Crossover Fan Fiction / Bleach Fan Fiction / Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Aint Nothing But Magick (reverse) ❯ 18 ( Chapter 18 )

Title: Ain't Nothing But Magick (Reverse)

Author: J'dee, Mabelle, & Tobias

Rating: PG-13 some smoking and drinking refs…

Genre: Drama / Humor/ Action / Adventure / Romance

Author's Note: The original ANBM was a fic where 25 authors + were pulled in to the DBZ/GT world, the reverse is just that… a reverse where a select number of anime characters are yanked in to the real world, with not a true reason why, and no idea how to get back to their home…

 

 

Chapter 18

 

“Little Washu?”

 

Silence was Shinji's only response. He closed the door into Washu's lab and headed in further. He titled his head and thought he heard the sounds of some one typing rapidly to his left. He headed in that direction, and after weaving through a maze of large incubator tubes, he saw Washu sitting on her cushion, typing away furiously on her holo-computer. There were discarded cans and food wrappers all around her.

 

“Little Washu, its time to eat.” Shinji said gently. He got no response as Washu continued to work away. She let out a snarl and furiously tapped her screen, and it moved up, joining what looked like hundreds floating above her, and brought up a new one. She began to type furiously again.

 

“Washu.” Shinji said again, worry in his voice. He came up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. Washu jerked, startled, and swung around on her pillow.

 

“Shinji! What are you doing here?” She asked, surprised. Shinji noticed she had bags under her eyes, and her hair was disarrayed.

 

“Little Washu, it's time to eat. You've been in here too long as it is.” Shinji said gently. Washu sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

 

“Later Shinji. I've grabbed a bite occasionally since the transfer failed yesterday. I need to finish what I'm working on.” Washu said, turning back to her computer.

 

“Yesterday? Little Washu it's been a week since the accident.” Shinji said, becoming even more concerned. Washu froze, just before she was about to start work again.

 

“A week?” She muttered weakly, glancing at her calendar. She felt this wave of fatigue hit her as she saw Shinji was right.

 

“Yes, and you need to have something real to eat.” Shinji scolded, gently toeing a can. “Then you need to get some sleep.”

 

“I can't. I have to figure out what went wrong. All my calculations are spot on! I even compared the energy readings I monitored from the alchemists into the equations. Test after test, simulation after simulation, everything says it should have worked. I should have an eleven year old boy growing in a tank, but I have nothing!” Washu snarled, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. Shinji glanced over at her incubator tubes and noticed one did have something in it. He paled when he saw it.

 

“What about those?” He asked, his stomach rolling. Washu opened her eyes and saw where his gaze was directed.

 

“Replacement limbs for Edward Elric. I was going to surprise him when they came to collect Alphonse today. That way both boys could go home whole and safe, and I failed!” Washu snarled.

 

“You said it yourself that nothing went wrong.” Shinji said. “It's just one of those things that happens.”

 

“Like with your mother?” Washu snapped and regretted it the moment she said it. Shinji paled a bit before giving a sheepish smile.

 

“Yes, like my mother.” He whispered. “But while I miss her I know why she did it now. She said something to Professor Fuyutsuki that I would never have known if I hadn't watched the End of Evangelion movie of Toby's. And it fills me with hope.”

 

“What did she say?”

 

“When the Earth, the Moon and the Sun are all gone, EVA will exist, so long as one person remains. It'll be lonely, but as long as one person still lives it will be eternal proof that Mankind ever existed.” Shinji quoted. “It makes me smile because she basically told me and any one else that as long as we're alive and remember that person they'll always exist.”

 

“Shinji…” Washu said, tears welling up in her eyes. Shinji reached out and hugged her.

 

“Its okay, Little Washu.”

 

And that is how a 15 year old comforted a goddess that had failed.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Belle woke up with a familiar feeling in her throat! In a flash, she raced out of her bedroom, shoving past Grimmjow as she dove for the toilet. Slamming the bathroom door shut behind her, Belle fell to her knees in time to vomit. Belle choked on last night's midnight snack as it came back for a visit.

“Miss Belle, are you alright?” Hakkai asked and Belle felt a sob rise in her throat as well as another helping of her previous night's snack. After the first wave died down Belle managed to call back.

“I'll be fine, Hakkai,” she moaned as she held her own hair back and leaned back from the toilet. For the last week she had been waking up in time to vomit from her memories.

The next morning, after the transmutation, Belle, Roy, and Ed had called everyone into the kitchen for a meeting. Belle had been sitting, freshly awake and showered at the table while Ed and Roy had stood to either side of her.

“There's been an accident,” Roy said, the Shinigami, Sanzo party, Outlaw Star crew, and all the others seemed call. “Alphonse is dead.” The room exploded. Mel had apparently befriended the large armor boy at the cook-out while the shinigami had been training with him behind the building.

“How?” was all J'dee asked, her voice that hollow tone of someone in shock.

