Editor's Notes:  Here's a little something from me and a couple of my C-pals
from the Anime Round-Robin and Roleplaying Board
http://members.xoom.com/Sandtiger/fic.html . I know some of you are
extremely annoyed by the first person narrative voice; tough, deal with it.
That said, I hope you enjoy what follows and rest assured we are working on
more.  You might even consider helping us out, I still haven't chosen which
series I want to cross this over with.  I hope the formatting (or lack there
of) isn't too bad.  Also if you want to give me C&C, please e-mail me
directly, I have my account set up to filter out messages with "RE:[FFML]"
as I read that list mainly for the stories.

Guardian Angels

Written by
Maikoru
Iczel Prime
Shasta

Edited by
Maikoru

Part 1:  Angels In Hell

**Ranneko**

I look at the stranger in the mirror, and she is stranger than most.  She is
short, with a cute face, and a figure designed to stop traffic and get
boyfriends slapped silly for wandering eyes.  She has long, wavy red hair
which adds at least four inches to her hieght as well as cascading down to
the small of her back.  It's her eyes that suggest she might be other than
human, they are a bright green and have slit pupils like a cat's.  Also, her
tiny frame belies a superhuman strength, her cute ears conceal a sensitivity
and range far in excess of even a wolf's, the eyes are the only
non-deceptive sensory receptor they're just as sensitive as any cat's.  I'm
unable to think of anything else I may have looked like before, but I _know_
this isn't it.  You see, my body isn't the only thing that they've been
messing with, they've been messing with my mind as well.  I answer to the
name Ranneko with no hesitation of confusion, but sometimes, late at night,
when I'm half-asleep, I can almost remember what my real name is.  I may
object to their methods and complete disregard for basic human rights, but
if I knew the results they'd achieve, I _might_ have volunteered.  Eidetic
memory with the exception of times they've specifically blocked from me,
perfect pitch, and a savant-like mathmatical ability are just a few of the
talents they've brought out or programmed into me.

In describing myself, I've mentioned _them_ several times, you're probably
wondering who they are, I wish I knew.  Doctors and scientists of some sort
for the most part, as far as I can tell.  The names they have me use for
them are as contrived as the one I answer to, mostly taken from famous
fictional characters or obvious physical traits.  Whoever they are, they are
extremely well funded and savvy.  Another thing I wish I knew, what makes
me, one person, even with the abilities they've given me, worth the time and
money spent to get me this way, and what do they plan to do with me?

**Soujiro**

I glance up from my computer screen where these strange words are displayed
and shake my head at Ranneko studying herself in the mirror.

*That's useless*, I think to myself, *There's nothing of who we _were_ in
who we _are_.*  I am perversely certain of that. Our new appearances are too
- 'new' to us to be any relation to our former faces.

I am called Soujiro Seta now. I have bushy blue hair so light in colour as
to be nearly gray, and my face is large-eyed and childlike, with a smile so
innocent it could thaw ice and sweeten lemons, and my build is slim and -
bishonen? That word isn't part of my programmed memory, yet I know it just
the same. I have a few of the same gifts as my redheaded cohabitant: Eidetic
memory and perfect pitch, though my senses aren't as acute as hers.

Still, my body is just as amazing as Ranneko's: I have no superhuman
strength, but I can absorb an unbelievable amount of punishment, and my
speed is such that only the most highly-trained human eye can track me. Even
Ranneko has trouble.

I think I was supposed to have the same sort of senses as my roommate, but
from a different means. I move as I do by channeling my will through my
muscles: I suspect that my senses were supposed to work similarly.

They don't. If I concentrate on sensing things, I sense things that the
common five senses can't percieve. It's erratic, and so far 'they' don't
know about it...

...I think.

Visions of other times, flashes of thought: even stranger things as well. My
inner sense may be a blessing, or a curse: who can say...

...but it _has_ given me a glimpse of who I was. I have fleeting images of a
family, a home - and a betrayal. I think I discovered something that seemed
a betrayal: then nothing between then and when I first woke up here, in a
spare examination room, alone.

They watched me at first: seemingly afraid. That was before I 'saw' my past,
so I had no idea why they might be frightened of me - the innocent that my
face makes me seem.

