Dances with Death.

"Sorry, I'm just... its starting to hit me like a, um... uh... a two ton heavy thing."

Queensryche- "Empire"

"So, have you met Nene's new friend?" Linna asked, sipping her beer. Priss, who was setting across the table from her shook her head no. Whoever this Hotaru person was, Nene had never mentioned her before that day.

"Hey guys!" a familiar voice called. Linna turned, spotting the red-headed Russian making her way though the crowded bar towards them. Walking with her was a tall, black haired woman at least a year or two Nene's senior. However, it wasn't her age that made her look completely out of place next to Nene. It was her black leather mini-skirt, the spiked choker around her neck and matching gloves, and the tatoos that were spackled over much of her visible flesh. One particularly graphic one ran up the side of her right arm. Some kind of long spear thing with the planet earth impaled on top. Bright red blood seemed to drip from the slaughtered planet, decoratively portrayed across her shoulder. The words Death, Reborn, and Revolution accompanied the graphic, in bloody looking calligraphy.

"Holy shit." Priss murmured. Linna nodded mutely. Nene, meanwhile, led her friend over to the table Priss and Linna had staked out and sat her down. The halter top and jacket this Hotaru girl sported made Priss's stage outfit look positively demure.

"Linna, Priss, this is Hotaru." Nene introduced. Hotaru held out her hand, and after a moment's hesitation, Linna took it. Priss and Nene followed the example, allowing them to shake as one.

"Charmed." Hotaru said, smiling. The voice seemed oddly demure in such a graphic body, a fact that momentarily startled Linna. Had the girl's body not been a few feet in front of her, Linna would have sworn the voice was that of a sixteen year old choir girl. The voice was almost intoxicating... relaxing. Linna suppressed a small shudder. "So, you're the infamous Priss, huh?" Hotaru said, nodding to the head Replicant. Priss nodded, smiling with some level of relief showing.

"Yup." Priss replied, "This is what I look like out of costume." Hotaru flashed her a knowing grin, one that incidently startled and baffled Priss, before turning to address Linna.

"Which means you're the stock-broker, ne?" Linna smiled faintly, nodding. There followed a slight pause as the two looked at each other.

"So, what do you do?" Linna asked at length, trying to jump-start the conversation. "Nene's never mentioned you before..."

"I run a tatoo parlor." Hotaru replied, grinning. Priss bit her lip, apparently rather amused by the look on Linna's face. The sight of sudden comprehension must look funny, Linna supposed.

"Lookie at THIS!" Nene said suddenly, yanking up the sleeve of her AD Police uniform. On her right shoulder was a rather ornate design; the constellation Centauri. "I got another one too," Nene went on, "But I can't show you where that one is!"

Linna choked on her beer while Priss's chin landed hard on the table, her arm having fallen out from under it. Hotaru and Nene snickered, exchanging an amused glance as the pair collected themselves. "That one says 'Abandon hope all ye who enter here.'" Nene informed them. "I got the idea from a Dirty Pair manga...."

"I need another drink." Linna murmured.

"So," Hotaru said as Linna stumbled towards the bar, "Who wants to head out onto the dance floor? I almost never have a chance to go to clubs, so I don't wanna waste this!" She chuckled, stretching her back, giving the people at the next table a rather interesting sight.

"I'll go." Priss said, standing. "Its been a while since I danced to any Thrash I wasn't singing." Nene demurred, saying she would wait until Linna got back. With semi-identical shrugs, Priss and Hotaru headed out onto the dance floor.

"Hey, I love this song!" Hotaru exclaimed as Machine Head began playing. She began swaying to the beat, her head nodding rhythmically to the metallic pulse. Priss joined her, fast-dancing a few feet away. "Breath in, breath out, breath in...." Hotaru whispered with the speakers, head-banging. Priss watched a moment as the girl's hair flared around her, an ebony blur in constant fluid motion. Then, Priss closed her eyes and began trying to give herself whiplash.


"Where're Priss and Hotaru?" Linna asked, returning with a scotch. Nene nodded to the dance floor. Linna craned her neck... "Oh my lord!"

On the dance floor, Priss and Hotaru were jumping around like maniacs, head-banging slowly with the beat of an old Queensryche song. Several other dancers had formed a semi-circle, leaving the pair room to go wild. Every so often, they and the other dancers yelled "Empire!" along with the song. Laser effects and spotlights flashed around them, giving the scene an almost supernatural intensity.

