Full Metal Panic Fan Fiction ❯ Distorted Fate ❯ Career Trajectory ( Chapter 1 )

Distorted Fate

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A Full Metal Panic story

By: A-Z Mark II

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Slowly, the sleeping figure on the messy bed stirred. Eventually, they opened their eyes - only to immediately groan, squeezing them shut again. “Ugh! I hate hang-overs,” muttered the figure, slowly sitting up, the sheet slipping off them as they did so. Grimacing a little, the woman stretched her arms over her head before once more opening her eyes. Glancing around the room, she scratched the back of her head for a moment. “My motel room, at least. And I don't see any signs of anyone else here, so I guess it is a case of all's well that ends well,” mumbled the woman, climbing out of bed and heading for the bathroom. Fumbling for the light switch, she was momentarily blinded by the flash of bright light. As her eyes adjusted, she paused, staring at her reflection in the mirror.

She slept naked - had for at least a decade - so it wasn't that which caught her attention. Rather, it was her image as a whole that made her pause. True, the effects of a hang-over were never pretty, and she was hardly ugly, but time had been creeping up on her for a while now, though she had tried to ignore it. Her hair was still a vibrant brown, though she no longer wore it in twin braided pigtails. Her glasses were somewhere - where she didn't know at the moment - and without them, she could see the signs of crow's feet at the corners of her eyes. A faint scar on her left cheek and jawline momentarily reminded her of her first visit to a war zone. Looking farther south, she frowned a little at her tan lines, but more so at the scars on her torso and arms. A pock-like scar here, a spidery web there, a dark wheal of the latest injury healing on her hip; it all added up.

Her stomach was still relatively trim for a woman her age, but wasn't as she last recalled it, slim, trim and young. Turning sideways, she eyed her reflection, and the small paunch it revealed. Scowling, she studied her bare ass. She was forced to conclude that it, too, was not as she recalled it, tight and sexy on her teenage body. Looking down, she saw more marks on her legs, reminders of what her life had become. Pushing back her memories, she started up the shower and stepped under the spray.

“Twenty year reunion,” she mumbled as she let the spray run over her back, easing the hangover and the faint pains that grew more and more noticeable as the years progressed. The day before had been her twenty year high school reunion; and the larger balance of the night was spent drinking with friends. Which explained her hangover. It hadn't been how she imagined it.

All her old friends had been there save the ones she wanted to see most. Ono-D, Shinji, Mizuki…even their old homeroom teacher Eri had been there. For the most part, they had not changed as far as their character went, though they all had kids now. That thought caused her to pause for a moment, absently touching her left ring finger.

Shortly after she graduated from Jindai High, she and Ono-D had been married. For three and a half years, it had been good, with her going to Todai and him working for a stable company after a two-year corporate training program. But then, things had begun to change. And the changes were mostly in her. She had enrolled in the photography program, but during her second year, she had switched to journalism. Her husband at the time had made assistant manager of a major department within the company, and had started talking about kids. For some reason, Kyoko just couldn't have that discussion with him. When she graduated with a degree in photo journalism, he had expected her to settle in and be the wife he expected. It didn't happen that way, and they both knew why.

Kaname Chidori.

Her disappearance just before the graduation ceremony had really done a number on the entire school - in more ways than one. Kyoko's finger traced her oldest scar: a bullet wound to the short ribs from a ricochet. She had gotten it the day her best friend had disappeared from her life; and apparently the entire world. Naturally, the walking natural disaster Sousuke Sagara had gone after Kaname, which left the rest of the school without any closure or answers. It was that lack of closure or understanding that ate away at Kyoko's mind and eventually destroyed her marriage to Ono-D.

What was supposed to be their fourth anniversary dinner had turned into an argument, and Kyoko had walked out. She hadn't come back. When Ono-D had finally managed to find her a month later, all she told him was she had mailed him divorce papers the day before and was headed out on assignment. That assignment was Himajistan, once more in a vicious civil war. Kyoko had taken the assignment for several reasons. First, it was her chance to get her foot in the door with a world-renowned journalism group, and then there was the fact that none of the more established journalist would go there after a group of journalists were savagely tortured, executed and their bodies desecrated. Also figuring in was that it was a way to get away from her failed marriage, but more so, she recalled an incident years before during which Kaname had told her that Sousuke had gone `home' to Himajistan. As with most things in the last three years she had known her best friend, she had been left with more questions than answers.

Kyoko had spent a year and a half in Himajistan, nearly three months of that a captive of a small faction of `freedom fighters' who were no more than territorial thugs using the civil war as an excuse to be thugs. It was her first time being kidnapped, beaten, raped and tortured, but she held out, and after the first couple of weeks, they began to open up to her in their own way. One night, she had gone to sleep after once more displaying her `love and loyalty' for the group by being gang-raped by the leader and his three closest followers, naked and sore on the filthy mattress that was her `place'. She woke up to find herself outside the hut, cleaned, bandaged and on an inflatable mattress, a blanket over her and a pillow folded twice so it cupped her cheek and neck. Blinking, she had heard helicopters approaching, and a moment later, a pair of helicopters had flared over the small village of crude huts, disgorging a group of Special Forces operators, who swiftly stormed the village.

