"I once tasted what power was like. Do you know what it's like? To have the power to change things? To finally make a difference? To finally put an end to everything wrong with the world?"

The sound of the spinning rotars of the transport helicopter could be barely heard in the background. Other than that, the small cargo room was extremely silent, save for the whisperings of one girl wearing the full body dark Shadaloo elite agent ensemble and sitting on the floor with her back against the other, doing the same.

"The people in charge no longer have power these days. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter because they wouldn't use it. They are interested in increasing their standing with the power they have, but that's about it.  In truth, no one wants to admit that they are powerless."

Both of them closed their eyes.  The short flashing crimson-haired girl simply grinned as Juni sighed.

The blonde agent finally spoke up, albeit rather hesitantly. "Avelle, I... I want..."

The door from the cockpit slid open, interrupting the lopsided conversation. Juli stood in the door way, with a semi-serious questioning look on her face.  Trademark bun in her hair and after brushing away one of her two long bangs, she crossed her arms. "Who are you talking to?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing." Juni quickly replied. "I was just... talking to myself."

"Hmm..." Putting her hand to her chin in thought, Juni's partner finally shrugged. "Whatever. We'll be arriving at our destination soon. You're sure you can handle this after what happened?"

There was some slight hesitance in Juni's voice. "It's... no problem, really."

"I'll tell the pilot to land then." With that reply, the door shut once again and the room was quiet.

"You read the mission statement, right?" After Juli was gone, Junivelle didn't have to be silent any more. "You know a lot more than she does. You know who owns the target object. You know she was supposedly the one in charge of that whole Jokuzetsu fiasco. You know what power the target object can bring."

"......"

"No hesitance, Juni. You shouldn't be a hypocrite to your own beliefs."

Juni frowned. "The mission statements don't involve her at all! I'll just get the amulet and leave. It's as simple as that."

"Hey, I'm just your imaginary friend, remember?" Junivelle rolled her eyes. "I'll be there if you need me. Since I am you, after all."

With another sly chuckle from Junivelle, silence came once again as the helicopter flew through the night time sky.

Shadowloo special soldiers are specially trained and genetically enhanced for espionage, assassination, and sabotage. Juli and Juni, two of these special force solders, recieve orders from high command.

"Obtain the Ancestor's Amulet currently in the possession of one Makoto Rindou."
 

I suppose maybe it was a rather insignificant mission.  Nothing was really accomplished when I think about it.  By the time it was over, everyone was back at square one anyway.  There were those interesting deja-vu feelings I had when I saw our opposition, but I don't think that was the reason at all.  Maybe the only reason I remembered this mission so clearly was because it took place so soon after that... incident.  Or maybe because it was a chance for myself to finally say what I knew all along out loud.
 

From her concealed position on the awning, she observed the bearer of the target behind dark-colored spy binoculars.  Her partner was already in position.  Now all Juli had to do was give the signal when the holder of the target came within view.  For all the power that silly little amulet supposedly contained, this would probably be a simple snatch and steal mission.  Unless the target was some wise omnipotent spider-sense mad-skillz meditating yoda jedi master with the power of the force.  Which probably wasn't the case, since all she saw walking down the road was a little feminine boy wearing a gi.

Makoto Rindou was in sight.  Getting closer... closer...

Juli paused as she realized that wasn't a boy.  It was a girl.

A steamroller girl.

"The steamroller girl?!?"  She almost blurted out loud but was quick to conceal her voice.  She quickly ducked back down the awning and tried to figure out where that feeling and thought came from, but decided it was probably insignificant.

It was time to get back to the mission objectives.  Juli stuck her head above the awning and prepared to give the cat's meow.  A rather silly signal, but cats were nice enough animals as long as they weren't mauling her to death like Juni's pet kitty sometimes did.  And it was inconspicuous.  Which was good, because Juli didn't want this mission to go wrong.  Hopefully with Juni's stealth skills, they could snatch the amulet and be out of there before that Makoto girl even knew what was going on.  A quick cat's meow and a fast mach slide by her partner and it would all be over with just like that.

Or Juni could stand up from her concealed position and blurt out "Hi, Makoto!!!!!" and cheerfully wave, catching Makoto's attention and totally #@$%ing up the assignment.  That works too.  At least, Juli HOPED it worked because she could think of no other possible reason why the hell Juni just did that.

Juli had to use almost all her self-control to keep from screaming "ARGH!" out loud.

A few minutes earlier, Makoto had been walking aimlessly along the paths in the park area surrounding Tokyo Tower, deep in thought.