"Death, you feel it coming?!?" Hotaru screamed, her fist shaking in the air. "Empire!" Priss added, "Yeah YEAH!!"

"Christ, Nene." Linna murmured, "What'd you do, clone Priss? How in the world did you meet this Hotaru person?"

"Daley and I've known her for a while." Nene said smugly. "She's into the whole dark, goth thing, but she's a real nice person underneath. Its just her way of relieving stress."

"Stress?" Linna asked, "She does tatoos all day. What stress??"

"That's not very nice, Linna." Nene scolded. "She's got her share of troubles."

"Yeah, that outfit." Linna murmured. Nene smacked her upside the head, escalating the squabble.


"Hair flashing, lights glittering, voices yelling, Priss danced. More than danced, she let go. She let go of everything and just moved, thrashing her body around the dance floor. Empire was her all time favorite song; it told her story perfectly. The MegaTokyo story. Even the ADP's story. "...than on Law Enforcement." she murmured with the announcer.

"Death, you feel it coming! Death, you hear it calling!" Hotaru screamed, her body contorting less than a foot from Priss's own. Together, Priss's right hand clasping Hotaru's left, the pair head-banged to the last, dying throngs of the song. On the final word, they parted, each falling to the floor.

Priss lay there, panting a moment. Her neck ached, her back hurt, and she felt sick. "That was great..." she croaked. Then, a shadow fell across her view. She looked up to see a pale hand extended to her. Stenciled on the hand was a black ink drawing of the planet Saturn, its rings colored in blood red. Priss took the hand, allowing Hotaru to help her up. Together, they stumbled back to the table.

"You were singing the wrong words, Hotaru-chan." Priss managed as she was deposited in her seat, "The line is 'Can't you hear it calling?'. You kept replacing Can't with Death."

"Did I?" Hotaru asked, smiling. "I didn't notice."

Priss shook her head, then noticed that Linna and Nene were gone. A note left by the paid bar-bill stated that Nene had taken Linna home; Linna had had a bit too much to drink. Priss snickered, then ordered another round for herself and Hotaru.

"Looks like its just the pair of us tonight." Priss said, grinning.

"Yup," Hotaru replied, "Just you, me, and the leches." She flicked a thumb over her shoulder, towards the bar where several beer-guzzling men were eyeing them. Priss laughed, her eyes sparkling as Hotaru grinned wider. Something about this raven-hared girl just felt so right, Priss thought. Things hadn't felt this right since...

"I haven't had this much fun since..." Priss trailed off, her thoughts catching up with her words. The grin on her face faded out, slipping from her face, leaving behind a wash of melancholy.

Hotaru saw the transformation and reached her hand out to comfort the brunet. "Priss, what's wrong?" Priss shrugged the hand away, turning away so that Hotaru couldn't see her face. Priss didn't want Hotaru to see the pain that burned her soul.

"I just..." Priss began, "I just- I mean..." Priss paused, her normal excuses sounding pathetic at best. She just didn't feel like lying. She couldn't handle it. That meant... "There was someone... I cared for," Priss said softly. "You... remind me of her. And... it just... feels strange for me to be having these feelings now." Priss made to turn away, to escape back the mask of indifference she relied on, but a touch from Hotaru's hand brought her back. Priss sat down hard, unable to get up, to escape. Blinking, Priss turned back to look at the girl.

"Hotaru-chan...?" Priss whispered, startled by what she saw before her. The woman she sat across from seemed to be the same one she'd been dancing with minutes before... the same tattoos and outfit and body. But something about her was suddenly changed. Her violet eyes grasped Priss with a power that vastly outclassed what her hand was doing. There was a tragic sadness there, residing deep within those violet orbs. A sadness that Priss knew well.

"This person..." Hotaru said slowly, "You saw her die, ne?"

"Hai..." Priss whispered. Somewhere deep inside, Priss knew that Hotaru knew everything. Knew by experience. Those eyes told her so.

Priss sighed, knowing what was next. Hotaru'd say something like 'you had to do it' or 'it wasn't your fault'. Everyone did. There was a part of her that felt betrayed, that Hotaru was like all the others, giving Priss forgiveness for what could not be forgiven.

"I lost someone too." Hotaru told her, the girl's voice a barest whisper. "I was such a bitch... had to prove how independent I was... that I wasn't a sickly little girl any more." Hotaru paused a moment, sniffling. For an instant, just one instant, she seemed to lose ten years of her age.

"You... you didn't forgive me," Priss stammered. "You didn't tell me... that it wasn't my fault." Nobody had ever done that. They always forgave... it made her sick, but they never learned. They always tried to help her, to reassure her.