On the way back, she had learned a few interesting facts. First, everyone in the group that had kidnapped her was already dead when the Special Forces arrived. Secondly, the military had been alerted to her location by a rogue radio signal of untraceable origin. And finally, she had learned that Kaname Chidori was still alive somewhere. How she learned that was the fact that no-one but herself and Kaname knew she always folded her pillow that way. During her nine-day stay at the field hospital of the UN forces in Himajistan while she was being treated for her injuries and for the infection she had gotten from being raped repeatedly by filthy savages, she typed up her first article, honed it to a razor edge and sent it. It made front pages on ninety one newspapers in fifty five countries. Her name was now known in the world of journalism.

She spent another month in Himajistan, this time showing everyone she could find a picture of Sasuke and a picture of Kaname, asking if they knew anything about the two. Finally, her employer had forced her to leave after a second kidnap attempt had narrowly missed. Kyoko had fought it, but ended up in another restless country less than three thousand miles away. Between Himajistan and her next assignment, she had learned how to shoot a gun, and some self-defense.

The first thing she had done when she got off the plane at her new assignment location and eyed the thick, fetid jungle before her had been to get a gun. For six months, she had chased leads on the fighting. For another two she had been with patrols of the government faction looking for insurgents. When the government troops had been ambushed and killed, she had been captured by the rebels. This time, she had only been beaten up and stripped naked before the leader of the rebels had recognized her. After a spirited discussion between him and his men - during which three of the rebels had died in single combat with the leader - she had been given native clothes and ordered to `witness their fight'.

She had done just that. Eleven months later, she had been beside the rebel leader as they took the capital after heavy fighting. That night, she had found herself drinking with the celebrating rebels and in the morning, she woke naked in the bed of the leader, semen leaking from her tender, sore pussy. Kyoko had slipped away while the leader slept on, both spooked and oddly content. She wrote and published a series of articles based on her time with the rebels and then took nine months off to write her first book, which was an analysis of what had happened to her in both Himajistan and in the jungle of the central African nation.

It went best-seller in over half of the developed world, and stayed there for nearly a year. During that year, she had done work in other conflict zones, and a few stints at the offices of the journalism company she worked for. It was those stints that led to her turning in her resignation and going free-lance. Her first job working for herself was in the former Soviet Union. She stayed there for a year - two months of it in a prison. Beatings and sexual abuse were beginning to be old hat to her. A simple mistake by the guards let her escape, and she had made a break for the border of the small state-country.

Unfortunately, they managed to seal their borders before she could cross, and she found herself in the unenviable position of fugitive in a foreign land. After more than a month on the lam - and having met many people who told her valuable things - she was cornered in an old, abandoned wood mill, with military police closing in on her. Kyoko knew what awaited her if she was captured again. They had told her that spies were shot on sight after all on her very first day in the prison. She heard a sound behind her that sounded like someone hissing at her, and when she turned to see who it was, she found only an assault rifle and a bandoleer of spare magazines on the moldy sawdust that covered the rotting floor. Grabbing it up, she resigned herself to a final stand.

Even now, she didn't know if it was luck, fate or the work of some hidden benefactor that saw her walk away from the burning saw mill, the sole survivor of the fight. When she reached the border, she found a checkpoint had been wiped out, leaving her a door. Kyoko took it, running three miles into the neighboring country before she stopped. It took her three days to reach a European country where she was safe enough to write up everything. When the dust settled, the small country was `under new management' as her friend might have said.

It was during her next assignment in South American where she first heard whispers of something she had thought she had only imaged hearing on that fateful day. Cutting her assignment as short as she could, she refocused on finding out all she could about an outfit called `Mithril' and another outfit called `Amalgam'. That had been her focus from then on. It had also led her into war zones, into corporate corruption and into global politics. She had been arrested, freed, deported, extradited and been the subject of several character assassination attempts - all in a five year period.

She had also been stripped of her Japanese citizenship four years ago. For a year and a few months, she had literally been a person without a country. But then, a figure from the past had stepped back into her life. A powerful member of the Diet had pulled some strings and her Japanese citizenship had been restored. She found herself looking at one Atsunobu Hayashimizu, and his wife, Ren Hayashimizu. Kyoko had been unsure why she had been saved by them, but one conversation with the former Student Council Chairman had cleared that up right away.

From that day forward, she had been on a crusade for the truth. That she was being used by Hayashimizu didn't bother her, since she was using him just as much. He wanted information and leverage, she wanted the truth and answers. Kyoko Tokiwa was a famous photojournalist, but she was also a spy for the Japanese government courtesy of Hayashimizu. She found herself often working with members of the Mikihara Group domestically, and it mildly amused her that mere Yakuza were no more intimidating to her than a middle-school girl was after all she had seen and endured in her career to date. When she was knifed in an alley one winter night in Kobe, she remembered thinking `great, not again' instead of being panicked. She was in the hospital for a month healing from the knife attack.

