being a bunch of behinds.’ Alicia thought.)
“--- he wouldn’t listen ---”
“--- two rolls of parchment!”
Professor Lupin absorbed all the complaints even handedly, and smiled at the looks of indignation from all the complaining students. “Don’t worry. I’ll speak to Professor Snape. You don’t have to do the essay.”
“Oh, no!” Hermione choked out, “I already finished it!”
The rest of the class interested everyone except Alicia, who tried to block it out of her mind… especially at the point where the hinkypunk tried to balance it’s light while bouncing on a basketball that somehow ended up in it’s possession in front of Alicia.
“I hate my life.” she muttered absently as it fell over, the ball flying ghostly through the enclosed glass box and knocking Neville over.
* * * * * *
“How’s the “work” going?” Snape asked quietly, drawing Alicia into the quiet teacher’s staffroom.
“Done.” she noted, pulling the old Glock out of a hidden tesseract pouch in her robes (recently added in a previous “stay” in the infirmary). “Got enough ammo to last the rest of my stay here I dare say.” (clicks the gun once, checks her sights, then locks it back into safety mode and puts it away again) “The Dementors sway back and forth from obedient to out of control the longer they’re not fed. If only the Azkaban people would rotate them more this wouldn’t happen…” (sighs) “…how angry was Dumbledore that day?”
“I can’t ever say I saw Dumbledore as angry as he was that day.” Snape remarked coldly, “The Dementors apparently weren’t the only ones who were past due for an outburst.”
“So I see…” Alicia muttered, her hand involntarily reaching up to touch her arm that had been damaged time and time again recently, “…Dementors.”
Just then inspiration hit. She quickly dived into another pocket and fished out a few tesseract gems, going through each one (holding it up to the light to check it’s “content” before emptying one of a small pocket book, holding up said book to show Snape). “Let’s ask the Book of Knowledge about it.”
“The book of what?” Snape asked, expression changing from cold to curious as he followed Alicia to the chairs. Quickly she sat, plopped the book on the table, and said in a clear voice “I need a reference check on Dementors as they relate to this present reality that we are in.”
Silence. The book did not move. For the longest time it sat there, and Alicia (dumbfounded) muttered “Maybe it’s broken.” before the book snapped open, flipped page onto page until it came to an entry entitled “The Tormented, a Dimensional Crossreference” and began to “read” in Alicia’s own voice.
“Dementors are a misgiven slang to refer to halflife human souls known as The Tormented. The Tormented as humans who are neither alive nor dead fully, stuck between realities in a half life. Often humans of a low class status these tormented souls hide in the dark filthy places that they dwelled in life, craving only to absorb the happiness and love from the living they were denied in life. Normal humans (aka “Muggles” in realm talk) are not affected nor hunted by Tormented for they remember in shards being “Muggles” once themselves, they prefer to target the “mystical” community as they see them as an “elitist” species that caused their suffering in life (be this fact or dementia caused by transition into Tormented form is not yet clear at the time of this reading).
Though they will not affect “Muggles”, they can sense the presence of the Tormented, in essence still having an ethereal connection to their “fellow” man even if they did not share that “connection” with them in life. If a Tormented feeds on a humanoid long enough said being will be dragged into a living hellish state similar to the Tormented themselves, hollow of bright feeling yet craving said feeling from others to the point of becoming violent towards said individuals exhibiting traits they yearn for (happiness, love, etc).
Cross Refernce “Dementor’s Kiss” for more info.
Snape made a sudden motion with his arm shutting the book as it wrapped up. “That is abit to absorb.”
“You don’t say.” she muttered, snapping the book up and putting it away. “I wonder if Dumbledore would feel the same about these so-called “Dementors” if he knew the truth?”
Snape - “Hard to say.”
Alicia reaches out to take the book, but stops. Instead she draws it closer to her and says “I need a reference check on a place called Azkaban, located in this present reality.”
Quicker, the book flipped open and fluttered for abit before settling down, on the page was the words “Azkaban the Water Prison”
“The Fortress Prison Azkaban is located on an artifically created island in an undisclosed location. The island is in a constant state of dimensional flux, dimensionally slipping from location to location at the rising of the sun. This keeps it’s present location a secret though a few entities have been able to locate the prison without the aid of the Ministry of Magic’s Shards of Suffering (mystical devices made solely for the purposes of tracking the last remaining Fortress Prison in exsistence).
Prisoners are locked away in this antiseptic environment and watched over by the Tormented (Dementors) who serve the dual purpose of keeping the populace docile while inflicting torturous conditions upon them metting out “justice” onto the wicked.
WARNING! Azkaban Prison is presently under a review by the Goddess Council for gross breeches of humanoid rights violations. The Prison’s case is presently being supervised by The Goddess of Sorrow, who is expected to turn in her report on the prison in two year cycles once a complete 10 year cycle evaluation is done to insure all data and info have been processed and gathered.
Originally one of a quartet of prisons, it is the only one in active use.
Would you like to cross reference the fates of the other three prisons?”
The two exchanged glances warily, “I didn’t know there were three other prisons.” Snape said cautiously. “May I?”
Alicia motioned towards the book, “The book holds no restrictions on who accesses it’s information.”
In a clear tone, Snape says “Cross reference the three other prisons, their purpose and the reasons behind their closure.”
“Crossreferencing…”
The pages suddenly fluttered to life, shifting to another entry.
“Cross Reference to Schadazaar, the Fire Prison.”
“Originally erected as a prison for dark wizards of the Middle East and Asia, the prison became infamous for it’s mistreatment of women prisoners (magical and non) in both violent and sexual means. The prison was thus destroyed by the Winterian Alliance in 1350 in a multi-lateral magical community/non-magical community assault which brought forth prison time in the recently built Azkaban Prison for the warden and jailers of the Schadazaar Prison (those who were not killed outright by the Winterians or deported transdimensionally to Winterian PrisonStars. (See Winteria, Culture of Women for more information)).”
The pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Drumstragg, the Dark Winds Prison”
“Originally erected as a prison for BloodWizards, the followers of a dark cult that worshipped the serpent god Set (crossreference Ancient God Deities, Set and the Blood Wizards of Set) the prison fell out of use when the cult of Set fell out of favor and became a dead religion. Presently used as a school for dark wizards, the school’s dark heritage is not completely known or understood by it’s staff though a few may still be carrying on the practices of the BloodWizards to this day (if only in symbolic mannerism).”
One more time the pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Hades, the Underworld Prison”
Originally erected as a prison for Distruptors, wizards who openly broke the Seperation Act Between Muggles and Magicals, the prison was the setting of a prison riot called the Human Riot where the imprisoned fought to overthrow their wardens in an attempt to, in the words of the riot leader “win back their humanity” only to be killed in the uprising. Sickened by the sad brutal events of the horrible uprising the prison was exposed to the light of day, and the underground cavern flooded with water turning it into a lake. Presently it is a dwelling of merpeople and located near the present location of…”
“Hogwarts.“ Snape snapped the book closed. “That explains the more than usual excess of ghosts that surround the area. This used to be a prison area.”