{Oh, who'm I trying to kid - I'm deep in a funk,} she thought as she frowned. {Rin-Rin... Roshon... I can't believe they're gone. And that it's partly my fault. It all seemed so cut-and-dried the first time I visited Jokuzetsu... so obvious. Bru and Pur-Fum were in the wrong, and my family was in the right, so that justified whatever I did to solve it, didn't it? But then I met Juni-san. She was a bit scatterbrained, but a good person... which is why it *also* seemed so obvious that she was trying to leave Shadaloo for good, right?}

Makoto chuckled bitterly to herself at her misconception. {Nope. She was trying to keep her scheduled holiday! Boy, was that a surprise. I wonder why Shadaloo was trying so hard to get her to come back early? They must have *really* wanted her for something, I guess. That wierd scientist guy said something about a rival doctor of his, so maybe that was it. But it wasn't so cut-and-dried as you thought, was it, Rindou?} she asked herself.  {Not so obvious at all. That *should* have made me think about things from before... not that I had much time to, what with Rin-Rin showing up and hauling me off to save the village.}

She shook her head. {I never once thought that the good things I'd accomplished would turn out so badly.  Damn it, if I hadn't let my temper get away from me back in the Amazon Village, Roshon would have stayed there and he might be alive... and he sure wouldn't have killed Rin-Rin.} The young karateka wiped a tear from her eye. {I'm in no state to tell Auntie Kho-Om about this yet. I wish something would happen to cheer me up. Juni could do that for nearly anyone... I just hope she wasn't at the village. Yeah, that'd be just my luck, wouldn't it? Kill one friend to save a bunch of others...}

Fortunately for Makoto's declining mood, a voice rang out from ahead of her, causing the girl to jolt upright from her slouch and look wildly around for the source.

"Hi, Makoto!!!!!"

"JUNI???" Makoto exclaimed, seeing her friend stand up from behind a bush where she had, for some reason, been crouching.  "Juni, it is you!! Oh, am I glad to see you!!" she exclaimed, dashing over to the blonde.

It was odd how Juli just stood off to the side in almost a sort of confused stupor as Juni introduced her to Makoto as her partner.  The three girls stood in the park for a while, chatting amiably enough, especially considering the fact that Makoto was supposed to be Juni and Juli's adversary for this mission.  Well, at least Juni and Makoto were that way.  All Juli could do was smile and nod whenever the two happened to address her, which fortunately didn't happen too often.  Juni and Makoto mainly talked about random miscellany and catch up.  From what Juni was telling her, Juli found out that apparently Juni met this Makoto girl while she was off masquerading as Avelle and Makoto helped her out.  They would have probably talked more and caught up on things, which probably wouldn't have been good because then maybe Juni would leak vital info and talk too much, but fortunately the very next thing that happened to Makoto after she helped Juni out cut all the small chit chat right there.  Makoto brought up that the reason she was dragged off quickly was because she had to return to her home village.

The name of that village?  Jokuzetsu.

Considering how much she cried when Bremare ran away, Juni sure was taking this in stride.  To the point where it was almost eerie.  It wasn't like Juni didn't know about what happened during the battle of Jokuzetsu and the psychological effect it had on their friend Bremare from the science department when Bremare's own friend was lost there.  But when Makoto began on how she had to save her hometown, it was easy enough for Juli to figure out who was the one responsible for that fiasco.  It was probably easy enough for Juni too, since while acting cordial enough, the nervousness and awkwardness of where the conversation was going could be easily seen in her eyes.

Makoto was probably going to casually cheerfully talk about how her hometown was saved until she noticed Juni's now somewhat shocked look, too, and came to a conclusion herself of what it was about.

"OH MY GOD!"  An even more shocked and visibly shaken Makoto worriedly grabbed Juni by the shoulders.  "Don't tell me you were at Jokuzetsu!? You could have been killed!! Those Amazons weren't taking prisoners!!"

Inwardly, Juli sighed.  Weren't taking prisoners was probably right, considering that they even killed off the scientist observing the battle.  Juni didn't bother to mention that, though.

"Huh?  Oh, I wasn't there."  Juni quickly corrected.  Before adding some clarification which fast degenerated into rambling.  "Well, indirectly I was.  Well, okay, actually, a FRIEND of mine indirectly was.  Through a friend of his.  Who was also sorta indirectly there since I hear he was close and monitored everything but wasn't at the frontlines.  So I guess he was indirectly there from a friend who was indirectly there and I was indirectly there from him making me indirectly there to the power of three."

The brunnette rolled her eyes and decided to clarify Juni's clarification.

"Translation is..."  Juli muttered.  "She wasn't there."

"..............."  Her partner paused for a moment then looked off to the side. "I guess."

Juni's fun insta-friend, Makoto (who was probably one of many Juni could make if she got out more.  She was the WAFFmaster after all), quickly breathed a sigh of relief.  "Phewwww... I mean, I may fight hard, but what Akiko and Sakura did to those troops-"

Makoto paused for a brief moment to shudder at the thought.

"God only knows what Bison did to Akiko to make her react like that. And Sa-chan with her..."

Before Makoto could finish saying her thoughts out loud, a suddenly surprisingly annoyed Juni broke in with her own comments about that school girl Sa-chan or whatever her name was that Bremare talked about.

"Well, you know,"  Juni practically snapped.  "They wouldn't have done that if you didn't drag 'Sa-chan' over there in the first place then let her go all out berserk on everyone."

Of course, Juni's snappish remark was enough to quickly create a wave of awkwardness for her and Makoto, too.

Fast to correct herself or whatever the heck she was doing, Juni put her hand to her mouth in shock.  "Oh my god!  She's doing it again!  Um.... someone please tell me what I just said.  And whatever it was, I didn't mean it!"