Hotaru merely smiled weakly. Pathetically.

"How can I forgive you when I can't forgive myself?"

Priss rubbed her head, trying to remember, to shake off her hangover. She couldn't remember how she had gotten home. The last thing she was sure of was moving to comfort Hotaru. She'd hugged the girl, only to find herself gazing into those violet eyes. They had kissed. Then a blur. Vague memories of waving suggested a cab...

Priss gave up, choosing instead to twirl her fingers through Hotaru's black hair. The girl, for all her punk-esque nature, slept like a small child in Priss's arms. Hotaru was huddled close, her head on Priss's breast, as if seeking warmth and comfort in the darkness. "Big City, everyone a child lost in love." Priss whispered softly, quoting her hit "Konya wa Huricane".

It was almost hard, Priss mused, to see such an innocently sleeping girl doing... well, doing what they had done upon their arrival at Priss's trailer. That she could remember pretty clearly....

Slowly, Priss stroked Hotaru's soft skin, imagining for a moment that the girl was her daughter, not her lover. She gazed upon Hotaru's beautiful features and raven hair, wishing that the girl would never again suffer pain or loss. "Funny," Priss murmured to herself, "I never thought of myself as the maternal type."

It was true, though. This girl stirred fires deep within Priss's soul. She liked the feeling. She wanted to continue feeling like this. What ever that meant in her life, she wanted it.

Hotaru shifted, making a noise. Priss hushed her, stroking her hands through Hotaru's ebony hair. "Shhh... sleep. You don't need to get up now. We have plenty of time..."

It was raining again. The dark clouds over MegaTokyo were once again wetting the citizens... the boomers and the Tower... with the substance from which life sprang. It was part of a cycle. Live fell from the sky as death emerged from below.

Rain at a funeral was so cliche, Hotaru thought. Her black dress seemed all too appropriate, considering who she was. *Death visits a funeral,* Hotaru thought, *what disgusting irony.*

Nene and Linna stood beside her, as did a woman named Reika, a boy named Machie, an old man named Raven, and a younger blond man named Fargo. Also there was a second red-headed ADP officer, her friend Daley. His partner had refused to come... some kind of break down. The rest of them were here to attend a pair of funerals. *Die one, get one free.* Hotaru thought, bitterly.

She had never met Sylia Stinglay. She'd never had the chance. A mere twenty-four hours after Nene introduced her to Priss, Sylia and Priss had died. *Hotaru the dark angel strikes again.* she thought, self-hatred burning within her. She'd done it again... she'd gotten close to someone. That had signed Priss's death warrant. Everyone Hotaru had ever been close too had died. Everyone.

Linna seemed slightly distracted. Hotaru kept her own face forward, pretending not to notice the confused looks Linna was giving her. She understood why; Linna had to be wondering what had happened to her tatoos. Hotaru's pale skin was now unadorned, the ink in her upper layers of skin vanishing with a word. They were all gone, now. All but one.

A black sleevelet hung from an armband just under her shoulder, hiding the bloody planet Earth and Silence Glaive. This one was special, a brand she had given herself in a fit of self loathing. She remembered that night, driving the needle deep into her arm, blood and tears dripping on her fuku. She'd engraved it into her arm the night her father died.

It was her mark, her shame. It was there to tell the world "I am the scourge! The Angel of Death, the Dark Messiah, the Apocalypse Senshi, Death Incarnate, Black Saturn, the terrible bringer of death, darkness, pain, and suffering." It was her way of screaming to the world to hate her, to know her for the scum she was.

It also spelled out her deepest desire... to just give up and see it all burn. Twice now she had transformed, tears streaming down her face, and called back her broken Glaive. Twice she had almost spoken those three words... the three words that would end the world. She'd done this alone, in the dark, where no one could stop her. No one but herself. The day her father died, she'd said "Death." When she found out about Priss... "Death Reborn."

*Someday,* Hotaru mused as the rain trickled down her face, *I'll say Revolution. Someday, when I just don't care, I'll say it and then everyone will die. I'll be dead, they'll be dead, and we'll all be better off.*

The service ended and the others walked off, leaving Hotaru standing next to the grave. She didn't move for hours, a dark shape at the top of the hill, her hair tucked back in her jacket. From afar, her hair seemed to shape into a hood, making her black dress look like a long black cloak. And, when a long forked spear appeared in her hand, no one on earth would have questioned that the Grim Reaper herself stood atop that hill.