“And if you think that’s something…” Alicia says as she retrieves the book, “Imagine what you’ll learn tomorrow. Speaking of which…” (motioning to Snape) “…I know why you called me in here. You want to check on the little “gift” we’re storing down below. So if you’ll follow me we’ll get to it.”
* * * * * *
November rolled on, and the first good news in terms of Quidditch began to roll in.
Ravenclaw annihilated Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match at the end of November, once again opening the door for Gryffindor to possibly take the Quidditch Cup for the year. Everyone’s mood lifted when they saw the gleam of chance to win the cup, and Wood quickly took that as a sign to work the team harder in practice to get their game just right for their eventual match against Ravenclaw. After all this was a chance, but it was also a last chance as failure this time would be a permament failure and no third chance would rise again. This maniac pace of training rolled out of November and right into December, this time Dementor free as they kept their distance after Dumbledore’s rage against them.
Two weeks before the end of term the sky began to lighten, and the weather started to turn around. Inside most of the castle there was an air of Christmas, most of the castle except the Chamber of Secrets which had been reopened and reconfigured for use. Compliments of Lazarus a huge complex of machines and magic synched technology was set into the Chamber, the remains of the Bassilisk removed from the water source and replaced with a water to energy conversion fusion generator to power the machines. The focus of attention in the room was the decapitated head of the Galerian assassin guilder, many wires and attachments sticking out of it as the machiens labored day and night to hack it’s internal core memory and dig out as much useable information from it as possible.
As expected this was slow going, especially since this was only a secondary lift since the prime core was in the guts of the Galerian drone (destroyed in the explosion). But still, any information no matter how small was better than nothing. Alicia would drop in a few days a week to check on progress, waiting for the download to finish… but it was slow, and days passed with no progress.
As if to further depress her, students began to happily discuss their plans for the holidays. Since she really had no home except for Hogwarts she had no plans for the holidays. She would only travel back to Diagon Alley on the first day of holiday to go christmas shopping, as well as to buy a replacement broom, and then return to spend the rest of her holiday at Hogwarts. One bright spot of this plan was Ron and Hermione, both of whom had said they were going to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. They had their reasons, sure, but she knew they were only staying for herself and Harry (which she felt was sweet of them, especially since it looked like this would be her best chance to make a move on Hermione).
To everyone’s delight, except Harry’s and Alicia’s of course, talk of a new trip to Hogsmeade began to dominate conversations. “We can do all our Christmas shopping there!” Hermione said cheerfully, “Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!”
“Giving sweet floss to a pair of dentists?” Alicia said from her corner of the common room, “Is that legal?”
Resigned this time to her fate, Alicia decided to busy herself reading over the catalog sent to her from the shoppe over in Diagon Alley where she was going to buy her new broom. They had several models that each caught her attention for one reason or another, and she was weighting the choices before the trip. She had found an older broom put into her locker with a note that said “Loaner” on it, which was an old style HellFire broom that actually ran well. Sleek, dark, and well maintained for a broom that old, Alicia wondered if it was Snape’s considering it was meticulously maintained and he seemed the type. Still she couldn’t keep that broom for long, and wanted only to get her own broom again even if she was abit confused as to what broom she should be getting..
Taking her catalog with her to the Chamber of Secrets, after seeing Ron and Hermione off (“I’ll get you alone soon enough.” she whispered to herself as she walked down the newly installed hidden stairs placed in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom). There she sat down at one of the command chairs only for the computer to go off thirty seconds later.
“DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. FILES READY.”
“Oh NOW you’re ready.” she muttered, putting the catalog aside as she reaches for the keyboard, “This had better have been worth it.”
As she taps into the system she flips through file after file, each one a disappointing visual log of it’s short life and nothing else. One, logged 10/31, caught her eye. Nervously she waved the cursor over the entry as if she was afraid the system would self destruct if she clicked it, finally clicking the entry and leaning forward to watch. As the images came on she watched it carefully… scenes scrolling forward… until at last she saw something and stopped it. For the most part the visuals were unimpressive, mostly of the Galerian being outside or sneaking about, but then suddenly it pulled something out into it’s sight (a datapad) and tapped it… said something and watched as a complex mapping system (on virtual parchment) rolled out before it and showed it a path into the castle. It tapped the pad again with the stylus, said something else, and the images vanished. Quickly Alicia checked the rest of the footage, now more interested in knowing what it knew about her “situation” that night than what she just saw. However this only yielded one thing, which made no sense… an image of a hunched thing scurrying along the moving staircases away from the area where Gryffindor’s area was. “Is that it?” she muttered, looking at the image oddly. “Computer, can you figure out what this image is?” (taps the dark image) “Clear up the darkness and show me what this is?”
“IT’LL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS TO DO THIS. DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?”
“Yeah, why not…” she muttered, “Not like I have anything else to do… but now…” (pulls out a datapad and then scans through the files until she finds… “Marauder’s Map File.”
It takes a few seconds but it loads down onto the pad. As the pad comes to life the image of a blank parchment page comes on, and then nothing. The only thing on the page other than the parchment was a “voice” icon, with the datapad’s vocal device flashing waiting for input. Perplexed, Alicia sat there and stared at this for several seconds until inspiration hit. She quickly replayed the scene with the pad and listened, playing it over and over again until she was sure she got it right, finally lifting the pad’s stylus and tapping it down on the icon as she repeated the words from the datafile. “I solemly swear that I am up to no good.”
At once virtual ink lines began to spread like a spider’s web on the screen, they joined and wove about crisscrossing until a message was formed.
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Purveyors of Aide to Magical Mischief Makers of a New Generation
Are proud to present…
The Marauder’s Map Version 2.0
It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. Marking the location of every person in the castle, as well as every ghosts and entity within the walls.
“Dumbledore is pacing in his study, Mrs. Norris is on the second floor, Peeves is in the trophy room, Harry is here… what the…” (taps passages) “…this is how Blitzkrieg is getting in and out! These passages! But where…” (suddenly the map changes with the legend “To Hogsmeade” on each passage.) “…you gotta be kidding me.”
New icons, not the same as the one the map used, suddenly appeared. Alicia tapped one.
“ENTRANCE BLOCKED BY DEBRIS. UNUSABLE.”
‘This must be notes by Blitzkrieg.’ Alicia thought, tapping another noteicon.
“PASSAGE PATROLLED BY TOO MANY HUMANS. UNUSABLE.”
On the third tap the right message came up.
“OPEN PATH. ENTRANCE LOCATED IN BASEMENT OF HONEYDUKES.
Magical Entry required from Hogwarts side, use Whomping Willow path to Shrieking Shack for extraction. Magical means to enter as follows…”
Alicia’s facial expression changes as she reads on, a confused expression morphing into a devious grin. “Oh come on, you know I gotta use this.” she whispered to herself…”And I better hurry before I start talking to myself out of bore--” (sighs) “…damn.”