"Geez, your *ki* changes nearly as much as Sa-chan's did in the village!"  Juli didn't know what the heck was going on, but Makoto was nice enough to seemingly answer the question.  She waved her hand in front of Juni's face.  "Are you sure you're okay?  Juni?  Hello..."

"I... I don't know.  I'm sorry!"  The blonde agent quickly apologized.  "I've just been having a really bad day.  I really wish you weren't the one with the amulet.  I... don't think I can bring myself to do this."

And.... while apologizing, she just blatantly mentioned the... oh just great.  Or maybe that was the signal.  Juli took the oppurtunity to take advantage of it while Juni continued to apologize almost incoherently to Makoto.

"And it's just that I wouldn't want to..."  She was nice enough to stop apologizing to confirm to Juli that Juli's instincts were right.  "Oh.  Got it?

Juli smiled.  "Yea, that was perfect."

With that, Juli quickly dashed off with the amulet as Juni continued her apology to a somewhat baffled Makoto with a sigh.

"I wish there were a way that we could do this without one of us getting hurt.  Especially after what you did for me.  I was hoping that we could still be friends or something but fate just doesn't seem to let it be that way."

"Huh?"  Unfortunately, by now Makoto realized something was going on because she couldn't even figure out what the heck Juni was apologizing about anymore.  She stared in surprise then patted the back of her neck and finally realized what was up. "HEY! Bring that back!"

Surprisingly, Makoto was in front of Juli after a well-placed super jump, which resulted in Juli running right into her.  Juli cursed as she and Makoto crashed to the ground.  "Damn!  It never can go smoothly, can it?  Juni, catch!  I'll catch up with you!"

Her partner caught the thrown amulet as Juli quickly leapt to her feet, then quickly asked, "But... what if one of you gets hurt?"

"Just get out of here, okay?!?"  An annoyed Juli slapped herself in the forehead in dismay.  "Sheesh!"

"Okay, but promise me both of you will be careful!"  Juni shouted back.  "If I hear that either one of you got badly hurt or something..."

"Are you still here?!?"  WAFFmaster indeed, this was getting ridiculous.

"Sorry."

Juni quickly zipped off as Makoto also got back to her feet and remarked, "She's strange. I have more sympathy than some, but you'd think she was watching her two best friends fight... Um, besides you, does she *have* any friends in Shadowlaw?"

Looking nervously off to the side as she remembered Bremare bailing out from Shadowlaw, Juli slowly muttered, "Well... not anymore."

"That explains it... she *was* watching her two best friends fight."  Makoto sighed.  "But I want that amulet back and you don't want to give it, so I guess I have to fight you, ne?"

She paused.

"Even if I feel like I've done this before..."

Juli didn't completely understand what that last statement was about, but it didn't matter.  This was starting to go just where she wanted it to.

"Hmm."  Inwardly, Juli smiled.  "Such a violent girl.  If that's what you want, I'll fight you for a while."

And with that, their fight began.

It was in the cards.

Makoto was fighting an odd sense of *deja vu* as the fight began. Juli left the ground in a leaping/flying kick attack - {Sniping Arrow,} the thought came into Makoto's mind from somewhere - and somehow, Makoto found she recognized the stance, despite being nearly certain that she hadn't seen anything like it before, and ducked.

Juli passed harmlessly over Makoto's head, and Makoto spun about to reply with her own high-speed strike.

"HAYATE!"

Unfortunately, deja vu seemed to work both ways, as Juli was spinning and blocking the moment she touched ground, and Makoto's punch rebounded off Juli's crossed forearms.

Makoto hopped back and sweatdropped. "Hey, I *have* done this before... um, somewhere, at least..." She frowned, and asked the brunette in the Shadowlaw tights, "Um, do you remember fighting me before?"

She tensed her back leg as she saw Juli set her stance.

"I'm sure we've fought... HAYATE! ...even if I can't remember where or when..." she finished lamely as once again, Juli anticipated her, leaping away before the Hayate had even gone halfway to her. {I can't rely on my special techniques here, she knows them, just like I know her's somehow, from the Axle Spin Knuckle to the Spin Drive Smasher. I'll have to close with her and use normal moves!} she thought, moving in.

"Perhaps we have," Juli replied, backing into a large open area far away from any obstacles Makoto could pin the slighter girl against. "I seem to recall...*something*... though I feel sure these are significantly different circumstances."

She stopped once she was centered in the clearing, and she and Makoto traded blocks and blows. Makoto stepped in and performed a leg-throw on Juli that shook the ground, but the brown-haired agent bounced right back up and leapt into the air, snagging Makoto's head between her legs and using one of her trademark throws, one called either the Thigh Press or the Frankensteiner, depending on who you asked. She tried to follow up the throw by stomping Makoto, but the Rindou daughter grabbed her foot and tripped her to the ground, causing a break as both girls rolled back to their feet.

Makoto blinked as she came up facing in the directon Juni was running. "Um, what's your partner doing? Is she bungling again...? She's headed for Tokyo Tower, there's no fast transport out of there. Are you *sure* she wants to succeed?" she asked, still hoping somehow for a peaceful resolution to all this. {I don't want to make another friend into an enemy! I've seen what comes of that thanks to Roshon!} she worried, biting her lip.