“We tried to bring him back,” Edward whispered. “It didn't work.” Belle had gotten up to hug Edward to her. The boy had woken up screaming that morning and Belle was hesitant to leave his side since.

“His seal was destroyed,” Roy explained, dropping the empty armor helmet onto the table. The empty clang echoed in Belle's ears and she had run to the bathroom to vomit then.

Since that morning, Belle had woken up from each night's sleep with the memory of the empty helmet and Alphonse's sweet voice begging for his mother. Belle gagged before leaning over the toilet and spitting out bile.

“Hey girl,” J'dee said as she opened the door and sat down on the edge of the tub. “How you feeling?”

 

~*~*~*~

 

With the “death” of Al, J'dee had been so shocked that she didn't notice Zack missing until that night when he normally landed on her balcony.

 

She had moved out to lean on the railing and look up at the sky, something she found herself doing more and more lately.

 

J'dee had waited for five hours for Zack to return, but nothing. Her worry had filled her completely that she had written a note to Tseng to add to the package Zack told her to send two days after he had sent the DVD to them.

In it she had shoved her shrink wrapped Aerith dress and jacket before heading out to post them.

 

Of course she had been stopped at the elevator by Armstrong. He had tagged along. She hadn't said a word just hugged the package as she walked down the dark street. She didn't want to worry them about Zack he was like a stray animal at times, like Grimmjow he came and went as he pleased but like a stray she worried that he had gotten hurt.

 

Her letter to Tseng had asked if Zack showed up there to leave her a message on the notice board and to contact her that way, she would head out and check it every night until she knew Zack was okay.

 

J'dee had headed out to Seventh Heaven early this morning, a week after Zack's disappearance and in her hand she held an envelope with Aerith's name written on it. She was about to open it when she saw Gojyo on their balcony and she looked round. Since Zack had vanished she had no one to hide from when Gojyo and Havoc paid house calls. Once again she got herself stuck in a situation with two men but unlike her previous times they knew of each other and sometimes their arguments and fights would get too much, and then there were days where the two would just be out on the balcony smoking like nothing had happened. Clutching the letter she decided to wait till she was alone to open it.

 

It was then she heard the sound of vomiting from the bathroom and her heart sunk, she couldn't bother Belle with her worry. Her best friend was sick with grief well that's what J'dee wanted to believe. But she hoped that her friend wasn't turned in to the modern day equivalent of the Virgin Mary from crossing the magic of alchemy with science. She hated the use of science and magic. To her even though alchemy was considered a science she was raised with the gypsy equivalent which made it magic to her. The one thing you never crossed was magic and science the results were playing God, she abhorred men playing God.

J'dee placed the envelope in her pocket heading to the bathroom.

 

J'dee slipped in to the bathroom looking at Belle worriedly before perching on the edge of the bath watching as her best friend hugged the toilet while spilling out the contents of her meal and snacks from last night.

“Hey girl.” She smiled warmly. “How you feeling?” She asked.

Belle looked up at her and J'dee just gave her a comforting smile. “You won't choke… I'm here I've got a few first aid certs to prove that. Besides who would help me with my mission to get a surveillance camera put in Roy's bathroom before he gets one in ours.” She joked.

Belle gave her a look and J'dee smiled warmly at her and rubbed her back.

“You vomit like a pregnant woman. Trust me I've known a few.” J'dee waved her hand about. “At least you throw up slightly quieter.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

Belle laughed at J'dee as her friend did her best to help her avoid the usual upset Belle got over the suffocation feeling from her sickness in the mornings.

“Of course you couldn't be pregnant,” J'dee laughed and Belle laughed too as she pressed her temple against the side of the sink. Then the image of the alchemic circle on her lower stomach came to mind. She stopped laughing quickly.

“Get Gojyo, Ikkaku, and Yumichika, I need to go to the store,” Belle hissed as she looked at her friend. J'dee got a confused look on her face.

“Why?” she asked before noticing the look on Belle's face. “How could you be…”

“Alchemy,” Belle sighed as she quickly began brushing her teeth.

“You're the boss,” J'dee said as she headed out. Belle sighed as she spat out the toothpaste before brushing one more time to get the pile out of her mouth.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Zack hung from the wall the shackles they'd cleverly created to withstand a SOLDIER's true strength held him there. He was no longer aware of how much time had passed in this prison, there was no window there was no fresh air. He hadn't seen the sun in any of the time he'd spent here.

The three of them had taken turns in torturing him. Trying to force him to kill Aerith, they had threatened the Cloud card several times but he had yet to see the blonde, to have Cloud shown to his face.

He was supposed to be dead wasn't he? Then why did he feel the pain of hunger? Why did he feel the concern for J'dee's well being? Wondering why she hadn't tried to call him, not that he could answer, or even check his pockets to see if he indeed had his cellphone still on him. How could he feel this pain?

 

The memories of nights spent with these assholes. The burns from the woman, the feeling of the dagger trimming the flesh from his stomach in to ribbons by the twisted one, the constant dripping of water he could not drink by their leader.