* * * * * *
‘Now what.’ Alicia thought to herself, finding herself standing in front of the statue in question only confused as to what she should do next. Pulling out the datapad she glanced at it looking for info., only to notice to her shock that a new image had appeared upon it, labeled with her true name. Quickly covering the screen, eyes glancing about madly, she began to worry about the “product” in her hands.
“Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can’t see where it keeps it’s brain.”
Words that were oh so clear now from the esteemed Mr. Weasley, and right now it made a whole lot of sense to Alicia at that moment. Carefully glancing back at the datapad she noticed herself standing where she was, tapping the witch with her little itsy bitsy wand with the words “Dissendium” appearing in a voice bubble next to little “Alicia”. Pulling out her own wand she tapped the wand and whispered “Dissendium”, at once the statue’s hump opened wide enough to admit a fairly thin person through. Alicia squeezed herself through, muttering “Must be the Super Model entrance to Hogsmeade…” as she did so. As she hit the ground glancing about the dark corridor (uselessly), she tucked the datapad out of sight into one of her robe pouches (sewn into the material) as she holds her wand up whispering “Lumos!”
She was in a very narrow, low ceiling, earthy passageway. It went on for awhile, which made sense since it was no doubt abit of a walk from Hogswart to Hogsmeade. Retrieving the datapad from her robe pouch she stares at it… and stares… only to realize she didn’t know how to shut it off. Suddenly a small notation appeared on the bottom of the screen, as if the map was reading her mind (which wasn’t making her feel any better about holding the thing).
“To Close, Tap Voice Icon and Say “Mischief Managed”.”
“Mischief Managed.” she said with authority, watching the map clear as she did so. Putting it back into her pouch once again she began to walk down the corridor, carefully observing the corridor for “Dead Man’s Hands” (packs of C4 left for the curious and unwary) as she walked. The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant wyrmbeast than a manmade tunnel (no doubt done to avoid underground building support pillars and people’s stone basement slash storage areas). Alicia continued her pace, stumbling now and again on the uneven floor as she moved, her wand held out in front of her as she let her visor (pulled from a different tesseract pouch she was storing it) scanned for traps.
It seemingly took ages but finally she reached the basement, an hour seemingly passing as she finally reached the rising towards the entrance to the Honeydukes’ cellar. She sped up her pace, her nerves itching to get through out of the passage and into Hogsmeade. It took another 10 minutes before she came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above her. Deciding to forego the stealth technique she quickly bent down, kicking off upwards and using a small amount of energy to levitate upwards (instead of risking drawing attention to herself with her footfalls on the stone steps), which made it quick for her to reach the top which was a solid trapdoor. Gently testing it to make sure it wasn’t blocked, she set herself down on the staircase and pushed the trapdoor open so she could peek.
As promised this was the cellar of Honeydukes, filled with wooden crates and boxes labeled with the contents of what a well stocked sweets shop should hold. Alicia rolled clear of the trapdoor, using her power to lightly bring it down soundlessly (noticing it blended perfectly with the floor so that you’d have to have had actually climbed out of it to even know it was there in the first place). She quickly moved to the door, using another boost of power to make her robes shift into something more civilian in appearance so that she didn’t stick out (suddenly she stopped, shrugged, then pulled a short red headed wig and glasses from yet another tesseract pouch putting it on) (’Didn‘t get to wear it for Halloween so now is as good a time as any.’), then she quietly slipped into the crowd outside the door and completely blended in.
The place was so busy you could have easily walked off with half the stock from the storage room without anyone noticing, the whole place buzzed with business as all the students of Hogwarts were seemingly attempting to jam themselves into this one shop at once from the endless amount of student surrounding her. Quietly slipping to the back of the crowd (which was more concerned with getting towards the wares than who was moving out of their way) she took a quick look about the room before exiting, noticing a few of her classmates but no Hermione or Ron. Oh well, she mused silently, they’ll be somewhere in town so it shouldn’t be too hard to find them. Deciding to come back later for a few purchases (on her way out) she left the store and began wandering the streets of Hogsmeade.
To Be Continued
Friday, February 09, 2007
CardCaptor Sakura Remastered II Episode 7 (10)
Fuu (the maid) lets Eve into the house, and she’s lead into the kitchen where Keiko is waiting. “Did anyone arrive yet? I thought we had an invitation to dinner tonight.”
Eve - “Mostly because I volunteered to cook, remember?” (sighs) “They’re still out and Tomoyo hasn’t checked in yet in the holochamber below (or so the readings say) so we’re mostly alone except for Fuu and Light/Dark. Everyone else is out.”
Keiko - “Right.”
Eve - “Something wrong?”
Keiko “What?” she jumps abit, looking nervous. “What’s wrong? There’s nothing wrong with me. Nothing‘s wrong.”
Eve looks at her severely. “You can’t fool me. I know you better than that, remember?”
* * * * * *
Anarchist looks about and checks her hand pistols again before moving. “Oh, the fun places I’d go in my life… right.” she mutters, walking down one corridor and ducking into a room to wait for Sakura.
Sakura watches as one of the creature briefly steps into the open, then vanishes off the board again as she blasts it. Sakura slumps her shoulders looking weary as she looks about, wondering where the next enemy might come from. She reaches for one door hand slowly reaching for the knob as she watches about.
“SAKURA STOP!!”
Suddenly she freezes, hand jolting backwards as it brushes the doorknob, the door disintergrating at the slightest touch. “WHAT?!?”
“Ooops.” Anarchist’s voice echoes in her mind, “You must have triggered one of Maze’s traps! Lucky you you weren‘t holding that when it went bam like that!”
Sakura - “TRAPS?!?”
Anarchist - “Uh-huh. Nasty little buggers all over the place. And, worst yet, it would drain you abit if you were caught by it.“
Nina (voice booming) - “How the hell do you know about that?!“
Anarchist - “…no reason…“ (sighs at smoking hand) “…no reason whatsoever.“
Sakura - 4000LP
Anarchist - 3275LP
* * * * * *
Eve - “This has something to do with Piccadello, doesn’t it?”
Keiko - “It’s not what you think---” (sighs) “---I just don’t want to be near her now.”
Eve - “I know your disappointed with me, and I’m sorry I am such a disappointment…”
“It’s not like that,” Keiko reprimends her, “I could never be disappointed of you, you‘re my one and only remember? It‘s not that.” (Keiko’s shoulders slump as she leans on the dining table) “You don’t understand. It‘s something that happened during our relationship. I‘m… just feeling inadequate because of it.”
Eve - “Are you angry with me because of it?”