Juli paused, catching her breath, and thought about it for a brief but significant second. "Well, she does tend to meander a bit, but someone always comes to drag her out of whatever trouble she gets into.  It's not my worry now at any rate, since we're sort of busy right now, aren't we?" she pointed out peevishly, settling back into a Sniping Arrow stance.

Makoto blinked again and thought it over. "You're not worried...? Then that means.." she murmured to herself, then looked back up at Juli. "Um, can we stop now? I'm not going to chase her..." she offered, relaxing her stance and backing off a step or two.

Juli smiled. "Not bad. You're smarter than I thought. I guess I should have known, since you outsmarted us at the battle of Jokuzetsu," she commented. "But you're *not* going to chase her? Okay, I'll let you go."

A second later, she was airborne, aiming for Makoto's head with another Sniping Arrow.

"Then again, it's probably safer if I give you a nap while I'm at it!"

Makoto, half-expecting treachery - a vague memory of being cheap-shotted with a steel chair was in the back of her mind - ducked again, letting the Sniping Arrow pass over her... almost.

"FUKIAGE!"

The *chi*-powered back uppercut belted Juli out of the end of her flying kick and sent her hurtling into the air, where she landed in a tree.

"HONESTLY!!" Makoto cried, whipping her scooter - she'd paid the shopkeeper for it back in Hong Kong - off of her back and zooming off, yelling, "I need a phonebook!"

Juli sweatdropped where she hung in the tree branches. "Definitely a steamroller! Still, she isn't chasing Juni... though... the way she said that...." she pondered aloud as she began to look for a way down.

A few minutes and one phonecall later, Makoto scootered onto the grounds of Tokyo University. {I didn't understand what Juni was doing, running off to Tokyo Tower at this hour of the evening, but then I remebered something from all those spy movies. If you want to make a pickup to fly someone out, then a hovering aircraft can get them from a high place. I remember those helijets the Shadoloo troops fled Jokuzetsu village in!} she thought smugly. All it had taken was a call to Directory Assistance for the nearest facility to her with a helipad. The craft would have to land somewhere, since leaving the ship in the air over central Tokyo would risk detection or collision with the many aircraft over the city.

Sure enough, on the third-story roof of one building, there was a helipad... and on that helipad was a dark gray Shadoloo helijet.

Makoto smirked a bit wider and angled her scooter across a skateboard ramp. One Hayate later, she was arching through the air toward the helipad.

She folded up the scooter and slung it across her back in midflight, then made a solid three-point landing.  Someone in Shadoloo grays - probably the pilot - was standing outsside the aircraft, gawking at her, a cigarette he'd evidently been smoking falling out of his mouth in shock.

"Uh..." he managed, raising one hand in faint protest.

"Oh, hi," Makoto said cheerily, waving at him as she walked casually toward the plane. "Don't mind me, I'm kind of with Juli and Juni. See, I'm going to meet them a bit later - at least I hope I am - and I have to be sure whether or not their ride's in working order."

"Um... well.." the pilot dithered, trying to sort through the combination of his shock at her arrival, his reaction to her cute smile (Kawaii factor set to stun) and her casual patter, derived from Juni's frequent babble.

"Hmm, let's see," Makoto went on as she stepped into the plane and closed the hatch behind her. Several noises were audible from within.

"TANDEN REKI!"

CRUMP!

CRUNCH!

BANG!

WHAM!

**CRASH!!**

A moment later, Makoto opened the hatch and stepped back out, still smiling cheerily... and with one of the aircraft's steering columns slung over her shoulder. "OK, I'm satisfied about the state of repair of your plane," she quipped, one hand still out of view in the hatchway. "I'll just head off to meet the agents now. Oh," and she brought the hidden hand into view, holding a rough square of crumpled metal with a microphone loosely dangling from one side, which she handed to the pilot, "and here's the radio in case you want to call ahead. 'Bye!" she finished with a wave, and ran to the edge of the roof, dropping to the ground below as if she were landing from a superjump.

Alone on the roof, the pilot looked into his craft, and fell to his knees with tears dripping down his cheeks. "Oh! my god," he said, though it might have been "Oh! my car," for some odd reason.

[(G) bonus points to anyone who gets this reference!]

The mission had actually been quiet so far.

The low rumbling of an engine, this time one of a bus, was all that could be heard.  It was a pretty uneventful ride, especially considering that somewhere back there whatever was going on between Juli and Makoto most likely wasn't uneventful at all.

Besides the driver, no one else was riding the bus this late at night.  Sitting on the chair admist a sea of empty ones, Juni was alone.  At least due to the timing, there wasn't any traffic.  It was clear sailing from here.  If only Juni had the guts to do anything besides just look out the window...

Juni looked out the window.  She might have seen several buildings go by or maybe not.  She was too busy spacing out to notice.  Well, it must have been spacing out because before she knew it, the bus had stopped and she was at her destination.