Her professional situation suffered from her focus. Everyone knew her name, and her articles were guaranteed sales for any paper or publisher so she commanded a high commission, but none of her fellow journalist would associate with her, and everyone kept their distance from her professionally and in most cases personally. Friends were suddenly too busy to see her, or even return her calls. Todai wouldn't claim her as a former student though they did boast of their `world-class journalism school'. She was never invited to journalistic events, her passport was flagged in more than a dozen countries and five countries had formally declared her a terrorist or spy and there were standing orders to shoot her on sight within their borders.

She had been on her way to her apartment one night when someone had grabbed her and dragged her into a dark ally. Naturally, she had fought back hard, but had found herself gagged, tied up, hood over her head and in the back of a car in short order. Lying still, she had listened, hoping to find a clue about who had grabbed her off a Tokyo street like it was Baghdad. Whoever had her was a pro, as they said nothing. The car drove around, and after a short time, it had parked and she had heard the door open. A moment later, her bonds were cut. She held still for a long moment, waiting for any sign of what was next, but after several moments, she slowly moved her now-free hands up to her hood, removing it and her gag before carefully looking around.

She was in the back seat of a sedan, in a parking garage. Carefully, she got out, looking around for any sign of what was going on. Looking out of the garage structure, she realized that she was in the parking structure a couple blocks from her apartment. As she thought that, her apartment suddenly exploded, smoke and flame gushing out her balcony. Kyoko gasped.

“You have made them nervous. Don't be an easy target, or they will kill you next time. Understand?” a voice breathed from behind her even as she felt someone move behind her. Spinning, she saw two dark forms opening the doors to a sedan that had stopped behind her. For a split second, she froze, and in that second they were gone. She had frozen because she had finally heard a voice.

They driver had said `come on!' in a low voice. But that was not what made her freeze. It was the fact that she knew the voice. Kyoko was absolutely sure that she knew the driver's voice. It was her best friend's voice after all - Kaname Chidori. From that day forward, Kyoko only lived in hotels and safe houses. Her search went on. She also began to use aliases and fake identities.

Four months after that, she had been called in to Hayashimizu's office. Concerns had been raised about burnout. The risks were getting too high for the covert intelligence agency that had recruited her. There was even talk of her having psychological issues. Kyoko had snorted in derision at hearing that. Hayashimizu was pulling the plug on the project. With an eye-roll, she had told him that he could chicken out whenever he wanted, but she was getting answers or getting dead - one or the other, nothing else. He had given her a piece of paper before she left, and to her surprise, it was an invitation to her twentieth anniversary reunion at Jindai High.

Against her better judgment, she had gone to the reunion. It was more a case of nothing else to do than her wanting to go. Her current source of information - he thought of himself as her boyfriend - had finally gotten too scared and broke off their sex-for-information arrangement after his wife had been given an anonymous envelope with enough material to make her very suspicious. Kyoko had just shrugged and left without a word. He meant nothing to her, after all, beyond possible leads to Mithril.

The reunion had been something of a shock to her. Seeing her friends had felt like landing in a new war zone for her for most of the general reunion, but by the time that she had gone with her group of friends to drink, she had adjusted. What did surprise her was that her investigative tendencies had become second nature to her by that point. She had found herself analyzing everything her friends said and did and watching them as closely as she watched new information sources, looking for signs of lies or exaggeration.

What she learned was interesting. Ono-D had married a woman a year after she divorced him, and they had three kids now, the oldest of which would be entering Jindai high that fall. Ono-D himself was a section chief now, and was being groomed for a board position. Her ex-husband was all about his family and job now, which eased what little guilt Kyoko had felt when she walked out on him. Her assessment of his wife was that she was a homemaker and most likely what Ono-D had wanted her to be. Sadly for him, that was not something she could do.

Shinji was married to Mizuki and was a career Self-Defense Force man. Currently, he was the platoon leader for an AS company, and he obviously loved his career as much as he loved Mizuki. Mizuki and he had a son, whom Shinji doted on and who would be entering Jindai High in two years. Mizuki also had a daughter, though Kyoko swiftly figured out that it wasn't Shinji's. She also quickly confirmed that Mizuki was given to having affairs and basically being a slut like she had been in high school. But, she always came back to Shinji, and Shinji loved her, so Kyoko saw no need to say anything. Even if she did figure out that the daughter of Mizuki was fathered by that idiotic twit Tsubaki of the Karate Club.

Speaking of the twit, Tsubaki was still trying to be the karate master he imagined himself as, but was stuck with minimum-wage jobs that invariably ended up destroyed because of his delusions. He had dated a bit, but no girl would stay with him, which Kyoko understood perfectly. He spent the majority of the evening alternating between hitting on her and asking about Kaname.