For the longest time Keiko neither moves nor speaks, but finally “I don’t know what the hell I’m feeling right now. Jealous, angry, embarrassed, humiliated, I just don’t know. I wish I could put a finger on my heart and tell you what I’m feeling but it’s a hard thing to decipher my own feelings, let alone express them out loud.“ (Keiko leans back) “I feel ashamed, yet I don’t even know why I feel this way. Am I’m afraid she’ll want to try to pick up where she left off, try to take you from me… am I really that petty…”
Eve kisses Keiko on the lips. “Do you want her to act on these feelings?”
“No, but I don’t want you to be hurt if you’d rather be with her than me. I don’t know---”
Eve - “Let me worry about that. You just keep being the sweet lover I always cared for---” (a slight beeping noise catches their attention) “---Tomoyo’s here. Guess we better head down and tell her…”
Keiko - “I guess.” Reluctantly the two get up, and holding each other’s hand the two walk towards the staircase leading down to the holochamber below them.
* * * * * *
“That’s not fair!” Nina yells, “You didn’t warn her!”
Anarchist shakes her hand as feeling returns to it, “Why should I? If she can’t handle little twists like that she might as well stop being a Card Captor if the slightest wrong turns throws her off her game -- (damn that smarts!)”
Nina - “But---”
“I’m not thrown yet!” Sakura growls. “Might as well be because I think I got the hang of this, but first…” she quickly spins about and shoots down a corridor, the sound of something dying in the distance echoing in her ears. “Thanks, Rebecca.”
Sakura - 4000LP
Anarchist - 3200LP
“Aww!” Nina scoffs, “Did the little girl not like that little twist in the plot?”
“SHUT UP!!” Anarchist yells, picking herself off the ground (the creature shot was standing in front of her and knocked her over on it‘s death) “That had to be a fluke.“ she grumbled to herself, “No big loss. I can get back into this with a little…” (shoots another monster as it tries to get the drop on her) “…effort.”
A new creature moves up to cut Sakura off from walking down the corridor, but is stuck in the doorway it tried to come through to sneak attack Sakura (making it visible to Sakura in the progress). She easily shoots it and moves on.
Sakura glances about the corridor trying to find Anarchist as she does. Left, right, left, right, above her Nina and Rebecca glanced around the board nervously.
“I saw her somewhere on that side of the board.“ Nina called out from above, her voice booming as she did, “Watch it! She could be any--“
Suddenly the world goes bright as something plows into Sakura and knocks her over and over head over tails until she rolls into a wall and unconscious.
Nina - “SAKURA!!”
Rebecca - “Damn.”
Everything blacks out.
Anarchist - “Your turn, but I’m getting close to nailing you. That was only a distant shot, nowhere near as powerful as it could have been.”
* * * * * *
Tomoyo took the news rather well, for someone who started to frantically yell for Sakura to be found safe and sound. As she sat on the holo-suite’s bed she began to think back to when she told Sakura…
Flashback (Tomoyo)
“Your going on a business trip?” Sakura asked, cuddled in Tomoyo’s arms as they sat in the holochamber (set to a duplicate of New King Penguin Park at night), “It won’t be for long, and I’ll be back before you know it… and we can use this room to keep in touch in realtime, be together even over a great distance. That way it softens the blow of the trip a little bit.”
“I wish I could go with you.” Sakura whispered softly. “Somebody has to stay to get my studywork so I don’t fall behind.” Tomoyo announced, rubbing her cheek to Sakura’s cheek, “I wish I didn’t have to go, I hate to see you so depressed when I leave on these trips.”
As Tomoyo looks up at the sky above she holds Sakura a little tighter in her arms, “It’s been quite sometime since we swore our hearts to each other, and longer since the day you returned my love for you and we started to build our lives together. Yet still, despite the time that passed, it still kills me every time we have to separate even for a short time. I know I have to, but I can’t help missing you. I’m so happy. I love you so much I can’t bear being apart from you. But I had to go on this trip, and it was quite productive when I participated in the release of the Sakura movie in America--- (strange that it’s dream continent is named the same as the real thing).”
“Why the past tense?” Sakura asked.
Tomoyo - “Because it’s past for me already and I’m back in your arms. Going there tomorrow is just a formality, because I’m already by your side again and that’s what truly counts.”
End of Flashback (Tomoyo)
Eve & Keiko collapse on the bed. Tomoyo looks at them oddly. “Did I say that out loud?”
“What do you think?” Keiko grumbles under her breath, “Go on, make us feel like we’re invisible why dontcha---” (Keiko checks the monitoring station she set up on one side of the room to watch for Sakura) “Nina & Rebecca are still incommunicado, where are they---” (stops) “---they must be with Sakura, but what is she doing…”
Tomoyo suddenly gasps, “I remember where Sakura said she was going today!”
* * * * * *
Sakura slowly pulls herself back onto her feet, shaking the dust out of her head as she did. She stumbles into a room… then silence… then she exit’s the room and simply sits down crosslegged in the middle of the corridor, and waited. Anarchist stares in disbelief, pondering Sakura’s strategy. ‘Oh who am I kidding?’ she thinks to herself, ‘She’s just tired of getting her butt kicked about. There’s no real strategy here, dammit! She’s too thick skulled even now to be of much threat. Too easy.’
Shuffling feet signals that Anarchist was moving, but Sakura couldn’t see what’s going on. She sweats a little as she waits for the noise to stop before moving.
“Alright, fine then tough girl.’ Anarchist thought as she drew closer to Sakura, ’Let’s see what your playing.’ And with that she steps out in front of Sakura and aims to finish her.
* * * * * *
Keiko rolls one of the spare hover cycles off of the huge tech shuttle Nina keeps parked in the backyard of the Daidouji residence as Eve approaches her. “I called her school, and they said her practice ended quite sometime ago. Nina’s command center also stated that she & Eliza left sometime ago, but Eliza hasn‘t seen her since she went to Cherry Hill Temple. Also I checked with Trinity and she doesn’t know where Rena is.”
Keiko nods, “Then Tomoyo had it dead on. I’ll go over to the Cherry Hill Temple like Tomoyo recommended, they should be there now.”
Eve - “Should I call in Command Tokyo?”
Keiko shakes her head in the negative, “Not yet. Nina’s going to blow a gasket if we called this into her superiors.” (gets on hover cycle) “Let’s keep this under wraps for the time being until I find out what’s going on. I’ll keep in constant contact. Otherwise I’ll be right back ASAP.”
“Good luck---” Eve silently whispers as Keiko takes off out of the estates’ grounds and onto the streets, the cycles hover engines on full power.
* * * * * *
Sakura did not move, she simply stared at Anarchist without flinching.
“I thought you were supposed to be all that and here you are waiting for me to plug you!“ Anarchist complained, waving her gauntlet arm at her in a huff. “Come on, twitch or something! You can’t be tired already!!“ Silence. “Well? Say something!” Silence.
Finally Anarchist hisses once and aims at Sakura, “Forget it already! Just drop!”
Near point blank she shoots, and is too close to dodge as the shot reflects back and hits her fully, throwing her to the ground hard as “Sakura” shatters back into water.