"Thank you, Mr. Busdriver Man!"  Juni beamed as she proceeded to leap off the bus.   The busdriver was giving her wierd looks again.  What, guy never saw a girl wearing a full body dark leotard in the middle of the night when no one was awake taking a tour to the closed-for-the-night Tokyo Tower?  Hmm... it was probably because she accidentally paid him in Bison dollars before realizing that most of the world wasn't enlightened enough to realize their value, so she had to dip into her Avelle earnings instead. Of course, he's lucky she didn't glare at HIM because what the heck was a bus doing up this late at night, anyway?  Sometimes it was strange how things just seemed to fit in place as if some deity writer from above composed it that way just to make a point.

No matter.  She simply told the busdriver man that she found that Bison dollar bill on the floor.  And the winged skull logo she was wearing?  Just the latest fad, really!  Sheesh, Juli told her not to be publically seen but Juni really wasn't in the mood to walk all the way to the tower.  Nor was she in the mood to walk all the way to the top of there just to reach her ride.  Why spend time and energy struggling to get higher when life would take you there as long as you utilized the power you already had, correctly?

She was in the elevator.  Now all she had to do was wait for her ride to take her to the top.  At the peak of everything, she would have what she needed to bring to Shadowlaw the power necessary for everything.

At least, if it weren't for stupid idiotic things always getting in the way.

As the elevator rose, Juni removed the beeping micro-transceiver from her arm guard.  "Yea, Juli?  Yep!  I'm at the tower already.  Huh?  Walk?  Stay away from public view?  Of course I did!  Um... but..."

Yes, very stupid idiotic things.

Juni blinked.  "Makoto was acting suspicious and just ran off like that?  I... I don't think it's anything that could be bad.  Huh?  Well, yea... I guess... but... maybe she realized that we're friends so she shouldn't get in our way?  She did say she wasn't going to chase me, right?"

Veeeeeeery stupid idiotic things.

"Right?"

A pause.  Juni sighed as she slowly closed her eyes.

"Understood.  I'll keep my eye out.  But... I don't... want to have to fight..."

With that, she sadly put the transceiver away.  The elevator climbed higher, but somewhere out there, it was possible that Makoto was...  Juni closed her eyes, not wanting to think about it.  Unfortunately it looked like someone was back to make sure she couldn't ignore what might happen.

"So what do you think?  No wait, you tell me."  Leaning on the other side of the tower, Junivelle grinned.  "Tell me what do *I* think about Makoto?"

Juni's eyes remained shut.  She was not going to open them.  Not now.  Maybe it was all a fluke.  Maybe Makoto wouldn't be there.  Maybe Juli was just being paranoid.  And even if she wasn't, what would Makoto do?  Try to take the amulet by force?  The mission orders would have Juni kill someone if that someone got in the way because that person would jeapordize the mission, but...

"Makoto... helped me."  She stuttered.  "She's like... a friend of mine.  I wouldn't..."

Junivelle slowly walked up to Juni and opened her eyes.  She brushed aside her hair, then looked out to the moonlight sky as the buildings became smaller and smaller in the distance below to the point where they seemed nothing more than little lego blocks composing a big lego city with blinking little glow lights.

"I hate her."  Junivelle calmly stated.  "I hate Makoto and I despise anyone like her.  They are impudent little PMS brats who think they suddenly can impose their twisted opinionated form of justice on the world with their spazmatic rage power and mad skills.  They are fools who believe that the problems of the world can be solved through sheer violence with their heroic hes honor shit which really only serves to make other hes honor types cheer while the rest of the world either laugh or grow ever more discontent with the futility of it all."

The reaction from the listener was one of shock.  "Avelle!  That's just mean!"

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?"  She turned around to glare at Juni.  "Learn to handle it, because you certainly aren't doing so, now!  Or are you worried that you might hurt Makoto or Makoto might hurt you?  Awwww... but she's supposed to be your cuddwy wittle fwwiieeeeeend!!!"

"Hmph!"  Juni crossed her arms.  Obviously for some annoying reason, Avelle saw fit to play games with her.  "I know why you hate Makoto.  It's none of that.  You just hate her because thanks to that battle of Jokuzetsou which was led by her, we... lost... Bremare..."

Her head kneeled downwards as her voice became more quiet.

"Though... I don't think it was Makoto's fault, right?  It was an indirect cause and effect relationship.  Bremare ran away from Shadowlaw after the battle because a friend of his died on the field.  That could hardly be Makoto's fault, right?"

"Perhaps.  I guess I could tell you since I AM you, but you don't seem to be listening, anyway."  Junivelle shrugged.  "Really, if you had half a brain you would have realized that I prodded Bremare on purpose into leaving."

"You are NOT me!!!"  Juni snapped back.  "Avelle, I don't know why you're doing this but... Wait.  What did you just say?"

Juni raised an eyebrow and slowly glared at Junivelle, but the other agent didn't get intimidated at all.

"You didn't know?"  She replied with a smirk.  "Fenrir didn't let go, so I decided to help her out a little.  A test?  Oh please, we both knew that coward would bail the day you found out what happened from Avelle's journal tapes and realized the truth!  If not then, then the day that he bailed out on YOU.  Or do you forget that, already?  You've been forgetting a lot of things lately."

"You what?!?"  Juni stared at her in shock.  "That's not true!"

"Are you mad?  I did you a favor.  Makoto did, too."  Grinning somewhat, Juni's alter-ego leaned forward.  "Maybe now you'll finally get snapped back to reality."