The evening had ended with everyone more or less drunk, and with a fight between her and her friends. It started with Ono-D and Shinji - both really drunk - reminiscing about Kaname and how she was one of - if not the - hottest girls in school. Their drunken ramblings set off Mizuki who insisted that she was better than Kaname, and could prove it. Tsubaki started complaining that Sousuke never faced him in a rematch, which led to the group talking about how they missed Kaname and how the best seemed to die young. It was that which set Kyoko off. Before it was said and done, they had been kicked out of the bar, and Kyoko had staggered off to her hotel.

“But, today is a new day,” Kyoko muttered, shutting off the shower and reaching for her towel. Another day, and another chance to find more leads on Mithril. Minutes later, as she ate her breakfast, she found herself wondering if Kaname had kids, or was she was like herself in not having any kids. She had always thought Kaname would make a great mother, but at the same time, Kaname having a kid was a scary thought; especially since she knew that any kids would be fathered by Sousuke. Picturing what such a situation would be like, she found herself giggling madly even as she cried into her breakfast.

A year later, Kyoko was in a psychiatric ward for treatment following a psychotic episode. It had been triggered when she learned that Mithril was gone, and had been for more than year. With the loss of her goal, she had lost it - publically, unfortunately. So, she was sent to the funny farm for treatment. Due to her extensive experience with such situations, she swiftly adapted, and played them at their own game. She was at her release hearing, and fully expected to be released. If she wasn't, there would be consequences for those on the panel - and they knew it. Good investigators - crazy or not - were dangerous to those who they considered enemies, after all.

Released as anticipated, she began to pick up the pieces. Her books and articles were still selling, and even in the psyche hospital, she made notes on a new series of articles, spinning her visit to the funny farm as a journalistic project to get the `inside view' of such facilities. Kyoko learned from her enemies, after all. Money was not a particular problem for her thanks to that.

But the main problem remained: her life goal was gone, and she didn't know what to do now. For the time being, she had been bouncing around here and there in Japan, with no real mission, just restlessly moving. At the moment, she was walking in the crowd in Tokyo, not far from Jindai high. Not really paying attention, she nearly bumped into someone.

“Sorry!” a voice called out, a flash of skirt in her peripheral vision accompanying the girl's voice. Catching her balance and turning to look at the young girl, Kyoko froze. Before her was Kaname Chidori, wearing her Jindai high uniform. Bowing, the girl turned and moved off while Kyoko tried to get her brain back in order.

“Kaname! Wait!” yelled Kyoko, sprinting after the girl, using her shoulder to ram people out of her way. “Kaname!” she yelled again, seeing the girl about to turn a corner. With a desperate lunge, Kyoko tackled the girl.

To her immense surprise, the girl twisted and dropped, her knee coming up to connect with Kyoko's ribs, knocking the older woman off her as she fluidly recovered. “What's your problem, old woman?!” snarled the girl, arms up in a defensive posture that made Kyoko see a shadow of Sousuke over her for a split second. Scrambling to her feet, Kyoko stared at the girl.

“It's me, Kaname - Kyoko!” she said, watching the younger girl study her suspiciously.

“You have me confused with someone else, lady,” she said, her tone slow and distinct. “My name is not Kaname and I'm going to be late for my first day of high school if you keep bothering me,” warned the girl coolly.

Vaguely aware of the crowd staring at the two, Kyoko weighed her choices swiftly. “Perhaps you are right,” she allowed. “But you are the spitting image of my best friend, Kaname Chidori. What's your name?” she asked, managing a half-decent smile.

“Not Kaname, that's for sure,” muttered the girl, glancing at her watch. Kyoko's eyes flickered to the watch, recognizing it as the one Kaname had worn for so long. “Look, lady, if I were your friend, I'd be old, too, right? And I'm not, so that proves I'm not this `Kaname' person. With that established, I have school, so good bye!” and the girl was gone as suddenly as she appeared.

With the girl gone, Kyoko became aware of the crowd around her, and the murmuring and the cell phone cameras running. Grunting, she turned and forcefully pushed her way through the crowd, quickly disappearing herself. But now, she had a purpose. She needed to know who the girl was, and why she looked just like her missing best friend. Kyoko had a new goal.

It had been surprisingly difficult to find out anything about the girl. Kyoko knew that she went to Jindai - she had seen the uniform - but finding anything on her had proven to be quite difficult. She had worked her normal sources before finally ending up going to the school and trading on her infamy and the fact that the current Principal was a former classmate of hers. It had been necessary to blackmail him before he would part with her file.

“Not that it tells me anything beyond her name,” muttered Kyoko darkly as she scowled at the copy of the student file. It had taken her less than a day to discover that the girl's folder was bullshit. Even her name was fake as far as her sources could determine. And Kyoko had very good sources. She had debated for two days before calling Hayashimizu's private line. Rin answered. They met the next week in a smoky back-office of the Mikihara group.