Closing his eyes he felt guilty he had left her confused and decided to chase the hope the dream that Angeal had returned to help him. But finding out it was their fabrication after all, made him never want to help them.

 

Zack glanced up at the ceiling he knew he was trapped in a cell inside a cave somewhere. The door was the only modern feature. But he wondered where the white feather that had filled him with hope had come from, it wasn't them, they had admitted it wasn't them. He was in their custody; they had no reason to continually lie about that. It was probably fluke luck that it fell at that moment. But there was not a single bird in the sky and there were several feathers.

“Angeal… what do I do now?” He pulled at the chains.

His exhaustion, his tortured mind, soul and body matched with fatigue had affected his strength. He couldn't escape now any more than he could when he had been brought here how ever many days ago.

Letting his body fall limp he was only partly aware of the door opening, his eyes flickered up for the moment and he stopped.

 

The woman in tanned leather pants, a beige colored woman's singlet top that clung to her curvy frame, she wore a black jacket tied round her waist, on her fingers and wrists were several silver chunky pieces of silver jewelry. Her waist supported a large chain belt to which an extended part hung brushing her right hip. She wore black stiletto boots in to which the leather pants were tucked.

She was a looker Zack gave her that, in the kind of I'll kick your ass kind of way. But it was her hair that got him. It was green, Zack knew in this world and his own green was not a normal hair color.

 

Walking up to him the woman who looked like she was from a biker movie stopped in front of him, he felt the long nail run down the side of his face over the cross shaped scar he got from the battle with Angeal.

“So we finally meet Zack Fair.” She smirked at him.

Zack could do nothing but look at her blinking, green hair deep brown eyes like he was looking in to the Earth itself. He could only ask one question.

“Who are you?”

She smiled at him knowingly and he was sure for a moment in her silence she was going to deny him an answer. But she surprised him by replying.

“They call me Earth.” She looked to the door.

Zack's gaze followed hers and he stopped seeing the leader of the trio standing there. “He is Water…” She added.

Zack blinked and looked to her. “The other two?”

“The woman is Fire and the other is Air.” Earth replied.

Water walked inside. “Sorry to call you in like this but he's been refusing to co-operate. We wanted your assistance before we move on to phase two of his re-education.”

Earth stood up. “Has he seen the leverage yet?”

“No not yet, we were waiting for our power to return.” Water replied. “It got depleted after we captured Vash the stampede.”

Earth stood up. “So you now have Cloud, Hohenheim and Vash… You want to go for the next target and send Zack on to his re-education program? This is why you need me.”

“Four makes a circle.” Water remarked.

“Indeed it does.” Earth looked to Zack.

He looked at the woman and she smiled at him. “Get Air to bring in Cloud...”

“Don't you FUCKEN DARE!” Zack pulled at the chains and he was aware of the creak of metal as it bent suddenly.

 

Before he knew it, Earth had him slammed up against the wall her hands interlocked with his and he felt her mouth moving under his ear.

“All it took for me to revive you was some rust from Angeal's sword and a handful of dirt from the spot where you died. The rest I left up to them. So do behave before I bury the Aerith of this world where you died in equivalent exchange.”

Zack froze as he felt the mouth moving over his slowly, he wasn't sure what she was doing but he felt the change instantly as she pulled back from the forceful kiss. He dropped in the chains, his body feeling several times heavier.

“They say the body weighs more after death.” Earth remarked nonchalantly. “From the Earth you were created to the Earth you return.” She walked towards the door.

Zack stared on after her and he looked at Water for a moment.

Water pulled at his hood shooting Zack a glare. “You deserved that. How hard could it be to kill one single woman?” He seemed to smirk. “Be glad Earth didn't deposit maggots in your mouth like the poor bastard she stole the power from.” He added walking out the door, leaving it wide open like a torment that his freedom was so close, yet so far away.

“Bastards.” Zack grumbled.

Air moved standing in the doorway. Zack blinked for a moment as the blue eyed blonde stared him down, and then he felt it the air being pulled from the room, like it was being sucked in to the demon with a human form.

“Sleep tight… pointy. I'm going to enjoy making you watch as I torture Cloud.”

Zack fought unconsciousness as the oxygen to breath was pulled from the room. Blinking a couple of times he felt his head drop his heavy and air starved body finally choosing to shut down in to darkness.

 

~*~*~*~

 

The small group was walking around the drug store when Belle casually walked around the sex supply aisle, on one side were the sex aids, condoms, and other things and on the other side were the douches, fertility tests, and the pregnancy tests. As expected Gojyo began to browse which caught Ikkaku's attention and then Yumichika's as he went to belittle Ikkaku.

“Almost too easy,” Belle muttered as she grabbed one of the nicer brands of pregnancy tests and slipped it into her basket. “Yumichika get the idiot twins.” She grabbed a box of tampons further down the aisle to make it seem like they had made a scene for a reason.