Once again Juni closed her eyes, hoping to block Junivelle from her view.  This time, Junivelle must have decided not to bother opening them again because there was just more silence for a while as the elevator continued its upward trip.

"I... hate... Mak..."  Juni quickly looked up, but Junivelle was gone.  She frowned and put her hands on her hips.  "Hmph!  Fine!  Let Makoto catch up.  I'll talk to her, myself.  And no, Avelle, I am NOT happy with whatever happened so there!"

With that, she continued to the roof.  But her helicopter ride wasn't there for some reason.  Was that Makoto's game?  Since Shadowlaw helicopters weren't allowed to be late on schedule.  So that was it, then.  Confrontation was inevitable.  But it didn't matter.  Juni actually preferred it this way.

It was just as Juli suspected.  Good thing she called HQ for a back-up ride because whatever that Rindou girl did, their current ride wasn't there yet.  Of course, by now, it was too late anyway and there'd probably have to be a climactic battle of death but Juli wasn't that worried.  She was one of Shadaloo's elites for a reason and they outnumbered Makoto two-to-one, anyway.  That Makoto girl proved to be a capable fighter, but she couldn't be THAT good.

High Command's orders told her to just eliminate Makoto if she got in the way.  Juli noticed as she reached the top of the stairs to the tower peak that she was in the way now, quite literally.  Fortunately, she didn't notice Juli yet.  Unfortunately, for some reason Juli had a bad feeling that going for a neck snap wasn't going to work this time around, even with Juni there to distract Makoto.

Speaking of Juni, she seemed really depressed.  Juli really hoped she wasn't emotionally close to Makoto.  She really couldn't have known Makoto that well, could she?

"Hi, Makoto..."  Juni softly spoke, barely breaking the silence.

"Hi, Juni."  Makoto responded as she panted from exhaustion.  "Damn, those stairs are long!  I guess you took the elevator? Damn, I feel dumb.  I thought it'd be shut down this late in the evening..."

An exhaustion which probably was the reason she didn't notice Juni's depressed demeanor.

"Oh, that."  The blonde apparently forgot it, herself.  "Just took a little breaking into the circuit box and some basic re-wiring and all.  Being a Shadowlaw Agent sort of forces me to learn how to do these types of things.

"Oh."  Makoto replied with a simple shrug of her own, then looked questioningly at her friend of sorts.  "Juni, why do you want the amulet? It'd be easy to assume it was for some nasty purpose, since you work for Shadoloo, but..."  With an ironic smirk, she commented, "*you* showed me why 'Assume' is spelled 'Ass-You-Me.' So why?"

Damn, she was leaning back against the railing.  Juli found herself up in a really bad position to do anything when she quietly stepped out of the way and nearly fell off the stairs.  It looked like the neck snapping was definately not an option anymore.

"It's always too easy to assume Shadowlaw wants everything for 'nasty things.'"  Juni remarked, too depressed to notice Juli clinging to the tower wall off on the side, even though she probably could see her.  "I didn't want to do this to you... but I had to.  Because I never want that to happen again."

"'That?'"  Makoto winced as she realized what Juni was talking about.  "...Jokuzetsu...?"

"I heard this amulet was a large part of what happened there."  Juni sighed and closed her eyes as she continued.  "I heard you were a large part of what happened there.  And so, I wanted this amulet.  Or more specifically, I didn't want you to have it."

"Me? Hah. I led the guys in there, I lost them all, I let the Warriors scatter away from me for the most part, Shidoshi nearly killed me... yeah, I made a really big damn difference."  The steamroller girl's reply was really sarcastic, before she became serious.  "I wasn't even the one who took my Aunt down from where they had... NAILED HER TO THE WALL!  Dammit..."

To most other people, it would have been funny how Juni didn't notice Makoto's dismay over that.  Course, Juli knew enough about that part of Juni's mindset by now.

"Sometimes a leader is all it takes."  Juni casually remarked, ignoring Makoto's frustrated sobbing.  "Sometimes that's all everyone else, who had been so passive before, who had been so peaceful just a little earlier, need.  And so glorious beautiful death was met with yet more death on a massive destructive scale.  And all it did was hurt those who weren't directly involved, like my friend Bremare.  Which creates yet another domino effect and hurts those who didn't even know the battle existed... like me."

"...And others who were ignorant of the battle can be hurt and die because the fighters went off to celebrate. You remember Rin-Rin, Juni? The girl who dragged me off, then helped at the village? She's dead. She died with, and by the hands of, her husband, who had fallen in with renegades because *I* lost my temper with him."  Makoto replied as tensions heated up.  Juli would have so loved to lean back and smile at the scene if she weren't too busy getting back onto solid ground from her current position of clinging to a girder.  "D-damn it...  lucky for you this happened, huh? I was only wandering Tokyo because I didn't want to go back and tell Dad and Kho-Om abut Rin-chan and Roshon..."

Makoto probably would have begun sobbing if she didn't suddenly realize that someone else was watching.

"Hmm, someone else is on the stairs."  She quickly moved to the corner of the platform as Juli stared in surprise.  The Rindou girl was more perceptive than she realized.