After they calmed down, I was examined: after that, I was moved here. It
wasn't long after that that I met Ranneko. As for what the future holds...
who knows?

Unless of course my inner sense feels like telling me...

Thought not.

Who else is here?

How many are we? Ranneko, Soujiro, and who else?

And why.......

**Yuri**

I don't know where they're taking me.  I want to know where.  Where are they
taking me?

I'm scared.

I can't see their faces today.  Yesterday they were scientists, and they
made me hurt a lot.  Today, they aren't.  They are strong people, and they
have me by the arms, and something is draining my strength...  This
shouldn't be happening.  I feel numb.

They say my name is Yuri.  I respond correctly, I talk when they want me to,
and I do what they say.  Maybe they'll let me go, one day.

Maybe they won't.

I don't think my name is Yuri.  I can't remember what it is, if it was
anything different, but I don't think it is Yuri.

I think something has been done to me.  I remember yesterday, but I don't
remember the day before, if there ever was one.  I don't... remember
anything.

Where are they taking me?

I'm stronger than I used to be, I know that. And I can see better, and hear
better.  I think.  But I don't know what I ever was.

I have a headache.

I think there is something wrong with me.  I don't know what it is, but I
just feel... That something inside me isn't quite right.  It's not a pain,
exactly... just a sense.  I don't think they know it. Not yet.

They will.

They throw me into a room, and I skid across the floor for a distance,
before friction halts me. There are two people already in there, one girl
and one boy.  I look up at them, from my position on my knees.

I know what they are seeing.  A girl, seeming around seventeen or eighteen,
with eyes that look far younger blinking up at them.  Blue eyes, as pale as
ice but not as cold. Blond hair, with darker streaks, and, occasionally, a
childlike smile.  But not now.

I know I should look younger than I do, or act older than I feel.

I'm confused.

Who are these people?

Who am I?

**Ranneko**

I hear something being dragged towards our room from the far end of the
corridor. I also hear Soujiro calling my introspection useless, it's amazing
to me how often people subvocalize even the most private of their thoughts.

I turn from the mirror, "Heads up, 'Jiro-kun! We're about to have company."
I say moments before a tangle of awkward limbs and blonde hair is shoved
unceremoniously through the door.

I know the gaurds don't care much about us, but this level of calousness
stuns me.  The figure on the floor sorts untangles itself, revealing a girl
with what I'm coming to recognize as our standard way-above-average good
looks.  Her eyes, however, hold none of the cynicism that Soujiro and I have
cultivated to survive this place; they look like they're about to cry.  It
feels like something melts in my chest as she draws a shuddering breath,
getting ready to let loose.

Acting quickly, I sit down on the floor next to her and offer her a warm
hug. "My name isn't Ranneko, but you can call me that until I find out what
it is."

**Soujiro**

Ranneko warns me moments before the door is thrown open and a girl is thrust
inside by the guards. I sit calmly, expecting her to show our programmed
reflexes and regain her balance or at least control her fall.

She doesn't.

Watching her tumble with eyes that are used to superspeed gives me an
alarming view of the fall. She lurches forward and loses her balance,
stumbles off her right foot, falls forward with arms flailing out, just
misses breaking her elbow on the tile floor, and skids, rotating around her
center of gravity until she comes to a halt.

Rage, pure and unsullied, fills me. *How dare they?* I rage in my mind,
*Treating _us_ like that is one thing, but a child like this?*

"My name isn't Ranneko, but you can call me that until I find out what it
is," Ranneko offers aloud to the newcomer, and I jolt in my chair as I look
that way.

The new girl has turned so she's facing away from me, and her skirt rode up
during that spin, and I have... uhhh... quite the view...

I'm sure my red face and blue hair make an interesting contrast right now. I
turn away and look at the ceiling in a futile effort to calm down as I offer
my own introduction - though I'm sure I'd be much more impressive if I only
had some idea what I was saying...

I suffer a fleeting memory of some girl who looks like Ranneko with a
ponytail punching some clod into the upper atmosphere while yelling about
him being a pervert. I hope Ranneko's more tolerant than that, or I may not
survive...