“You're like Roy evil,” J'dee stated and Belle smiled.

“Awww, thank you, just remember I'm not a pervert,” Belle giggled and J'dee laughed.

“Not at all,” J'dee snickered.

 

~*~*~*~

 

J'dee waited till Gojyo went back to playing his video game in the lounge with the depressed Ed who hadn't left their apartment since the whole ordeal with Alphonse.

She slipped to the balcony and pulled the letter out of her pocket and she flipped it open pulling the tidy piece of paper out she saw it was expensive note paper and the letter head had her swallowing hard.

 

“Ha! Take that shorty, I got your ass!” Gojyo shouted from inside.

J'dee stopped looking over her shoulder seeing Gojyo and Ed playing their game, she watched as Gojyo whooped as he won and Ed set the ps2 controller down.

The teenager caught her eyes for a moment and she understood that look, it was loss and it was grief, it was everything she had suffered in the past two years. She had felt truly cursed back then she lost so many in that one year. It was too much death but what do you say to someone who looses family close family he felt responsible for?

“Ed…” She whispered sadly.

He turned round limping on the crutch in to the kitchen and she watched as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before knocking it back.

If he was older the way he slammed it back she was sure it would have been straight vodka, but he wasn't like her brother. He was someone else's brother.

J'dee moved inside slipped up to Ed and she wrapped her arms round him, he froze in her arms for a moment.

“J'dee…”

“If I hear anything regarding Alphonse I'll let you know.” She whispered.

Ed looked up at her and blinked for a moment confused.

She touched the side of his face. “Belle didn't tell you… But I have an ability to get messages from… them.” She let him go.

Ed looked up at her. “Have you heard anything?” He asked.

“Not a peep… but head up good news is coming soon… that's what they've said.” She moved from Ed walking to the balcony.

“Have you told Zack about it yet? I haven't seen him around.” Ed called out after her.

“I sent him a text, since he wasn't answering his phone.” She looked at the letter eyes falling over the monogram again.

“Yo where did the puppy vanish off too?” Gojyo asked.

“Chasing a hope…” J'dee replied.

Gojyo looked over as Goku entered the apartment. “Oiy, monkey! You. Me. This. Now. I need to kick another midget's ass.”

“Shut the hell up you pervy water sprite.” Goku snapped slumping down and grabbing the remote.

 

J'dee waited till they distracted before turning her attention back to the letter.

“ShinRA… Electric Company.” She ran her finger over the monogram. Her eyes flickered over the words, the high loop and tidy handwriting had her in awe, she couldn't handwrite to save herself, she could print tidy enough but her handwriting looked like it was another language. But this, for someone like her who read, predicted people from handwriting samples it was straight forward and to the point.

 

Aerith…

 

Is that what I should call you… or do you prefer J'dee?

I regret to inform you that Zack has not made an appearance or return here.

I understand that Tifa believes Cloud to be trapped in your world.

So I propose this to you…

We will look for Zack while you find Cloud.

 

Inform us the instant you locate him.

Tseng, Reeve and Vincent have all reported similar activities of this world regarding the balance of the life stream. I don't need to tell you something is going to happen and soon.

We will need Cloud back before that moment occurs.

 

Rufus ShinRA

President of ShinRA Electric Company

 

J'dee folded the letter up blinking for the moment. “The life stream is unbalanced… Tch… when is it ever balanced.” She looked up to the sky.

Letting out a sigh she watched the white clouds float over the blue horizon.

“Zack… You better be okay.”

Turning round J'dee slipped inside to check on Belle and the pregnancy test. She didn't need to be told that Belle was pregnant. Her senses her guides and Belle's ones were all telling her the same thing.

Alphonse was inside her growing…

 

~*~*~*~

 

Belle sighed as she entered the bathroom, the pregnancy test carefully hidden in her sweatshirt's pouch. It had been easy enough for J'dee to distract the guys at the checkout so that she could pocket the test, now was the real test. Belle opened the box and then stared at the little piece of white plastic. She held it as she read the instructions.

“Great, pee in the little window,” Belle mumbled. “Like I can aim.” After that awkwardness was over Belle sat on the edge of the tub and stared at the floor counting to sixty. She was at three hundred-twenty-four when J'dee knocked.

“You okay in there?” she asked and Belle realized she wasn't.

“Come in,” Belle sighed as she unlocked the door. J'dee entered quickly and looked at Belle.

“So?” J'dee asked and Belle groaned as she sat back on the edge of the tub.

“I haven't looked,” Belle sighed.

“Why not?” J'dee screamed and Belle glared at her friend.

“Isn't it obvious?” Belle asked and from the look on J'dee's face, it obviously wasn't. “If I'm pregnant, that's great, it's probably Alphonse, but if I'm not than…he's really gone J'dee.” J'dee hugged Belle tightly before walking over to look at the test.

“Girl, you should be proud, the first pregnancy without sex to happen in the modern world,” J'dee said with a grin and Belle laughed. “Unless they let virgins do that artificial insem-a-thing.” Belle laughed more as she cried slightly.