“Screw you!” Nina cheers from the sideline. “SAKURA Do it! Waste her!!”
Sakura pokes her head out of the door and shoots, taking Anarchist point blank range and knocking the slowly rising woman down again hard.
Sakura walks over (over the loud booming protests of Nina) and holds her hand out to Anarchist, “Please, let’s not fight anymore. I just want to capture the---”
“SHUT UP!!” Anarchist screams, aiming her own gauntlet up towards Sakura’s head, “Give me one good reason not to cave your fricking head in damn you!!“ As Sakura watches her, she can only sigh. “Is it me---” Nina starts motioning towards the scene below, “---or is this all too unreal? I mean, Sakura’s suddenly all tough girl Rambo one minute then Pollyanna let’s all be friends the next. What’s up with that?”
“How the hell should I know.” Rebecca replies honestly, “What’s with you anyway, while I’m on the topic? You suddenly defending the Snoozer like that? I thought you hated her guts?”
Nina - “Eck. It’s a weird day so I figured why bother staying in character.”
Rebecca - “Oh.”
Anarchist fires point blank range, missing once again as Water springs forth and shields Sakura, bringing a rageful scream from the Assassin. “You cheated! That ring!! You don’t get the cards, I’m NOT giving them to you!!“ (fires again) “BITCH!! BITCH!! BI--“
To Sakura’s surprise, Big moves forward placing her hand on Anarchist, holding her down and stopping her attacks. “Goddess…” Anarchist cries, Big picking her up and bringing her close, “Help me Willow… please help me…”
‘---Big’s helping her?’ Sakura thinks to herself, ‘Could they be---’
“Wait! Time out! I want to talk about this!”
Everything stops.
* * * * * *
Maze returns Sakura and Anarchist to their normal sizes.
Sakura - “Your in love with Big aren’t you.”
Both Nina & Rebecca look over at the two in surprise. “But she’s so much bigger than her!” Nina cries out, “Are you serious?!?”
“So what?!” Anarchist screams out, turning to hold Big to herself (looking abit weird this smaller tough woman being hugged by this tall almost mystical looking being, seeming rather fragile next to her. “I’m the only one she really talks to. And she’s the only one who really wants to be with me, listen to me---”
Nina - “Oh please don’t say it, for god’s sake don’t say it.”
Anarchist - “Make love to me.” (Big blushes abit as she holds her smaller lover tightly, nodding her head in the affirmative)
“I SAID NOT TO SAY IT!!” Nina screams.
Sakura - “Pheew?”
Nina - “Phew? Is that all you can say?” (Nina huffs her annoyance at Sakura) “A minute ago you couldn’t stop being vocal but now it’s phew? Sheesh!”
Rebecca points at her head, “Eliza stopped talking to me in my earpiece.”
“WHAT?!?” (everyone falls over, but Nina is up first) “WHEN DID YOU FIND THE TIME---”
“Actually Eliza wanted me to tell her if they sold Fairy adult sex aides here so she could surprise Nina and I said probably not but I’ll check so she wired me for sound and---”
Nina - “Since when did Eliza wire YOU for sound?!?” (silence) “This is a shrine, not an adult novelty shop! They don’t sell---”
“Yes they do.” (Everyone looks over at Anarchist) “That’s why we were here--- lover girl here needed a little more lovin’ when we---”
Nina - “I SAID NOT TO TELL US THE BLOODY DETAILS!!!” Nina screams (again). “So Eliza’s been spying on this the whole time and you couldn’t say a word about it because…“ (silence) “…what.“
Rebecca - “It has a vidlink and she’s watching--- now she’s apologizing because she realizes Nina found out and she only wanted to get that special fairy lubricant--- now she’s yelling at me to shut up because she doesn’t want me to air their sex lives and--- OUCH!!” (pulls earpiece) “She yanked the plug! Ouch! The feedback shriek hurts!”
Nina - “I really don’t blame her for being pissed at you. Even I don‘t talk too much about our sex lives.” Nina laments, to which everyone does a group sigh.
Anarchist butts in, “I don’t care what you do with the others, but don’t seal Willow! I love her!” (Big tries to move towards Sakura but Anarchist holds onto her tight) “Don’t leave me alone--- don’t--- don’t---”
Sakura - “Willow?”
“It’s Winterian.” Rebecca points out to Sakura, “Big is a close approximation to the Winterian word “Willow”, or to be more precise, “Pu”---”
Nina - “DON’T FINISH THAT SENTENCE EITHER!!” (Nina) “I know what “Big” means in Winterian!! Don‘t say--”
Sakura - “I don’t. What does it---” (Nina/Rena) “ASK TOMOYO!!”
“----” Nina takes her stuff back and gives Sakura her key. She charges it up and regards the three. “Clow cards return to your power confined---” (Anarchist holds Big tighter, crying) “Maze card! Little card---” (stops, looking at the two) “Big card, return your power to me--- and be free.”
With that Sakura seals Big’s power, but leaves her intact. Big, smiling (and blushing a little) takes the smaller Cyberroid into her arms and holds her tight, rocking her tears away (her legs dangling in the larger woman’s arms).
“DAMMIT ANARCHIST! DON’T YOU DARE HURT--- her and--- oh for god’s sake is that Madison? What the hell is she doing?!?” (looks at the Cyberroid and former Clow card together) “---oh for crying out loud that’s disturbing to look at!”
Rebecca shakes her head, “I don’t get it.”
Nina shrugs, “I never took Maddy to be a closet macro-philia type--- think that’s what it’s called-- anyone know what’s the name for someone with a taste for large things. Large bods, breasts, legs and---”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” Keiko/Rebecca blandly hiss point blank at Nina.
* * * * * *
Sakura couldn’t get into Tomoyo’s arms fast enough.
As the two held each other, Sakura couldn’t help but feel abit ashamed for Tomoyo worrying about her. Upside everyone sits around (Keiko picked up takeout on the way home) and talks. “Guess I’m not the one then.” Madison (Anarchist) remarks, reaching over to touch Willow (Big)’s shoulder as she eats her first solid meal. “What do you mean?” Nina asked, “Your not the one what?”
“Guess I can tell you since everything turned out alright.” Madison (Anarchist) remarked, “When I first began to fall for Willow I sought the advice of a friend I knew who had this pipeline to the future thing or something (probably born in the 24th Century or something). Anyway, she told me someone with an unrequited love she could never fulfill would shape the destinies of all those touched by the cards. I thought that was a remark about me losing Willow, but since I didn’t lose her it’s obviously not me.”
Keiko falls into a deep thought process, “Shape the destinies of all those touched by the cards? What the heck does that mean.”
“Beats me.” Madison said offhandedly, “She was a little vague on the details (then again she’s always vague on the details). She did help me find Maze & Little though, and taught me about the Clow cards and then I--- well, you know the rest.”
Keiko - “You know what that means?”
“Sorry, Keiko,” (Eve shrugs) “Never heard of it before.”
Keiko - “Rebecca?”
