Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction / Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Urbania ❯ Revolution: Empathy ( Chapter 8 )

Ryo couldn't find solace within his happy home, so he left in his jogging suit to walk Riley.

He thought hard about his actions and his words around Serena and the other Women. Was he wrong to think what he had been taught was correct? Should he reform? He took Riley on one side of the street and they ran. He really couldn't think; there was nothing to think about: he was a Man, they were his Women, and they were to obey him, no questions asked. He was supreme, their first and final authority. He knew exactly what Serena would say to that: "Forget you. I own me. Give me my lashes." He smiled. He only enjoyed giving her whippings for one reason: he liked looking at her beautiful backside, which her knew had been healed by Dorothy's cream. He didn't say anything to Quatre or the other Guards, just because he wanted a secret. What a weirdo. He kept jogging. Riley was in good shape, supposedly not having lost a single fight. Ryo intended to put him right back in the business as soon as he felt like doing all that training. He knew about dog fighting. He used to raise fighting dogs when he was a teen. Ryo heard a car coming behind him, but didn't look back, assuming it to be a couple of Hunters on the prowl. They drove up beside and past him. There were two passengers in a Jeep, much favored by Hunters, and the passenger looked back at him. Ryo was surprised, almost stopping, but just slowing down. My God in Heaven, he thought, was that a Woman?! No, it couldn't have been. He shook the thought from his head, almost convinced that there were two Women driving that Jeep. But not even prostitutes have cars, Ryo reasoned with himself, jogging on. The mysterious car had stopped a bit up the road, and its contents were waiting for Ryo to pass by.

One of the Women, the navy haired, darkly-dressed driver, watched Ryo intently in the rearview mirror. The other, an auburn haired Woman with bright clothes, adjusted her side mirror to focus on Ryo. Both were approaching thirty, and could tell that Ryo wasn't anymore than twenty-two.

"What do you think about that butt, Patricia?" asked the passenger.

"Definitely a winner, Nadine." Responded the navy haired driver Patricia. Ryo had slowed down a bit, and passed by.

"Hey honey!" Nadine called. Ryo looked into the car's occupant's eyes with genuine shock.

"Hey baby, wanna have a little fun?" Patricia called enticingly. Ryo had enough of having Women. He ignored them.

"Hey sexy, what's wrong? Not Man enough to handle this piece?"

Ryo turned and looked at them. "Oh, I'm Man enough, Woman, I just don't think you're good enough to dock my ship in your harbor. Peace." He turned back to jogging. Patricia sped the car and swerved in front of him, blocking his path. Riley growled.

"What the hell,"

"What did you say to us?" Nadine demanded, standing up in her seat. "You don't talk to us like that?"

"What the hell do you mean I don't talk to you like that--?"

"You heard us, you bastard. You better learn some respect before be have to teach ya some!"

"Forget you, I don't have time to fuck around with whores-"

"WHAT?!" they exclaimed. "Take that back!"

"You're whores, and you better respect Men before you get punished-"

"Get him, Nadine," Patricia cut him off. In a partial second, Nadine whipped out a rifle-sized gun and shot Ryo.

"Ahh!" Ryo gasped, grasping his shoulder. He yanked something out of his shoulder. A dart with little frills. A tranquilizer. Ryo looked hard at the dart in his hand, not believing what he saw, and blacked out.

Cold seeped through Ryo's thin jogging suit and bit his skin. He realized he was laying down on the cold ground. He sat up quickly. He was grasping Riley's leash, but the end was severed and Riley was nowhere to be seen. Ryo looked around, completely disoriented. He stood up, and almost fell back down. He realized his clothes and hair were more ruffled than when he's gone out. He also realized something else-he was aroused, though he felt no real arousal. He just stood in the middle of the street, dumbfounded, alone, and in shock. Still holding Riley's leash, he dragged himself home, the leash trailing on the freezing ground below him.

Serena was coming out of her room with a scrap of paper with measurement listings when Ryo opened the door to the resident hall. Serena looked at him. He looked like he had seen a house full of ghosts. He stumbled, taking a host of unsure, ambling steps toward her, muttering with is eyes.

"Ryo?" worry lines drew in her forehead. Ryo wasn't looking at her or at anything. Every little noise echoed slowly and faded in the distance. He could feel himself getting lower and lower.

"Ryo!" Serena gasped, hurrying to the falling Man. She caught him, easing him down. He immediately grasped her waist and laid his head on her chest, shaking badly, and starting to go limp. Serena was getting scared.

"Ryo! Ryo! Speak to me! Ryo!"

Serena's voice was muffled. She sounded like he was underwater, a beautiful nymph, calling him to salvation.

Serena knew there was definitely something wrong. "Heero! Duo! Uh, Quatre! Trowa! Uh, Wufei! Help! Ryo's hurt! Help!"

Ryo's Guards came charging out of the kitchen, swallowing bites of their lunch, and crowded Ryo, pushing Serena out of the way. They tried to revive him, then gathered him up and took him to his bed. Serena stayed with them, trying to get a look at what was going on. Heero took his hand and tapped his face.

"Rye, Rye, Rye, wake up, man, Ryo,"

"Get him some water," Quatre suggested. They all looked at Serena.

"GO!" she jumped on it, returning with a glass of water for an unconscious Ryo. Heero opened his mouth, letting in a few drops, and then dumped the rest on his face. Ryo snapped into consciousness. He huffed and puffed, looking around at colorful blurs.

"I'm going to get he doctor," Heero uttered, moving out of the room past Serena. Quatre and Trowa went elsewhere to get Ryo some stuff from the other Men in the community, and Wufei followed. Ryo and Serena were alone in their room. Serena fell to his side.