“No, they discourage virgins from doing that,” Belle laughed as she hugged J'dee before crying in relief.

 

~*~*~*~

 

J'dee lay on her bed after the news, it was good, and it was Alphonse she had heard it was him… but still that was one missing member accounted for. They were still short another.

J'dee sent another text message to Zack's phone; it vibrated to say it was sent.

J'dee's face moved to the pillow as she looked to the window. She just kept expecting to see Zack pop up on the balcony with that carefree smile and lean in the doorway looking incredibly hot like he always did.

J'dee pushed herself up off her bed and she moved to her laptop and sat down she flipped through her Final Fantasy VII pictures.

 

She looked at the gif as it flickered over.

Aerith's image with the words. “A good friend will bail you out of jail.” It flickered to a picture of Rude. “A true friend will stand by you muttering: Well, we fucked that up didn't we?” Then the white background with the text. “Of course if your friends happen to be one Turk and one SOLDIER…” The cheeky image of Reno flickered on the screen. “Reno will be passed out drunk next to you minus his trousers with a daisy stuck up his nose.” Then the grinning image of Zack flickered with the text. “And Zack will be grinning on your other side, yelling `WHOO HOO that was fun!'”

 

J'dee flopped back in the seat her hand moving to her face. “Zack… I hate waiting and worrying about you.” She whispered. “It's too similar to back then…”

 

~*~*~*~

 

Belle sighed as she buried the box, test, and instructions under the other trash in the bathroom garbage before putting the lid back on. No intruding guests would see it until Belle was certain and could announce the truth. She washed her hands before noting that the apartment was strangely quiet. Belle noted that both Goku and Gojyo were asleep in the living room.

With light footsteps Belle knocked on J'dee's door. The redhead opened and Belle grabbed her wrist before silencing her with a finger to the lips. The two women crept out of the apartment and down to Belle's car. The men would be pissed but Belle wanted to make sure that she had some good news to share. Best she get her news verified by the visiting genius with bright pink hair.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Deciding now would be the opportune time, with Shinji distracted with Washu, Misato snuck into Tobias's office-slash-library.

 

Not that she needed to sneak, they all had a standing invitation to use it but Misato didn't want anyone to know she was in here, especially with her nefarious intentions. Brandishing her stolen steak knife, Misato began to go to work on the lock on the center drawer of Tobias's desk. She worked diligently, like the woman on a mission that she was. Finally, the knife slid over the lock and Misato pried it open with a loud crack.

 

“Ha! I wasn't A Captain in Nerv for nothing!” She crowed to herself, and set her knife aside, yanking the drawer the rest of the way out. She immediately snatched up her prize, the picture he had hidden away in his desk. Grinning triumphantly, she turned it over and froze. Her smile slipped from her face and she sat down heavily in Tobias's chair as her legs went weak.

 

Tobias and her with a baby? But how? When? Misato's brain felt fuzzy as she tried to process the picture. Beneath each person at the bottom, Tobias had written something.

 

Me, Jim, & Misato.

 

“Jim, as in Jim Hawking?” Misato whispered. She traced a finger over the sleeping baby. “Then Jim gave him this picture.”

 

She was a mother. In another world, she was a mother.

 

Misato placed a hand over her scar and smiled softly. Jim was her son. The Angels may have taken it away from her but somewhere else God had smiled on her and given her a baby.

 

“Oh, Toby, did you hide this because you were worried how I would take it?” Misato muttered. How sweet and stupid of him. Sighing, she set it down with a smile. Well Tobias may not have been there but she could certainly make Jim squirm a bit now that she knew. Feeling better, she went to close the desk drawer when she saw two envelopes inside. Picking them up she frowned, puzzled at the labels.

 

If They Find Out and Two Months Deadline?

 

Giving into her curiosity, Misato opened the first one.

 

~*~*~*~

 

“So Washu should be able to tell me the two things I need to know,” Belle said to J'dee as they headed to Toby's. “One, am I really pregnant and two, is it really Alphonse.”

“Good thinking,” J'dee grinned. “You do know that the guys are going to freak when they realize that we're not in the apartment?”

“Yep, but this is nothing but a hunch, until it's verified, I don't want to give Edward false hope,” Belle sighed. “I'm just glad Toby's not home for once; I wouldn't want to have to explain why Washu was examining me.”

“True that,” J'dee snickered. “Knowing him, he'd be thinking something perverted.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

Zack was coming through slowly, his body felt even heavier; he looked to the side tiredly, in time to catch Air clasping Cloud in place to the wall with similar chains.

“Cloud…” He groaned.

“Nnnnngh.” Was the only response he got.

Zack felt the panic tear at his heart. He noticed that Cloud seemed to be soaked through like he had been submerged in some kind of liquid.

“What did you do to him?!” Zack exclaimed.