Rebecca - “Do I look like a wandering fortune cookie to you? N-O, I don’t know what that means.”
Keiko - “Maybe someone else will know.”
Rebecca - “Yeah, whatever… somebody pass the soy sauce please.”
* * * * * *
The next day
Sakura’s school, the school library.
“Why are you laughing at me?” Ms. Mitsuki slaps Keiko on the back a few times as she laughs, “You NEVER ask me about the future before and now you do and even I don’t know what your talking about!”
Keiko - “Well that’s a first…” (stifles a few more laughs) “Your actually clueless about something… (if this wasn’t so dreadfully important I’d laugh more at your expense).”
“Whatever.” (Ms. Mitsuki pats Keiko on the head) “You’re a good girl. Sit. Stay. Stop that.” (then she leaves, Keiko facefaulting as she does) “Whattya think I am? A puppy? Cut that out damn you!!”
Eve - “So you didn’t find out anything?” (Eve steps in from the shadows) “You know I didn’t find out anything since you were standing there listening---” (sighs) “---she creeps me out. Always so cheery and manipulative and bouncy happy and scheming! It’s like a bad cross between a stereotypical bubbly anime girl and a Ferengi! Disturbing to say the least!”
Eve - “She manipulating?”
Keiko - “She’s not entirely honest and always has three cards up her sleeve, in a sense, so I say that if anything is a sure sign of manipulation if I ever saw one.”
Eve - “Still crossing your fingers and hoping for the best with this job, aren’t you. You haven’t changed one bit, Keiko.”
The two spin around, coming face to face with Catherine. “See you in class, Keiko.” Eve calls out as she leaves Keiko huffs her breath, “Speaking of people that creep me out---”
* * * * * *
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean.
Tomoyo finishes packing her bags and smiles, helping take them down to the limo.
“Miss Tomoyo? We’re taking down twice as many bags as we started with!”
Tomoyo nods her head as she packs the last bag, “I got some costumes from the Studio that they weren’t using anymore! I’m going to use them to make Sakura-chan a whole new set of costumes! She’s going to be so cute in the new designs I want to try out I can’t wait to get home and start making them!”
Her bodyguards sweat drops as the elevator doors close.
To Be Continued
Eve - “Mostly because I volunteered to cook, remember?” (sighs) “They’re still out and Tomoyo hasn’t checked in yet in the holochamber below (or so the readings say) so we’re mostly alone except for Fuu and Light/Dark. Everyone else is out.”
Keiko - “Right.”
Eve - “Something wrong?”
Keiko “What?” she jumps abit, looking nervous. “What’s wrong? There’s nothing wrong with me. Nothing‘s wrong.”
Eve looks at her severely. “You can’t fool me. I know you better than that, remember?”
* * * * * *
Anarchist looks about and checks her hand pistols again before moving. “Oh, the fun places I’d go in my life… right.” she mutters, walking down one corridor and ducking into a room to wait for Sakura.
Sakura watches as one of the creature briefly steps into the open, then vanishes off the board again as she blasts it. Sakura slumps her shoulders looking weary as she looks about, wondering where the next enemy might come from. She reaches for one door hand slowly reaching for the knob as she watches about.
“SAKURA STOP!!”
Suddenly she freezes, hand jolting backwards as it brushes the doorknob, the door disintergrating at the slightest touch. “WHAT?!?”
“Ooops.” Anarchist’s voice echoes in her mind, “You must have triggered one of Maze’s traps! Lucky you you weren‘t holding that when it went bam like that!”
Sakura - “TRAPS?!?”
Anarchist - “Uh-huh. Nasty little buggers all over the place. And, worst yet, it would drain you abit if you were caught by it.“
Nina (voice booming) - “How the hell do you know about that?!“
Anarchist - “…no reason…“ (sighs at smoking hand) “…no reason whatsoever.“
Sakura - 4000LP
Anarchist - 3275LP
* * * * * *
Eve - “This has something to do with Piccadello, doesn’t it?”
Keiko - “It’s not what you think---” (sighs) “---I just don’t want to be near her now.”
Eve - “I know your disappointed with me, and I’m sorry I am such a disappointment…”
“It’s not like that,” Keiko reprimends her, “I could never be disappointed of you, you‘re my one and only remember? It‘s not that.” (Keiko’s shoulders slump as she leans on the dining table) “You don’t understand. It‘s something that happened during our relationship. I‘m… just feeling inadequate because of it.”
Eve - “Are you angry with me because of it?”
For the longest time Keiko neither moves nor speaks, but finally “I don’t know what the hell I’m feeling right now. Jealous, angry, embarrassed, humiliated, I just don’t know. I wish I could put a finger on my heart and tell you what I’m feeling but it’s a hard thing to decipher my own feelings, let alone express them out loud.“ (Keiko leans back) “I feel ashamed, yet I don’t even know why I feel this way. Am I’m afraid she’ll want to try to pick up where she left off, try to take you from me… am I really that petty…”
Eve kisses Keiko on the lips. “Do you want her to act on these feelings?”
“No, but I don’t want you to be hurt if you’d rather be with her than me. I don’t know---”
Eve - “Let me worry about that. You just keep being the sweet lover I always cared for---” (a slight beeping noise catches their attention) “---Tomoyo’s here. Guess we better head down and tell her…”
Keiko - “I guess.” Reluctantly the two get up, and holding each other’s hand the two walk towards the staircase leading down to the holochamber below them.
* * * * * *
“That’s not fair!” Nina yells, “You didn’t warn her!”
Anarchist shakes her hand as feeling returns to it, “Why should I? If she can’t handle little twists like that she might as well stop being a Card Captor if the slightest wrong turns throws her off her game -- (damn that smarts!)”
Nina - “But---”
“I’m not thrown yet!” Sakura growls. “Might as well be because I think I got the hang of this, but first…” she quickly spins about and shoots down a corridor, the sound of something dying in the distance echoing in her ears. “Thanks, Rebecca.”
Sakura - 4000LP
Anarchist - 3200LP
“Aww!” Nina scoffs, “Did the little girl not like that little twist in the plot?”
“SHUT UP!!” Anarchist yells, picking herself off the ground (the creature shot was standing in front of her and knocked her over on it‘s death) “That had to be a fluke.“ she grumbled to herself, “No big loss. I can get back into this with a little…” (shoots another monster as it tries to get the drop on her) “…effort.”
A new creature moves up to cut Sakura off from walking down the corridor, but is stuck in the doorway it tried to come through to sneak attack Sakura (making it visible to Sakura in the progress). She easily shoots it and moves on.
Sakura glances about the corridor trying to find Anarchist as she does. Left, right, left, right, above her Nina and Rebecca glanced around the board nervously.
“I saw her somewhere on that side of the board.“ Nina called out from above, her voice booming as she did, “Watch it! She could be any--“
Suddenly the world goes bright as something plows into Sakura and knocks her over and over head over tails until she rolls into a wall and unconscious.