**Yuri**

I can still feel the threatening tears, too close for safety. But this
girl... who's name isn't Ranneko... she is nice. I think. The boy with the
blue hair is mumbling something incoherent, and he's gone all red. I've...
I've still got a headache.

"I'm Yuri..." I say eventually, very quietly, even to my own ears "But I
don't think I am, not really... I think they took my name away from me... I
don't know where it's gone...

"What am I doing here? They did something weird to me, and I can't remember
anything... They made me hurt a lot. I don't think I am what I used to be,
any more. I think.

"I've got a headache..."

Sou...ji...ro... The boy's name is Soujiro. I whisper it under my breath,
repeating it several times. It's something I know. No one told me. But I
just know it.

I want to go home.

But I don't have one...

**Soujiro**

I frown as the girl fights back tears. My hormones retreat before my
sympathies, and my mind focuses again..

...just in time for a sudden, split-second headache.

<Sou..ji..ro. The boy's name is Soujiro.>

Was that the girl? Yuri?

I shake my head, refusing to bother with any "my name isn't, but" nonsense.
Maybe when I find out my old name, I'll use it instead, but for now, Soujiro
is who I am.

Ranneko is scowling at me, and I move down to say 'hello' to our new
companion. "Hi!" I say. "My name is Soujiro, but you knew that, right?" My
voice is high and soft, boyish and almost feminine. "Ranneko and I don't
know where this is, really, or what happened. The people here are
experimenting on us - that's why we can do what we can," I explain in a
calming voice.

"We don't remember our lives before we came here, but we'll find out
someday," I reassure her. "Just calm down - you can lie down on the bed
there, and your headache should go away soon."

As Ranneko and I help Yuri to the bed, my thoughts dwell on our captors.
Before, I had been content to stay here until I could discover more
information about myself.

Now... if they would inflict horrors on a child as Yuri seems to be,
obviously neither Ranneko nor I would be safe. We have to escape, and my
past be damned.

And... for this kind of cruelty, I cannot forgive them.

We will escape - but someday I'll be back. And 'They' will pay...

**Them**

A figure sits in darkness, staring at various monitors. Some show various
biometric data of the test subjects in real time, the large central one
shows a view of their room and the aftermath of the introduction of the
latest one.

"Hmm, looks like our young man is finally deciding to make his move." the
figure speaks too quietly to determine gender, and its form is still
obscured by shadows. The figure then spins its chair around to speak into an
intercom microphone, revealing himself in the glow from the monitors, a
non-descript salaryman. "This is Oscar Goldman, Soujiro is showing signs of
initiating Phase Two, be prepared to minimize damage to the personnel and
equipment of this facility, and bring the long range monitors on line.
Goldman out."

**Soujiro**

Soujiro' face comes as close to a scowl as it ever does as he comes to grips
with the problem before him.

*I need to get all three of us out of here - I'd never forgive myself if I
left either Ranneko or especially Yuri in this situation. The problem is,
given the constant surveillance, how can I plan anything with them, or warn
them? Anything I say could be picked up by the microphones-*

He smiles brightly as a solution occurrs to him. Subvocalizing, never quite
actually saying the words outside his throat, he 'called' "Ranneko!"

She doesn't react visibly, but her attitude suggests a cat that had just
perked up its ears. Heartened, Soujiro continues. "We can't stay here any
longer - not with the guards willing to mistreat a child like that. We have
to get out of here - preferably at the next chance. Are you with me?"

He sits back and waits for some signal from Ranneko, one way or the other...

**Ranneko**

I consider Soujiro's offer as I relax in a steamy shower, the hot spray
relieving tense muscles and I _know_ any observers won't be paying any
attention to my facial expressions as I think. I should be jealous, weeks it
has been just the two of us together, and he had not shown any particular
need to get away. This girl Yuri shows up, he not only blushes at an
inadvertant view of her posterior, a reaction I've never gotten even on
those few occasions where I've shown more, but he suddenly decides that
_now_ is the time to get away! It is impossible to blame the cute blonde
though, from the moment she tumbled into our room my instinctive response
has been that of a mother to her kitten, and this is no place to properly
raise a child.
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com