Rin had carefully read the copies of all the papers in the girl's Jindai file then given Kyoko a steady look. “You see it, too, Rin - she's their daughter!” Kyoko stated. Rin sighed softly.

“She most certainly looks like Kaname-chan, but did you ever consider that she could be the child of Kaname's little sister?” asked Rin.

“Yes,” an exasperated Kyoko proclaimed. “I checked. She has been married twice, but no children. And she is still in America. She has never been back to Japan since they first moved. She is not Kaname's niece, Rin!” snarled the glasses-wearing journalist. Rin sipped her tea delicately. “You got spooked, didn't you?” breathed Kyoko, suddenly putting the pieces together. “You and Hayashimizu both got scared off. I wouldn't have believed it if I weren't seeing it,” Kyoko giggled roughly.

“You have less to lose than we do, Kyoko-chan,” Rin reminded her former classmate, standing and smoothing her half-million yen tailored business dress. “In any event, there is nothing we can do to help you in this, as we have no other sources of information. Please, Kyoko, walk away. I say this as a friend; of which you have precious few left,” Rin hinted carefully. Kyoko nearly sneered at her friend.

“It's because I have so few left that I won't walk away,” said the journalist, also standing. She never spoke to either of them again.

With her usual resources cut off, she fell back on less subtle means. Bracing the girl outside Jindai had not rattled the teenager in the least, but Kyoko found herself confronted by police the next day when she arrived to try to push the girl's buttons again. Falling back, she had tried to follow the girl from a distance, but kept losing her within a block of the school. “Like trying to follow Sousuke,” she muttered to herself bitterly a week later. She was in a new hotel after her last hotel room had mysteriously caught fire the day before.

Frustrated, she tossed on the first clothes she found and headed out to try and formulate a new plan. As she cleared the hotel, someone tucked themselves to her side, Kyoko feeling a sharp knife dig into her side. “Turn,” a quiet voice instructed even as they muscled her around a corner. No sooner had she done so than another person pressed an injector to her neck and everything went black.

She awoke to find herself naked and secured to a steel cot frame. Once she had cleared her head a little, she groaned. “This again? Do all of these idiots read the same book?” she muttered, grimacing at the pain in her arms and legs and the foul taste in her mouth. Besides a single weak bulb in a dented old fixture, the rest of the room was lost in darkness; and the fixture was right above her.

“You are awake,” a voice stated from behind her. Kyoko twitched a little, but didn't react. “We can now get this over with,” added the voice in a bored tone. Stepping around the edge of the frame, a slim man with a mask over his face stopped in front of her. Without the slightest hint of warning, he backhanded her hard enough to loosen three of her teeth and break her nose. “You will tell us everything you know about these people,” he stated, shoving a handful of large glossy pictures in her face. “Start with her,” he nearly spat, grabbing Kyoko's hair and jerking her head back a little as he held a picture in front of her nose. Pushing past the pain, Kyoko saw a picture of Teletha Testarossa - Tessa. The platinum-haired girl was in the Jindai High uniform, smiling and laughing with a couple of other girls.

“Who is that?” croaked Kyoko. A picture of Tessa at Jindai High, she thought. Did they take that or is it a picture they found that someone else took? Why her and not Kana? Wondered the brunette. The man wrenched her head further back by her hair, his other hand coming up to grab one of her loosened teeth. With a dispassionate wrench, he ripped it out, tossing it aside.

“You know she is Teletha Testarossa, commonly called Tessa,” he said, tearing out another of her loosened teeth. “You might not have known she was also a Captain in Mithril, nor that she was the skipper of their ultra-tech sub, the TDD-01. Every time you lie to me, I will hurt you - badly,” he said, still sounding bored. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a slim case. Opening it, he selected a thin metal probe. Kyoko shivered as blood ran down her chin. “Tell us everything you know,” he ordered her again. Kyoko said nothing. Her world was pain.

After an endless marathon of pain that formed a timeless existence, Kyoko became aware of herself in a strange state. She was feeling no pain and could hear beeps and clicks that sounded like medical equipment. Slowly opening her eyes, she struggled to focus. After a few moments, she found herself looking at a ceiling. Slowly turning her head, she saw she was in a hospital bed, with machines hooked up to her. Both arms and a leg sported IV drips, a mask covered her face and a tube was down her throat. Hospital, thought the woman.

Hearing a soft sound, she slowly turned her head the other way as an older black woman in scrubs stopped beside her bed. “Ah, back with us, miss Tokiwa,” smiled the black woman as she checked the machines. “You can call me Peggy. I am your doctor. I'd ask how you are feeling, but I think we both know the answer to that. No pain, right?” she predicted, turning to examine the younger woman herself.

Kyoko tried to ask where she was, but couldn't talk. The tube was down her throat, the mask covered her face and she vaguely recalled that all her teeth had been torn out, though she wasn't entirely sure of anything past the first hour. “I wouldn't try to talk just yet,” Peggy warned. “Your vocal cords are still healing and your throat won't be healed for a while yet. Barbarians,” she muttered under her breath. “The good news is that most of the damage we can heal. Though some of it…” she shook her head. “We'll talk again later,” said the doctor, pulling a capped syringe from her pocket and injecting whatever it held into an IV line. Kyoko tried to shake her head no, but could feel herself falling unconscious again. Just as her vision dimmed, she saw an indistinct form enter the room.