"Oh don't mind me.  I wasn't going to ambush you anyway because I'm too busy trying to figure out what the hell you're all whining about."  Juli sarcastically snapped.  Time to stop playing around and just end this.  She quickly glared at her partner.  "What are you doing, anyway?"

"I was trying to stall."  Juni explained, though she didn't seem like she meant that.  "Our ride wasn't here."

"I contacted HQ.  I don't know what happened to our ride.  But they told me to just get rid of the Rindou girl if she continues to cause trouble."  The brunnette quickly motioned to her partner.  "Juni, come on."

"We'll..."  Juni stuttered.  "We'll be the same as her..."

"So we dance the dance again? I'm tired of this... so tired."  As she entered her defensive stance, Makoto sighed.  "If the amulet were mine to give, I'd let you have it... but it's not, and I can't."

Juli was also in her own stance but Juni was too busy taking offense at what Makoto just said.

"And as for your helijet at the Tokyo General helipad..."  A sly grin crossed Makoto's face as she tossed a steering column from her backpack to Juli.  "They've got some technical difficulties."

"You're tired?!?"  Ignoring the steering column, an suddenly peeved Juni glared at Makoto.  "You're the one going around always busting up Shadaloo operations whether they're simple budget-raising marketting of substances to customers or grand scale operations for the world!!"

"Hmm."  Off in the background unnoticed by the two, Juli glanced downwards as she saw a big flash down below among the city, then glanced at the steering column and sighed.  "There goes our ride."

"Mwah?"  A confused Makoto replied to the exasperated blonde.  "The only times I got involved with Shadoloo were when I saved my home village and rescued you! What's this about drugs?"

"What's this about drugs?  What's this about drugs?!?  Don't you remember anything?!"  Juni snapped out loud.  "You think you can run around beating up the legally questionable, busting up things that people worked hard to make, and destroying everything FOR GREAT JUSTICE and you don't even remember which organizations they belong to?!?  Who do you think you are?!"

She angrily waved her hand in the air to emphasize her point as Makoto's Ancestor's Amulet, which everyone forgot she was holding by then, ended up flying through the air from the motion.

"Do you have any idea what your kind has done to us at all!?"  Juni shouted as the amulet flew past her and off the rail.  Everyone slowly began to notice even as Juni was continuing her rant.  "You just... um... hmm."

That... was not good.

"NO!!!"  Both Makoto and Juli exclaimed as they dashed for the amulet.  Juli quickly lunged off the railing to grab it but missed as Makoto ran right behind her.  She lost her balance and almost fell and Makoto nearly toppled into her over the railing, herself.  Fortunately, Juni was able to grab Makoto's ankle and prevent Makoto from falling over.  Juli, however, wasn't so lucky.  Or... well, she sorta was lucky since Makoto managed to catch her hand but she really would have preferred that Juni have been the one to save her, too.

"Juli-san!! Don't let go!!"  Makoto shouted as she reached for Juli with her other hand, too.  "Grab on!!"

Wow, destiny must have had a thing for making Juli get spared by her enemies.

"Am I supposed to say 'I will never let myself be helped by you!' then let go and fall to my death now?"  Even while hovering over a really reeeaaaally long drop, Juli simply sighed as she rolled her eyes, then shrugged.  "I do have to admit that this is reeeeaaaaally embarassing... or at least probably would be if I weren't having a heart attack right now."

With that, she grabbed onto Makoto's other hand with her own other hand.

"PULL!"  Makoto shouted, though Juni was already struggling to pull them to solid ground by then.  When everyone was back on solid footing, Makoto looked off the side of the tower and sighed.  "Oh man. Auntie Comb'll never forgive me!"

She paused, then suddenly smiled.

"Hey, this means we don't have to fight!"

"Well, you know,"  Juli snapped.  "If we had just fought in the first place one of us would have had the stupid amulet by now!"

"Juli!"  Juni snapped back.  "Makoto just saved your life!"

Oh, that was all she needed.  Juli was NOT in the mood to get lectured by her partner.  She quickly glared at Juni.

"Look!  She wouldn't have HAD to save my life if you just stuck to your mission orders!  I just... look, you know what.  Nevermind."  The frustrated agent threw her hands in the air.  "Makoto doesn't want to fight and she's right, she doesn't have to.  It doesn't matter anyway.  She gets a pissed-off aunt who will never forgive her and we get a pissed-off lord of evil evilness who will never forgive us which is just a hundred times worse and I don't see why I bother with this anymore and..."

"Lord Bison isn't evil!"  Juni interrupted, ignoring everything else, before adding,  "We only had to take away the amulet, anyway.  No one besides Makoto could have used it.  I'm glad we didn't have to fight."

Juli sighed as Makoto clarified.  "Well, anyone could use it, but you'd need *really* tough ancestors to use it like I did, you're right.  The amulet lets - used to let - you channel the spirit of an ancestor to help you.  Oh well... not much to do about it now. Oh, and Juli-san?"

Still annoyed, Juli quickly looked up at Makoto.  "Yes?"

"If you mean what you said... that you don't know why you go on... well, I made Juni an offer once, and I'm making it to you too. If you ever leave Shadoloo, come to the Rindou Dojo here in Tokyo."  Makoto happily added with a grin.  "There's a place for you there.  We're both Juni's friends, after all!"