“Nothing he was floating in some tube of stuff Water had.” Air shrugged. “Beats me what the crap was… Hohenheim and Vash are in them as well.” He added casually.

The long haired blonde stepped back from Cloud.

Zack looked to Air as he moved to the door shutting it.

“Earth has given me permission to break him, I succeed I get to pick the next target.”

“Target?” Zack looked to Air.

Air grinned. “The next sucker we're going to yank to this world for the merger.”

Zack found his worried glance return to Cloud who only groaned as if he was fighting the unconscious state of his body.

 

Zack turned to look at Air as the blonde hovered over him. He blinked as he felt the hand move up his throat slowly, the touch against his neck made him shudder as if a cold breeze was deposited down his throat.

“Even though Aerith, Kyoko, J'dee, Misaki and Kougyoku are part of the same soul as what I originated from I have to admit… they're all lookers wouldn't you agree?”

“I wouldn't know I never meet Misaki or Kougyoku.” Zack replied.

He cringed as he felt something inside his throat tighten and he tried to swallow to force the blockage down. It was an odd feeling uncomfortable sitting right behind his voice box.

“You remember your life time with Kyoko then?”

“No… J'dee told me when I confessed I wanted her to remember her Aerith lifetime… That it is best not to remember past lives. There are things you shouldn't remember. If we as humans had the ability to remember all of our previous lives then the guilt, hatred, need for revenge, loss of a loved one, memory of how we died. It would drive us to insanity.” Zack looked at Air.

Air grinned. “Yet she's allowed to remember?”

 

Zack glared. “That's because you're forcing her!” He snapped at the blonde.

“No… I'm not she's always had that ability in this life time, the ability to see and hear the dead and receive messages from them, on the whisper of the wind. Sometimes the wind carries the memories of previous incarnations too.” Air explained.

“Don't you dare use that to hurt her or so help you God I will-” Zack stopped dead as he felt something in the back of his throat

Zack gasped before sucking in air, there was something congested right in the middle of his throat and his eyes widened as he looked at Air.

“Should have told you I limited your minute's worth of sound left.” He chuckled. “I love to hear a man scream in pain in torture but with you shouting at me while I torture your friend it will ruin his agonizing screams… so short of a gag I decided to take the power of word from you, after all voices are carried on the air.”

Zack tried to shout at Air but nothing came out the only sound was that of the air rushing out of his mouth. He shook his head trying to move the blockage in his throat down if he could move it he could talk again… least he hoped so.

Air stepped back and he just laughed. “Oooooh this will be fun, when I'm done with spiky you're next.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

“She's sleeping.” Shinji replied. He stepped back and let the two women into the house. “She's been working herself ragged since the accident last week. She's barely eaten anything and hasn't slept since.”

 

“She hasn't?” Belle asked, and Shinji shook his head.

 

“Washu's blaming herself for what happened so she's been going over everything to try and fix it.” Shinji replied. Belle smiled softly and placed a hand on her stomach.

 

“This can wait then, she needs some sleep.” Belle replied and J'dee rolled her eyes.

 

“Sheesh, after we rushed over here we can at least wake her up to find out if-” J'dee was cut off as Belle clamped a hand over her mouth. Belle smiled innocently at Shinji's confused look.

 

“Female stuff.” Belle informed him and Shinji paled. He was saved from saying anything as the doorbell rang.

 

“That must be Gene and his crew. They were coming over to teach me how to shoot.” Shinji informed them, making a face at the thought of handling a real gun.

 

“Best to know something besides hitting people with fists.” Belle said wisely. Shinji sighed, getting up to answer the door.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Belle watched as the Outlaw Star crew entered and she smiled at Mel before looking at Jim.

“Did someone run over Gillian?” Belle asked and Jim shook his head.

“He's been upset since Toby left without saying goodbye,” Mel whispered and Belle nodded before walking over to Jim.

“If it makes you feel any better, the ass didn't say goodbye to J'dee or me either,” Belle stated. “We've known him for eight years and he couldn't even tell us about this. He's always doing stuff like this. He once went on vacation and when I texted him, he got annoyed I was bothering him while he was at a casino. Just watch, when he get's back I'll make him sorry.” Belle winked as there was a scream from down the hallway.

“That doesn't sound good,” J'dee stated and Belle nodded.

 

~*~*~*~

 

“The screamed sound like-” Belle began.

“A whodunit murder! I love those!” J'dee exclaimed.

Gene looked at her with flat eyes. “I doubt it is.”

“Suck.” J'dee huffed. “Maybe Misato saw a spider.”

“She's not you.” Belle retorted with a cheeky wink.

J'dee's arms flapped about. “Oh shut up it was big!”

“It was no bigger than the nail on my pinky and you ran and hid behind Roy demanding he burn it.” Belle added with a teasing smirk.

J'dee frowned. “I hate spiders okay! I'm not a girl in many things but at work, sex and spiders I am a definite girl so leave me alone okay?”

Shinji let out a breath. “I wonder what Misato found.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

“What happened? What is it?” Belle asked, surprised as Misato stormed out into the living room, her expression murderous.