Nina - “SAKURA!!”
Rebecca - “Damn.”
Everything blacks out.
Anarchist - “Your turn, but I’m getting close to nailing you. That was only a distant shot, nowhere near as powerful as it could have been.”
* * * * * *
Tomoyo took the news rather well, for someone who started to frantically yell for Sakura to be found safe and sound. As she sat on the holo-suite’s bed she began to think back to when she told Sakura…
Flashback (Tomoyo)
“Your going on a business trip?” Sakura asked, cuddled in Tomoyo’s arms as they sat in the holochamber (set to a duplicate of New King Penguin Park at night), “It won’t be for long, and I’ll be back before you know it… and we can use this room to keep in touch in realtime, be together even over a great distance. That way it softens the blow of the trip a little bit.”
“I wish I could go with you.” Sakura whispered softly. “Somebody has to stay to get my studywork so I don’t fall behind.” Tomoyo announced, rubbing her cheek to Sakura’s cheek, “I wish I didn’t have to go, I hate to see you so depressed when I leave on these trips.”
As Tomoyo looks up at the sky above she holds Sakura a little tighter in her arms, “It’s been quite sometime since we swore our hearts to each other, and longer since the day you returned my love for you and we started to build our lives together. Yet still, despite the time that passed, it still kills me every time we have to separate even for a short time. I know I have to, but I can’t help missing you. I’m so happy. I love you so much I can’t bear being apart from you. But I had to go on this trip, and it was quite productive when I participated in the release of the Sakura movie in America--- (strange that it’s dream continent is named the same as the real thing).”
“Why the past tense?” Sakura asked.
Tomoyo - “Because it’s past for me already and I’m back in your arms. Going there tomorrow is just a formality, because I’m already by your side again and that’s what truly counts.”
End of Flashback (Tomoyo)
Eve & Keiko collapse on the bed. Tomoyo looks at them oddly. “Did I say that out loud?”
“What do you think?” Keiko grumbles under her breath, “Go on, make us feel like we’re invisible why dontcha---” (Keiko checks the monitoring station she set up on one side of the room to watch for Sakura) “Nina & Rebecca are still incommunicado, where are they---” (stops) “---they must be with Sakura, but what is she doing…”
Tomoyo suddenly gasps, “I remember where Sakura said she was going today!”
* * * * * *
Sakura slowly pulls herself back onto her feet, shaking the dust out of her head as she did. She stumbles into a room… then silence… then she exit’s the room and simply sits down crosslegged in the middle of the corridor, and waited. Anarchist stares in disbelief, pondering Sakura’s strategy. ‘Oh who am I kidding?’ she thinks to herself, ‘She’s just tired of getting her butt kicked about. There’s no real strategy here, dammit! She’s too thick skulled even now to be of much threat. Too easy.’
Shuffling feet signals that Anarchist was moving, but Sakura couldn’t see what’s going on. She sweats a little as she waits for the noise to stop before moving.
“Alright, fine then tough girl.’ Anarchist thought as she drew closer to Sakura, ’Let’s see what your playing.’ And with that she steps out in front of Sakura and aims to finish her.
* * * * * *
Keiko rolls one of the spare hover cycles off of the huge tech shuttle Nina keeps parked in the backyard of the Daidouji residence as Eve approaches her. “I called her school, and they said her practice ended quite sometime ago. Nina’s command center also stated that she & Eliza left sometime ago, but Eliza hasn‘t seen her since she went to Cherry Hill Temple. Also I checked with Trinity and she doesn’t know where Rena is.”
Keiko nods, “Then Tomoyo had it dead on. I’ll go over to the Cherry Hill Temple like Tomoyo recommended, they should be there now.”
Eve - “Should I call in Command Tokyo?”
Keiko shakes her head in the negative, “Not yet. Nina’s going to blow a gasket if we called this into her superiors.” (gets on hover cycle) “Let’s keep this under wraps for the time being until I find out what’s going on. I’ll keep in constant contact. Otherwise I’ll be right back ASAP.”
“Good luck---” Eve silently whispers as Keiko takes off out of the estates’ grounds and onto the streets, the cycles hover engines on full power.
* * * * * *
Sakura did not move, she simply stared at Anarchist without flinching.
“I thought you were supposed to be all that and here you are waiting for me to plug you!“ Anarchist complained, waving her gauntlet arm at her in a huff. “Come on, twitch or something! You can’t be tired already!!“ Silence. “Well? Say something!” Silence.
Finally Anarchist hisses once and aims at Sakura, “Forget it already! Just drop!”
Near point blank she shoots, and is too close to dodge as the shot reflects back and hits her fully, throwing her to the ground hard as “Sakura” shatters back into water.
“Screw you!” Nina cheers from the sideline. “SAKURA Do it! Waste her!!”
Sakura pokes her head out of the door and shoots, taking Anarchist point blank range and knocking the slowly rising woman down again hard.
Sakura walks over (over the loud booming protests of Nina) and holds her hand out to Anarchist, “Please, let’s not fight anymore. I just want to capture the---”
“SHUT UP!!” Anarchist screams, aiming her own gauntlet up towards Sakura’s head, “Give me one good reason not to cave your fricking head in damn you!!“ As Sakura watches her, she can only sigh. “Is it me---” Nina starts motioning towards the scene below, “---or is this all too unreal? I mean, Sakura’s suddenly all tough girl Rambo one minute then Pollyanna let’s all be friends the next. What’s up with that?”
“How the hell should I know.” Rebecca replies honestly, “What’s with you anyway, while I’m on the topic? You suddenly defending the Snoozer like that? I thought you hated her guts?”
Nina - “Eck. It’s a weird day so I figured why bother staying in character.”
Rebecca - “Oh.”
Anarchist fires point blank range, missing once again as Water springs forth and shields Sakura, bringing a rageful scream from the Assassin. “You cheated! That ring!! You don’t get the cards, I’m NOT giving them to you!!“ (fires again) “BITCH!! BITCH!! BI--“
To Sakura’s surprise, Big moves forward placing her hand on Anarchist, holding her down and stopping her attacks. “Goddess…” Anarchist cries, Big picking her up and bringing her close, “Help me Willow… please help me…”
‘---Big’s helping her?’ Sakura thinks to herself, ‘Could they be---’
“Wait! Time out! I want to talk about this!”
Everything stops.
* * * * * *
Maze returns Sakura and Anarchist to their normal sizes.
Sakura - “Your in love with Big aren’t you.”
Both Nina & Rebecca look over at the two in surprise. “But she’s so much bigger than her!” Nina cries out, “Are you serious?!?”
“So what?!” Anarchist screams out, turning to hold Big to herself (looking abit weird this smaller tough woman being hugged by this tall almost mystical looking being, seeming rather fragile next to her. “I’m the only one she really talks to. And she’s the only one who really wants to be with me, listen to me---”
Nina - “Oh please don’t say it, for god’s sake don’t say it.”