Juli blinked.  She barely knew Makoto and Makoto was already nice enough to invite her to her dojo.  She wanted to kill Makoto, to steal her amulet, to just overall beat her up yet Makoto was so fast to forgive her.  Juli worked for an evil organization but Makoto out of the goodness of her heart forgave all her sins and now Juli was invited to train in Makoto's Dojo and master that steamroller girl style!  Suddenly, it all made sense!

Not.

What kind of #@$@ed up shes honor girl were they dealing with?!?

"You... still feel that way?"  Ignoring Juli's stumped look, Juni hesitantly questioned further.  "But what if we were to have to fight again?  Would you have killed us at the Jokuzetsu village too, if we were there?"

Makoto turned a dead pale at Juni's accusation.

"Juni...!"  Shes honor indeed.  It would have been nice to see her snap back at Juli's partner, but Makoto quickly calmed down. "Juni, *I* wasn't the one doing most of the killing there. The only one I killed was Shidoshi, and I bet you know how outright savage and sadisitic she could get. Before... before Rin-chan died, I didn't think about it much. But on my first day out of Hong Kong, I remembered you... and I wondered if you'd be missing Shidoshi the way I miss Rin-chan."

Makoto sniffled as Juli rolled her eyes.  Juli wondered if she should bother asking who Shidoshi was but decided not to.

"That's why I've decided. No matter how much someone may deserve it, they could have friends who don't deserve to lose them... and I'm never going to kill again."   Makoto assertedly tightened her grasp on the railing she was holding onto.  "Not EVER AGAIN.  And no, Juni, I wouldn't have killed you."

The Rindou girl turned to address Juli.

"Or you."  Makoto added as she walked down the stairs past the steering colum.  "Oh... sorry about your ride!"

Wonderful.  She was Agent Juli, she who gets blown up by missles and spared by steamroller girls...

"Makoto, wait!"  Juni quickly yelled to the dejected girl.  Makoto paused and turned around as Juni slowly smiled.  "Thanks, Makoto.  That's all I wanted to hear."

"No problem."  Makoto replied with a warm smile of her own, before turning to jog off.  "You keep my offer in mind! If your boss is too peeved at you and it's dangerous to stay, come see me...!"

With that, she was gone.

Inwardly, Juli sighed.  Perhaps they did fubar the mission.  And if Lord Bison were to find out, he'd probably be quite angry, to say the least.  But it wasn't like it was a direct failure and the information stated the amulet wasn't that important...

Then again, who was she to judge?  They'd be reporting back to HQ and not Bison anyway, since Lord Bison still continued to mostly just pay attention to only one of them these days.  Who was Makoto to judge, too?

Juli frowned as she began the wait for their back-up ride.

It would be the last engine Juni and Juli would hear.  For the night, that is.  The mission was over.

High Command had reported that actual possession of the amulet was only a secondary objective.  Junivelle had managed to convince them that the Rindou girl was no longer a threat, anyway.

Juli, however, was pissed.

"CARE BEAR STARE!!!"  She shouted out to nothing in particular as she angrily stomped around the interior of their back-up helicopter transport.  "Let's all be happy and all!  Is he evil?  Oh dear!  Why not come over to my place!  Because you can't handle your own commander whom you're one of the personal agents of!"

She glared at Junivelle again.  Really, she really needed to ease up a little.  That couldn't be good for her heart.

"Do you have any idea how condescending that was!?"

Watching the angry girl stare at her, Junivelle could only happily smile.  "Of course, Juli!  But you shouldn't worry!  Makoto's just the cuddwiest cuddwy fwiend, isn't she?"

This caused Juli to stare at Junivelle really awkwardly.  Priceless.  Junivelle liked Juli enough, but yea, she needed to calm down.

"You... did... that... on purpose?!?"  Juli snapped.  "You almost got me killed!"

"I knew Makoto would save you."  The red-haired agent shrugged.  "For great justice after all.  But it allowed me to talk to her about something I wasn't sure about at first."

Hmm... Juli was getting rather serious.  Junivelle was probably being too hard on her partner.

Combing her blonde-hair off to one side, Juni sighed.  "I'm sorry, Juli.  I just had to make sure that we would never have to fight Makoto again."

"Huh?  We never fought her in the first place."

"Oh, WE fought her before, all right."  Juni glanced out the window and smiled.  "But I believe that we won't have to, anymore."

Glancing at the starlit sky, with the buildings and city lights far below, Junivelle couldn't help but smile too.  Because she won again.  Even if no one realized it.  The amulet which Makoto used during the battle of Jokuzetsu to give her the power to win was destroyed, but from what Juni had found out from her talk with Makoto, it turned out it didn't have to be.

Makoto invited them to her dojo.  Wasn't that nice?  But Junivelle figured that she got it backwards.

"Makoto..."  She muttered to herself.  "Someday, perhaps I will be the one inviting you.  To see the wonders which Shadowlaw will bring.  If you ever leave the 'dojo', I will invite you to come over to our brave new world."

The helicopter continued flying onwards through the sky as she laughed.

"There's a place for you, there."