“You shouldn't be in here,” Peggy said the form. “You don't need to see her like this.”

“She's my friend,” a voice drifted to her. Kyoko felt herself try to smile. Kana is still so stubborn….

When she woke up again, she was in a bed with IV lines in both arms, and a mask over her face, but no tube down her throat and no bank of machines hooked up to her. Turning her head, she saw there was a window in this room, and outside it, sunlight poured down on a green wall of vegetation. Faintly, she could hear the sounds of birds. Slowly blinking, she raised her hands, feeling dulled throbs of pain in her hands, arms and shoulders. Her hands and most of her arms were bandaged. Looking at the bandages on her forearms, she suddenly shivered as a hazy memory of the man slowly cutting the skin off them flickered through her mind. Forcing back the memories, she slowly brought her fingertips to her mouth.

She felt teeth, but knew at least some of them had to be dental implants. Her fingertips also felt her nose, realizing that it had been set and the two cuts to the sides of her nostrils had been repaired. Working her way to her head, she was not surprised to find it shaved short. With so many handfuls having been torn out, it was probably best to just let it all grow back even. Her fingers worked their way down, finding that the ear that had been mangled seemed to have been put back together. As her fingers brushed over her neck, she paused, feeling it was bandaged.

The click of a door opening interrupted her self-check and a nurse stepped into the room. “Awake at last,” smiled the woman, who was probably a decade younger than her. “You gave us a few close calls,” noted the woman socially as she checked the machines and then began to check Kyoko herself.

“Who are you?” Kyoko tried to ask, but her voice was scratchy and patchy and pain radiated through her throat.

“No, don't talk yet,” admonished the nurse, swiftly touching Kyoko's lips. “It's amazing you can even try, but you aren't quite healed yet, and the sutures could tear if you try to talk.” Tossing back the sheet, the younger woman frowned. “I'll get the cart and change your bandages,” she said, quickly exiting the room. Kyoko struggled to look down at herself. Seeing her body, she swallowed roughly.

She wasn't wearing a hospital gown. It made sense to her, though, when she saw the number of bandages on her - several with darkened spots on them. Slowly running her eyes down her legs, she froze, seeing only eight toes; and most of those were swollen, gnarled and discolored. The nurse returned a few moments later with a cart loaded with bandaging and dressing supplies. Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, she got to work changing bandages, starting at Kyoko's throat. The entire time, she chatted inanely. Eventually, Kyoko touched her arm then put a finger to her lips in a silent plea for the woman to shut up. Kyoko felt an urge to smack the woman when she saw her nearly pout.

Her urge was dispelled as a pair of voices drifted into her room from the hallway. “You were told not to visit her yet,” noted a cool, dispassionate voice.

“So?” came an unrepentant, almost truculent, woman's voice.

“The doctor will scold you,” predicted the first voice.

“Like I care,” snorted the second. Kyoko blinked, seeing two women enter her room, the second, shorter, one silently closing the door. “Kyoko,” breathed Kana, freezing for just a second before hurrying to her friend and carefully leaning over her to hug her as tightly as she dared. “God, I thought I had lost you,” she murmured hoarsely in Kyoko's ear, her lips brushing the other woman's cheek as she whispered that. Kyoko awkwardly reached up to touch Kaname Chidori's back.

“You shouldn't be here, Commander. Strict orders…” began the nurse, only to fall suddenly silent as the second woman stepped to Kana's side. “L…Lieutenant Xia, you aren't allowed…” stuttered the nurse.

“Be silent,” ordered the smaller woman, her tone cold and distant.

Kaname eased back from her long-time friend, Kyoko spotting unshed tears in her eyes. “I would say you are looking good, Kyoko-chan, but that would be a lie,” managed the woman, carefully sitting on the edge of Kyoko's bed. Kana's quick brown eyes slipped over Kyoko's naked form, a frown deepening on her face as she saw the bandages and scars and marks. “What happened?” she breathed, almost to herself.

“She was interrogated, raped and tortured,” supplied the smaller woman next to her, also eyeing the brunette, but with no noticeable reaction. “Many forms of torture were employed, including dental torture, skinning, crushing and cutting, sleep deprivation, beating, strangulation, bone breaking , burning and repeated, systematic rape - both sexual and object-insertion. It appears that such is what happened to her throat, where the interrogator first forced his penis or a large object into her throat and then choked her with his hands around her throat until she was nearly dead before allowing her to recover to a degree in preparation for repeating the process.”

“Yu, that's…enough,” Kaname said tightly. The smaller woman fell silent. Kyoko saw Kaname surreptitiously wipe a tear from her eye.