 

“Who knew about this?!” She screamed at the assembled group. Everyone shot her concerned and puzzled looks. “So help me God if one of you knew I'll shoot you in the ass! Now who knew where Tobias was really going?”

 

No one spoke up but Shinji did get extremely pale. Unfortunately, Misato noticed.

 

“SHINJI!” She screeched, shocked. He was the last one she expected to hide it. “You knew?”

 

“Knew what?” Belle demanded. Misato shoved the letter at her as she advanced on her ward.

 

“Washu just told me he was going to help a sick friend! That's all I swear!” Shinji replied, panicked. Misato snarled.

 

“Then Washu was behind it?” Misato growled. “It figures, she'd be the only one who could have helped him with it!”

 

“Helped him with what?” J'dee asked, looking pale. Belle turned her gaze on the letter in her hands and began to read it out loud.

 

“To all my friends old and new,

 

I'm guessing the cat's out of bag. Either you figured it out or some one spilled the beans. Either way, you know I've taken Jehuty and left Earth-”

 

“HE WHAT?” Gene shouted.

 

“-and launched for Mars. Jehuty is severely short on power, and my joyride earlier didn't help much, since it had slight damage in its metatron conversion core. Without metatron power Jehuty will slowly shut down and ADA will die. I couldn't let that happen, not to anyone. So I came up with a plan. I'm trying to head for Mars on the odds that metatron exists here as well as in Jehuty's dimension. Unfortunately, I have no fuel for a return trip. If there's no metatron there, I'm toast.”

 

“That God damn stupid idiot!” Belle growled as her right eye began to twitch with a murderous tempo. J'dee took the letter from Belle's hands before she crushed it and continued reading while Belle snarled and shot the letter with evil looks. The temperature in the house seemed to drop drastically and everyone shivered.

 

“I know you're angry but I'd do the same for any of you, and I couldn't just let ADA die, A.I. or no. If all goes well it'll take me a day or two shy of four weeks to get there with the weak burn I had to make. The good news is if the metatron is there I can do a hard burn and be back a week after I get there. And I'll have enough metatron stored in Jehuty's vector trap to keep her running for hundreds of years!

 

I miss you guys already. Please don't be angry even though I know you will.

 

If I miss my deadline by three weeks open the second letter.

 

Take care you guys.

 

Your Friend,

Tobias Fiften”

 

J'dee finished reading it and bowed her head. She began to shake as the others either began to cry or get angry. She lifted her head, her eyes filled with tears but her expression angry. She turned and marched down the hall to Washu's room.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Belle's hands were clenching and unclenching in rage as she and J'dee marched side by side towards the unsuspecting scientist's room.

“I'm going to kill her!” Misato snarled and Belle grabbed her sisters in rage.

“No, we're going to make her tell us the what, the why, and the how,” Belle hissed as frost began to decorate the windows of the house. “Then we're going to kill her.”

“I like that plan,” J'dee agreed and Belle opened the door.

“Where did you find that?” Belle asked and Misato growled more.

“The office,” she snapped. Washu was sleeping snug in her bed, while visions of entrails danced in the trio's heads.

“WAKE UP!” Misato screamed and Washu shot up obviously disoriented.

“Come along,” Belle hissed as she grabbed Little Washu's shoulders and dragged her down the hallway. “You have some explaining to do. When did Toby leave for Mars?”

“Mars, he's visiting a…” Washu shut up when she saw the letter J'dee was waving in a not so friendly manner. “When we said he left for his friends.”

“Good now, how the hell did he manage that, I wonder?” Belle asked and Washu felt the room temperature plummet.

 

~*~*~*~

 

The technical jargon Washu was rambling in explanation of the when and how had J'dee's head throbbing. She found herself pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up in frustration at not understanding. Normally she didn't smoke inside other people's houses but this… it was too much.

“Just tell us in ENGLISH DAMNIT!” She snapped. “Before I go wiccan on your goddess ass!” She motioned at Washu with the cigarette.

 

A sudden wind slapped the side of the house causing it to rock for a moment causing several belongings stored on shelves to be knocked off on to the ground covering the floor space in paper and books.

 

~*~*~*~

 

“Don't you think you're overreacting a tad?” Washu pleaded. She yelped as J'dee and Belle both threw books at her in Tobias's now destroyed office. She ducked back behind Tobias's desk.

 

“NO! How could you Washu?!” Misato demanded, joining the fray and throwing things at the cowering genius. As the others egged them on, they added their own voices of disapproval.

 

“Look, he wasn't going to take no for an answer! If I didn't help him, he'd have launched without the safeties, living quarters and thousands of other redundancies we made for the trip! He's safer this way!” She pleaded from behind the desk. Things stopped flying at her and she peaked over the desk edge again. They were all glaring at her.

 

“That's not nearly as bad as lying to us about it! You and him both!” Jim snarled. There was silence for a minute.