Anarchist - “Make love to me.” (Big blushes abit as she holds her smaller lover tightly, nodding her head in the affirmative)
“I SAID NOT TO SAY IT!!” Nina screams.
Sakura - “Pheew?”
Nina - “Phew? Is that all you can say?” (Nina huffs her annoyance at Sakura) “A minute ago you couldn’t stop being vocal but now it’s phew? Sheesh!”
Rebecca points at her head, “Eliza stopped talking to me in my earpiece.”
“WHAT?!?” (everyone falls over, but Nina is up first) “WHEN DID YOU FIND THE TIME---”
“Actually Eliza wanted me to tell her if they sold Fairy adult sex aides here so she could surprise Nina and I said probably not but I’ll check so she wired me for sound and---”
Nina - “Since when did Eliza wire YOU for sound?!?” (silence) “This is a shrine, not an adult novelty shop! They don’t sell---”
“Yes they do.” (Everyone looks over at Anarchist) “That’s why we were here--- lover girl here needed a little more lovin’ when we---”
Nina - “I SAID NOT TO TELL US THE BLOODY DETAILS!!!” Nina screams (again). “So Eliza’s been spying on this the whole time and you couldn’t say a word about it because…“ (silence) “…what.“
Rebecca - “It has a vidlink and she’s watching--- now she’s apologizing because she realizes Nina found out and she only wanted to get that special fairy lubricant--- now she’s yelling at me to shut up because she doesn’t want me to air their sex lives and--- OUCH!!” (pulls earpiece) “She yanked the plug! Ouch! The feedback shriek hurts!”
Nina - “I really don’t blame her for being pissed at you. Even I don‘t talk too much about our sex lives.” Nina laments, to which everyone does a group sigh.
Anarchist butts in, “I don’t care what you do with the others, but don’t seal Willow! I love her!” (Big tries to move towards Sakura but Anarchist holds onto her tight) “Don’t leave me alone--- don’t--- don’t---”
Sakura - “Willow?”
“It’s Winterian.” Rebecca points out to Sakura, “Big is a close approximation to the Winterian word “Willow”, or to be more precise, “Pu”---”
Nina - “DON’T FINISH THAT SENTENCE EITHER!!” (Nina) “I know what “Big” means in Winterian!! Don‘t say--”
Sakura - “I don’t. What does it---” (Nina/Rena) “ASK TOMOYO!!”
“----” Nina takes her stuff back and gives Sakura her key. She charges it up and regards the three. “Clow cards return to your power confined---” (Anarchist holds Big tighter, crying) “Maze card! Little card---” (stops, looking at the two) “Big card, return your power to me--- and be free.”
With that Sakura seals Big’s power, but leaves her intact. Big, smiling (and blushing a little) takes the smaller Cyberroid into her arms and holds her tight, rocking her tears away (her legs dangling in the larger woman’s arms).
“DAMMIT ANARCHIST! DON’T YOU DARE HURT--- her and--- oh for god’s sake is that Madison? What the hell is she doing?!?” (looks at the Cyberroid and former Clow card together) “---oh for crying out loud that’s disturbing to look at!”
Rebecca shakes her head, “I don’t get it.”
Nina shrugs, “I never took Maddy to be a closet macro-philia type--- think that’s what it’s called-- anyone know what’s the name for someone with a taste for large things. Large bods, breasts, legs and---”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” Keiko/Rebecca blandly hiss point blank at Nina.
* * * * * *
Sakura couldn’t get into Tomoyo’s arms fast enough.
As the two held each other, Sakura couldn’t help but feel abit ashamed for Tomoyo worrying about her. Upside everyone sits around (Keiko picked up takeout on the way home) and talks. “Guess I’m not the one then.” Madison (Anarchist) remarks, reaching over to touch Willow (Big)’s shoulder as she eats her first solid meal. “What do you mean?” Nina asked, “Your not the one what?”
“Guess I can tell you since everything turned out alright.” Madison (Anarchist) remarked, “When I first began to fall for Willow I sought the advice of a friend I knew who had this pipeline to the future thing or something (probably born in the 24th Century or something). Anyway, she told me someone with an unrequited love she could never fulfill would shape the destinies of all those touched by the cards. I thought that was a remark about me losing Willow, but since I didn’t lose her it’s obviously not me.”
Keiko falls into a deep thought process, “Shape the destinies of all those touched by the cards? What the heck does that mean.”
“Beats me.” Madison said offhandedly, “She was a little vague on the details (then again she’s always vague on the details). She did help me find Maze & Little though, and taught me about the Clow cards and then I--- well, you know the rest.”
Keiko - “You know what that means?”
“Sorry, Keiko,” (Eve shrugs) “Never heard of it before.”
Keiko - “Rebecca?”
Rebecca - “Do I look like a wandering fortune cookie to you? N-O, I don’t know what that means.”
Keiko - “Maybe someone else will know.”
Rebecca - “Yeah, whatever… somebody pass the soy sauce please.”
* * * * * *
The next day
Sakura’s school, the school library.
“Why are you laughing at me?” Ms. Mitsuki slaps Keiko on the back a few times as she laughs, “You NEVER ask me about the future before and now you do and even I don’t know what your talking about!”
Keiko - “Well that’s a first…” (stifles a few more laughs) “Your actually clueless about something… (if this wasn’t so dreadfully important I’d laugh more at your expense).”
“Whatever.” (Ms. Mitsuki pats Keiko on the head) “You’re a good girl. Sit. Stay. Stop that.” (then she leaves, Keiko facefaulting as she does) “Whattya think I am? A puppy? Cut that out damn you!!”
Eve - “So you didn’t find out anything?” (Eve steps in from the shadows) “You know I didn’t find out anything since you were standing there listening---” (sighs) “---she creeps me out. Always so cheery and manipulative and bouncy happy and scheming! It’s like a bad cross between a stereotypical bubbly anime girl and a Ferengi! Disturbing to say the least!”
Eve - “She manipulating?”
Keiko - “She’s not entirely honest and always has three cards up her sleeve, in a sense, so I say that if anything is a sure sign of manipulation if I ever saw one.”
Eve - “Still crossing your fingers and hoping for the best with this job, aren’t you. You haven’t changed one bit, Keiko.”
The two spin around, coming face to face with Catherine. “See you in class, Keiko.” Eve calls out as she leaves Keiko huffs her breath, “Speaking of people that creep me out---”
* * * * * *
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean.
Tomoyo finishes packing her bags and smiles, helping take them down to the limo.
“Miss Tomoyo? We’re taking down twice as many bags as we started with!”
Tomoyo nods her head as she packs the last bag, “I got some costumes from the Studio that they weren’t using anymore! I’m going to use them to make Sakura-chan a whole new set of costumes! She’s going to be so cute in the new designs I want to try out I can’t wait to get home and start making them!”
Her bodyguards sweat drops as the elevator doors close.
To Be Continued
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.png)
Posts