"Ryo, what happened?" she pleaded. Ryo seemed to focus and looked at her. He placed a finger over her lips.

"I'll tell you the truth later," he confided. Serena was a bit confused, but didn't have any time to object before Trowa burst in the room with a hot compress. He pushed Serena out of the way and dabbed Ryo's forehead.

"Get out," Trowa muttered to Serena. Serena stood up, looking down at Ryo for any sign that he wanted her to stay. His expression was too blank. She left, staying outside the door. Heero rushed in a few minutes later, a tall, fair-haired doctor at his side. Serena opened the door for them, letting herself in as well. The doctor sat in Serena's vanity chair beside Ryo and pulled out his stethoscope. Ryo gave Heero and Trowa a 'get out' gesture. They obeyed, pulling Serena with them.

"No, stay Serena," Ryo called weakly. They let go of her and left. The doctor got Ryo to pull of his shirt.

"What happened?" the doctor asked. The doctor had a whispery, almost seductive voice. Ryo glanced at Serena, and spoke, straining his voice,

"I was out jogging. I fell and landed on a needle and hit my head. My dog got away."

"Mmm-hmm," the doctor examined the small, purple would Ryo was pointing to. He rubbed a cotton swab with a soothing disinfectant on the site. Ryo winced as the doctor rubbed it with a sterile swab. He dipped it in a test tube with a clear solution. The solution turned green.

"A tranquilizer looks to be, a maybe a bit of hormone. You know what was in the needle?"

Ryo was very sarcastic. "Heroin. I think maybe that was the last one I used four years ago and threw away, coming back to haunt me."

The doctor smiled. He pulled a bottle of pills from his bag. "Take two with breakfast and dinner. You'll be fine in two or three days." Ryo nodded. The doctor set his pills on Serena's vanity stand.

"Thanks, Doc," Ryo said. The doctor faced Serena.

"Make sure he takes that medicine." He reinforced. Serena nodded, looking deep into his eyes.

"Do I know you?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know, what is your name?"

"Serena Tsukino."

"Hmmm, I don't believe so."

"Who are you?"

"Doctor Trieze Khushrenada."

He had changed, but Serena recognized him now. Serena's heart was beating all over the place, and her emotions screamed different things at her. Ryo was laying there, suffering on the bed, ready to confide in her having just lied to a doctor of all people. But now, that was Heero's duty. She was going to get out…….wasn't she?

"Can I walk you to your car?"

"Well, I didn't drive myself. That fellow Heero brought me in his car. I'm sure he wouldn't object to you just riding back with us, little lady."

Hope dripped out of Serena. She saw the doctor out to Heero's car and returned to Ryo's side with a broken heart. She wondered if this was what it was like to be broken. She felt the break coming on. She eased down slowly at Ryo's side.

Ryo was staring strait ahead, a pillow under his shoulders and a pillow under his head. "Is the door closed?" he asked softly.

"Yes," Serena confirmed, "tight."

"Hold my hand," he requested, lifting his hand as if it were a great effort. She laid his hand in hers and covered it with the other. She looked down on him and he sighed.

"I was out jogging," he started, "And I noticed this Jeep go past me. There were two prostitutes driving it, but I didn't believe what I saw until I was right beside them. They started cat-calling me and I was like 'What the hell, I'm a man!" but it didn't stop there: we traded insults until they got super pissed and pulled a gun on me. They hit me with a tranquilizer dart and I was out cold. When I woke up I," Ryo squeezed his eyes, "I knew what they had done to me."

Serena shook her head. "What?"

"They raped me, Serena. I know they did. The doc said there was hormone in the wound. They raped me. I don't believe it."

Serena closed her eyes and hugged Ryo's hand to her face.

"Is it so terrible for Women?"

Serena didn't explode at this beyond-ignorant question as she thought she should, but she did nearly burst into tears, letting them slide down her flushed face, and whimper,

"I was chased down like a dog. The Hunters would only leave me be if I was a hooker. I was a virgin, Ryo, a virgin. They took me and treated me like a show dog. I was forced into a filthy bathtub of freezing water. It was filthy and freezing, there must have been ten Women before me that used that water to bathe. I got dirt and filth and horridness on me, perhaps from dogs, and still, they wanted to cut my hair," Serena started crying harder, "then I had to stand there, and let two evils bid on me. Until that moment, I was very naïve, because I didn't know that life had a cash value. I had no idea. But them I found out. And I was devastated, Ryo, devastated. I ran away because I thought that maybe I could find a place where it was politically correct to be a chaste Woman. I was so wrong, so wrong." Serena sucked up the rest of her tears and stood. "Now you know what it feels like to be as worthless as the five thousand dollars you threw away on me." She turned to leave.

"Wait, Serena," Ryo called. Serena stopped with her hand on the door. Ryo stood out of bed as if nothing had happened to him, and slowly went to Serena.

"Look at me," he whispered. Serena reluctantly faced him. He stood over her, his muscular frame hiding her frailer one from the room. He laid his hands on her shoulders, and slid them down, knocking his forehead against hers. He rolled his head up, rolling hers up as well, and slipped his lips in the break of her lips. Serena kissed back, her forearms rising to hold his elbows and bring his arms closer. Ryo kissed her deeper. Serena pushed him back with a sigh.

"I have chores to do."

"You don't have to do them anymore," Ryo immediately began to kiss her again. She turned her head.

"Those cars don't wash themselves," she muttered, opening the door and going out. Ryo didn't move.

Once out, Serena clapped a hand over her mouth to keep her from exploding with laughter. She was just as hopelessly confused about Ryo as Ryo was hopelessly confused about her.