 

“Okay, you're right that was my bad. But he asked me not too!”

 

J'dee snarled and went to pick up another book but Belle stopped her.

 

~*~*~*~

 

“Sadly, we can't kill her yet,” Belle snarled and J'dee nodded.

“Forgot,” she muttered and Belle shook her head.

“Washu come with me, J'dee and Misato can follow but the rest of you should wait here,” Belle stated as she turned. “I'd follow me if I were you, Little Washu; I'm the one standing between you and certain short-tempered vengeance.”

“Coming,” Washu quickly agreed and the four women headed to the barn in privacy.

“Scary,” Gene muttered under his breath as he watched them go. Jim nodded next to him.

“So explain, why are we not killing her?” Misato asked, cracking her knuckles loudly.

“Belle's pretty sure she's pregnant with Alphonse,” J'dee stated and Washu's eyes widened.

“Belle?” Washu asked and Belle nodded.

“I've been sick every morning, that's too early for a normal pregnancy but seeing as you gave me that shot and Roy and Ed did something with alchemy, I'm not ruling out an advanced early set,” Belle said. “I need you to do a scan to make sure I'm pregnant and to make sure it's really him.”

“No problem,” Washu cried as she donned a hopeful grin. Belle returned the expression but her eyes were still whispering vengeance.

 

~*~*~*~

 

The barn was pretty empty considering last time she had been in here with Jehuty standing there. She took a drag of her cigarette watching as everything was set in place for the tests.

Washu began working and preparing everything while J'dee smoked the rest of her cigarette before stubbing it out under the heel of her boot.

 

Walking over she went to look at the screen.

“Ugh your smokes don't normally smell that bad.” Belle curled up her nose, while waiting as Washu set up the examination table.

“Get used to it.” J'dee remarked. “You'll be getting a heightened sense of awareness, bright lights might hurt your eyes, your sense of smell will increase ten fold, you'll either hate or crave dairy and milk, face it bathroom breaks will be every ten minutes because baby is sitting on your bladder. Your appetite will drop to small portions, your weight might drop before baby fully forms and expect to cry at the drop of a hat over spilled milk.” She added.

Misato blinked looking at J'dee. “How?”

“My cousin was the first pregnant woman I dealt with, since her Belle will be the fourth pregnant woman I've had the pleasure of living with.” J'dee stated. “But I'm not playing mid wife got that.”

Misato shook her head. “How'd you find pregnant woman to deal with?”

“A pain in my ass…” J'dee replied.

She looked to where Belle's attention was now distracted.

It was then that J'dee noticed an arm and a leg floating in a tank filed with liquid.

“Dude what is it about crazy scientists and liquid tanks with people and body parts inside?” She asked.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Belle stared in amazement at the arm and leg floating in liquid next to the medical table.

“Are those for Edward?” Belle asked and Washu looked up before nodding.

“They were going to be a gift. A brother and some new limbs,” Washu stated and Belle prayed that it might come true. She lay back on the table Washu set up. Belle lifted up her shirt and pushed down her pants so that Washu could place the various electrodes here and there on her stomach.

“Here we go!” Washu cried as she began typing and then a large screen appeared. There was a small glob, it didn't look like much. Belle knew it was just the start of the embryo, she could only tell which side was the head side because the two tubes coming off of the globe were on the `lower' part of the embryo.

“It's so developed,” Belle muttered.

“That's the shot I gave you, it was for your benefit to produce an egg quickly, and the effects are probably wearing off. The shot was designed to advance your body several days in a few hours,” Washu explained and Belle nodded.

“Got you,” she whispered as she stared. Sure enough one side of the embryo was throbbing rhythmically. Alphonse's heart was already starting to beat. Belle's eyes welled up with tears. He was a tiny glob of cells barely more than a couple millimeters long, but he was there and his heart was beating.

“Scanning DNA now,” Washu said but Belle barely registered it as she watched that small lump on the front of the embryo move.

“Dear God, I've never seen anything so beautiful,” Belle whispered.

“What the hell is that thing?” Misato muttered as she stared at the screen and J'dee laughed. Belle joined in but she still thought watching a baby inside of her womb was the most wonderful thing she'd ever seen.

 

~*~*~*~

 

“Okay new plan.” Belle said, hands cupping her stomach as she stared at the screen showing Washu's scan of her stomach. She wiped her eyes clean and her eyes hardened back up.

 

“What's that?” Misato asked.

 

“Step one: get Washu to fix Edward.” Belle said. “Step two: Bring Al back as soon as possible.”

 

“Agreed.” Washu said, already working away to resolve that matter.

 

“And finally step three: kill Toby when he gets back.”

 

The room was filled with silence for long, long silence.

 

“Works for me.”

 

“Me too!”

 

“I'll break both of his damn arms!”

 

“And his legs!”

 

“And other things too!”

 

~*~*~*~

 

In space, Tobias sneezed as he felt a chill run up his spine.

 

 

To Be Continued…