“This is why I said not to see her yet, Kaname,” came the voice of Peggy from the door. “Lieutenant Sagara, please remove Commander Chidori from the room,” directed the doctor.

“Roger that,” came Sousuke's voice, the slim man slipping into the room. Kaname rolled her eyes.

“Whatever,” she sniffed disdainfully. “I'll be back, Kyoko-chan,” she said, touching Kyoko's cheek with her fingertips. “Let's go, Yu,” she said, grabbing Sousuke's hand as she passed him. She must have gripped his hand pretty hard, Kyoko mused, seeing him wince briefly as he was nearly dragged from the room, the silent Lieutenant Yu following the two. A giggle struggled to escape her throat at the thought that the wince might not have anything to do with Kana grabbing his hand, and more to do with what she would say in private to him.

“Well, at least your spirit isn't broken,” smiled Peggy as she closed the door behind the three. Seeing the nurse resume the dressing change, Peggy pulled a chair over to the side of the bed. “I think we should talk about your condition, miss Tokiwa,” said the black woman. “If you don't want to talk about it right now, I can come back later,” she added. Kyoko shook he head.

“Very well,” said Peggy, checking a thick clipboard in her hand. “You were a mess when our recovery team brought you in. I don't think I need to go over what all was done to you, especially since the majority of it we have already repaired. However, some things we couldn't repair. Two of your toes were crushed beyond recovery, for example. There was extensive dental damage, and three skull fractures with brain swelling. Fortunately, you have recovered well so far,” Peggy stopped to turn a page.

“Your medical files were recovered shortly after we recovered you. I hate to have to tell you this, but you need to know. The previous infections and damage coupled with your exposure to bio-agents and chemical interrogation has done a lot of damage to your system. Your health will never return to what it was before, I'm afraid. And I suspect that your lifespan will be shorter, too. How much, I don't know, but the cumulative damage is…impressive.”

Kyoko absorbed that, silently considering the news. She very quickly dismissed it, as she wasn't that concerned about something she couldn't change. Locking gazes with Peggy, she shrugged indifferently. Peggy gave her a small nod. “There is a bit more,” added the woman. Kyoko waited. The nurse finished up and left, leaving the two alone.

“After your previous…violations,” Peggy shied away from using the word rape, “you had scar tissue and a viral STD. With each successive violation, the level of damage went up as the violence grew. You also contracted a STD that - though cured - has left you barren; and with a much higher chance of getting certain types of venereal cancer. This last time, well,” Peggy sighed. “By the time that the scar tissue is fully formed, I am not sure that you will be capable of a meaningful sex life, even without the complications of the STDs and infections.”

Kyoko blinked. After a couple of minutes, Peggy left, having had a beeper go off and promising to return. For reasons she couldn't understand, Kyoko found herself crying silently.

It was a month later before she saw Kana again. By now able to walk on her own - though still not used to being short two toes - she had made her way to a small pool to rest in the sun and fresh air for a bit. She had been surprised to find herself looking at Kana. It has surprised her more to see a thin, silvery scar on her best friend's side and a well-healed bullet wound on her arm. Kaname was in the pool, playing around with the smaller woman Kyoko recalled as `Yu' and the distinctive platinum-haired and white-skinned Tessa. Kyoko smiled as she carefully observed her best friend.

Kaname was in a tiny red bikini, while Tessa was in an equally small black bikini. The enigmatic Yu was in a blue halter bikini. The recovering journalist found herself smiling at the three. “Tokiwa,” a voice said, making her flinch and jerk her head to the side to see Sousuke eyeing her critically. “I am glad to see you up and around again,” he added.

“Daddy, Keiko…” began a voice, only to stop. Beside Sousuke appeared the Kana-clone she had seen in Tokyo what felt like a lifetime ago. And held in one hand was a hand of another young girl that had to be Sousuke's and Kana's as well. “It's you,” sighed the mini-Kana. “You should have just let it go,” added the teenager, shaking her head. “Mom!”

Immediately Kana was pulling Kyoko into a hug, Yu and Tessa not far behind her. Before Kyoko knew it, she was sitting in the living room of the unobtrusive house Kana called `home' and her friend was both catching her up on news and berating her for trying to involve herself in the world Kana now lived in. She was introduced to Konami - the girl she had met in Tokyo and Kana's oldest daughter, then Keiko - the eleven year old middle daughter - and finally to six-year old Saito her youngest and only son. It had shocked her to be introduced to Amelia Testarossa, the oldest daughter of Tessa and Sousuke and her younger twin siblings, Sam and Sarah. What was most shocking was when a quiet, gorgeous young girl slipped in virtually unnoticed and she found herself being introduced to Yu Lan, Sousuke's and Yu's daughter.

Kyoko had been living with the strange family her friends had formed for three months by the time that the doctor had cleared her as being as fully recovered as she would ever get. During that time, she had learned a lot more about what had happened to her friend since she vanished from Kyoko's life so suddenly. Questions she had not even known she had were answered about Mithril, Amalgam and the hidden mechanics of the world political and economic workings. She had learned that her friends were heavily involved in a black war against the kind of people who had so damaged her life. It had come out that she had, in fact, been used as bait by Tessa - though only because she had first put herself in that position.

