Part II

Jae looks at the tablet of paper with the plan Beryl had had written out for him blankly.

"Dark Kingdom to Jae. Come in, Jae," Zoi says after looking up from her copy of the plan.

"Huh?" Jae says, turning his eyes vaguely towards her.

Kunz raises a brow. "He's still in another world apparently."

Neph smirks, "Jae, that girl from today is lying naked on your bed calling for you."

Jae sends Neph a dirty look after blinking out of his daze. "Haha, very funny, Neph."

"Still thinking about that girl?" Kunz asks.

Jae nods and sighs, running his fingers through his hair, "I can't get her out of my mind."

"She did nail you pretty well," Zoi comments, earning a glare from him.

"Since none of you are doing me any good, I'll just leave," Jae grumbles, standing.

"Where are you going?"

"To do my job. Spy on the girl."

Before the others could throw any more comments at him, he disappears to find Diana.

"You're not letting me go to the dojo?" is the first thing Jae hears when he appears floating in a tree in the massive, landscaped yard of a large, mansion-like house.

"Diana. You KNOW fighting isn't lady-like enough for any lady of this family to pursue."

"Mother, you know better than anyone else that I'm not a lady! Furthermore, martial arts are far more than just fighting!"

"It doesn't matter what you may think what this fighting is! We're stopping this supposed training of yours! You should be more like your sister Naomi!" Comes her father's irate voice.

Jae grimaces, Diana's parents reminding him of Beryl with PMS.

"You can't!" Diana's voice has a bit of a tremble to it. "And there's no way in hell that I'm gonna be like that plastic angel you and all your snobby friends call perfect!"

There's the sound of a fist hitting a face, then the thud of a body hitting the floor and rolling.

"How dare you speak of your sister like that?! She's accomplished more in the past two years than you have in your entire 16!"

"I'm 17! Going to be 18 in a month! That just goes to show what you consider accomplishments! She's been in beauty contests since the cradle! And tomorrow morning, I'm testing for my second dan! But that doesn't matter because you're both to concerned with your fucking image to care about anything else!"

Jae cringes again, feeling anger rise in his throat. He forces it down, not quite sure why he feels so strongly about this girl.

There's the sound of a body being struck by a blunt object, then Diana's father bellowing, "You are to go to your room and not come out until school starts again!"

"What?!? That's not for another week!"

"I know that perfectly well! Now go do as youíre told!"

After a few moments, the sound of a door slamming is heard and Jae can see Diana in her room.

One of her arms and one of her legs were bandaged from the scrapes she got earlier in the day, one of her cheeks was starting to go purple. She moves with a slight limp, as well. She also lookes very tired from the slight energy drain.

As he watches, she smoothly takes care of her wounds.

"Zoi," Jae telepaths.

"What is it, Jae?"

"Diana's hurt."

"Diana?"

"Hai, the girl who has the crys..." he pauses, "how did I know her name?"

"I don't know...but of course she's hurt, she took quite the spill."

"She's hurt more then. She and her family just had an argument and her father hit her several times."

He blinks as she takes off her shirt, not being able to help eyeing up her various assets, and grimaces at the purpled flesh where she was hit in the ribs.

"She might have a few broken ribs," Jae telepaths.

After she finishes attending to her wounds, she slips her gi jacket on over her jeans and opens her window, a bag strapped securely to her back.

"She's not..." Jae absentmindedly telepaths as Zoi teleports next to him, unable to reign in her curiosity.

They both watch in mild surprise as she leaps from the window and into the huge tree that stands nearby.

"By Metallia, Jae. This girl has the makings of a ninja."

"I can see that..."

They follow her through the trees until they're out of sight of the house.

As Diana falls out of the trees, landing gracefully on her feet with a soft thud, Jae and Zoi transform into civilian cloths and step out behind the limping Diana.

They then come up beside her. Jae on her left, the same side as the bruised cheek, and Zoi on her right, where her injured ribs are.

Diana stops and looks coldly at the two, first Jae then Zoi.

"Having fun with the rollerblades?" she asks in a monotone before continuing on.

Zoi blinks and Jae looks at his sister in confusion as Diana leaves them behind.

Zoi shrugs before catching up with her, Jae not far behind.

This time, Diana totally ignores the two, simply struggling along. The shooting, burning pain of her ribs gradually slows her down.

Zoi sighs in exasperation. "You're not going to get rid of us by ignoring us, you know."

"Damn," is the only word out of Diana's mouth in reply to that.

Zoi scowls as Jae tries a more gentle approach.

"We only want to help..." Jae starts.

"Help? You want to help? How?! By attacking me during my only free time away from my 'loving' family and then stealing my only mode of transport home and leaving a threatening note?! If that's your idea of help, you can take it and shove it!" Diana explodes, taking the note out of her back pocket and throwing it into the stunned Jadeite's face.

Diana grits her teeth in pain, struggling along again, saying to the two through gritted teeth, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an Aikido class to attend to." 

Part I
Part III
Beginnings and Endings Index