The glasses-wearing woman was currently sitting in a folding sling-chair by the edge of the beach, watching the children play in the surf of the island where her friends were based at. The children had taken to her gradually, even Konami. She was `Aunt Kyoko' to them, and her stories of their parents - excepting young Yu Lan - kept the children amazed and entertained, even if it did occasionally fluster their parents to hear her telling them such stories. Kyoko sighed, leaning back a bit and adjusting her plain brown bikini. “Finally have the answers and enough information to write a book that would break most of the power brokers in the world, and I can't tell anyone,” sighed the woman.

Kaname was currently working, which made Kyoko giggle. Kaname as a drill instructor for AS pilots was something she thought she would never see, but there Kana was, marching around with a bullhorn and an attitude. She kept her long hair in a ponytail and wore a tight, short-sleeved tee shirt with some close-fitting cargo shorts as she harangued and belittled them in the best Mao tradition. Kyoko had learned that Kaname was also the XO on Tessa's submarine, though it was not currently deployed.

Tessa was busy with matters she wouldn't discuss, but that was only natural for the leader of the organization that was supplanting Mithril. Kaname and Tessa were like mind-linked twins some days, and other days like their high-school selves, bickering about nothing. It had not shocked her the first time she had found Kana and Tessa making out in the backyard. It had shocked her when she accidentally walked in on Kana, Tessa and Yu Fan in the middle of a m�nage-a-trios. To her surprise, Kana and Tessa had only been mildly embarrassed, and Yu Fan hadn't even blinked. She had spent the rest of that night learning about how the family worked.

Sousuke and Yu Fan were off with Mao and Kurz, dealing with an `issue' as Kana put it, though her dark look told her that it was not something she should pursue. The four-unit team formerly known as Urzu was something of a self-contained army from what Kyoko gathered, though none of the persons involved would say why. When she had asked Kana and Tessa, neither had elaborated. She suspected that it was the AS strike team that had first saved her in Himajistan and then in the splinter state in the former soviet union and finally from her last kidnapping. There was no question in her mind that the last time, her kidnappers had no intention of letting her live.

“Kyoko, there you are,” Kana's voice interrupted her thoughts. She glanced over and up, seeing Kaname sink down to sit on the sand next to her chair. Sunglasses pushed up on top of her head, she smiled at her children as they played in the surf.

“What happens now, Kana?” Kyoko asked. Her best friend looked over at her.

“So, you are ready to talk about that,” mused Kaname. She lay back, absently catching Kyoko's hand in her own and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I think you know that you can't get back out of this world now,” Kaname said, her tone contemplatively.

“No point in trying anyway,” shrugged Kyoko. “But I am kind of a third wheel right now, so what do I do?”

“You are not a third wheel, Kyoko,” insisted Kaname.

“But I can't have what you and Tessa and Yu Fan have, either,” pointed out Kyoko. Kaname was silent for a moment.

“Kyoko, if you want to, we…” she began slowly.

“No, Kana,” Kyoko cut in firmly. “I would love more than anything to join your strange family and have a kid or three myself, but I can't have kids, and I won't share my diseases with you, either,” she smiled a little at the last statement, finding a weak smile on Kaname's lips. “Sorry, but they are all mine, and I won't share,” she winked at Kana. Her smile faded. “And it's not like the sex would feel like much to me, either,” sighed the woman.

“Kyoko!” hissed Kaname.

“No slight to you or Sousuke or Tessa or Yu Fan,” Kyoko waved her hand. “But I know you have read my medical file. I…tried it a few times, with my fingers. Too much scar tissue to really feel anything. Peggy said that they must have used something like a round rasp or file a few times down there…”

Kaname was silent for a while. Her children clambered out of the surf and hurried over, spraying the two women with sea water. Seeing Kaname not react, Kyoko became concerned. “Don't worry; she's resonating with Momma Tessa,” Konami said after glancing at Kaname's eyes, which were dull and unfocused.

“Resonating?” wondered Kyoko. There was much that Kana and Tessa hadn't said, it would seem.

“Whispering,” Keiko said before being shushed by her older sister. Kaname blinked. Seeing the kids, she smiled, climbing easily to her feet and pulling Kyoko up as well.

“Who's hungry?” smiled Kaname, getting an immediate chorus from the kids. Later that night, Kyoko was on the back porch, watching the stars when Kaname came out, two cans in her hands. Handing one to Kyoko, she cracked the other and sipped. Kyoko did the same, finding she had a beer.

“About what you were saying earlier,” Kaname said quietly. “How would you like to get revenge on the people who did that to you, Kyoko?”

“Revenge has never been one of my driving forces, but keep talking,” Kyoko said. By the time she went to bed, she had signed up with Kana and her family.