Perhaps our final meeting [invite only]

It felt like such a long morning. After the confrontation with the super ape and the various saiyans around the block, Flare did what Flare did best. Actually help whoever was left in that forsaken Citadel. She felt like trash, utterly useless in the situation leading up to that. Hell, she had to use tricks to confuse people into taking Jax instead of her. “[Maybe the old man was right… I’m not a fighter. I was never as good as-]” While she was thinking to herself in a bit of pity, her robot had come back to her. His disposition seemed… different, though. Flare and Jax both greeted one another, the former doing her usual ‘Hey Jax’ while the little robot in question was nodding.

“Ahh, yes yes. I see you have done my job for me? Splendid, you’re such a great servant!” Flare squinted her eyes at the bot and just laughed it off at first.

“Right, right. Hey, nice job distracting that weird kid for me, buddy. Saved me the trouble in saving these people.” She had to flaunt it off somehow. The young flame shouldn’t be seen as a sourpuss or anything.

“Mhm. We’ll be leaving now. Alright?” Jax seemed to be serious about this thing. “[What did I do to mess him up now? He still thinks he’s an actor.]” This was just a thought though. Of course, she just opened her mouth to say something unintelligent instead.

“Excuse fucking me? Yeah, we WILL be leaving. Come on!” Flare dragged him by the antenna through the citadel, all the way up to her hovercar. Throwing him in haphazardly and coming along beside him in the Driver’s seat. The little bot situated himself as the two started taking off.

“Flare, my Servant, we’re headed back to the mansion. Yes?” Flare eyed her robot as they both buckled up and started flying the hovercar away.

“‘Your Servant’? Boy, didn’t I tell you to drop the pretending thing. You don’t have to keep acting like you’re that famous actor. So stop.”

“It’s not an act, I only do that on the stage.” The fire elemi grabbed the wheel a little too hard on her car, bending its metal inwards.

“Jax, I’m going to tell ya again. I’m not your servant, I’m your creator. Stop. Pretending.” Slowly, flames had started rolling off her hair. “I will fucking dismantle you, I swear to the kais!” Her roused yelling seemed to work in at least keeping the robot quiet, though he still leaned back in his chair almost pompously.

---

It didn’t take long for them to cross the desert, forests, and eventually go back to her estate. Jefferson manor, in all of its glory. The robot pretended to take a big sniff in as the two got closer to touching down in her garage.

“Ahh, nothing like home. Don’t ya say, S-” The young flame dropped the car hard against the ground in a bit of a fuss that cut his speech off, she the first to open her door and stretch her limbs. The shaken robot stumbled out slowly after, falling on his feet with a loud clank. The guard overseeing the garage immediately welcomed the two with a nod and continued doing his… watching thing.

As for Shizen, trying to sneak into the young flame’s room, a few maids would be roaming the place. It being Flare’s room, they’d probably be around to make sure it stayed clean. One such maid, a young woman, knocked a few times on the door and called for Flare. By her Earthling name. “Jackie, ma’am?” It must have been some new hire, as the maids should have already been told the young flame was out, and such they didn’t need to knock to make sure they weren’t busy.

“Hello?” The maid asked as she started opening the door anyways, looking inside with some rather youthful bulbous eyes.

The young maid took one look at the supposed intruder and beckoned one of the other maids over, from across the hall. “Missus, there’s someone in here!” The young maid then made some daring dash towards the intruder; She was slow by any fighter's standards, but she'd try anyways. Just trying to grab the halfie. This older looking woman who looked through the doorway gave Shizen a lookover before recognizing immediately who she was. This maid tried walking up to the two of them. Then she'd peer at the younger maid and thwack her on the back of the head rather playfully.

“That’s the flower girl, noob.” Then looked back up at Shizen with a more motherly smile. “I’m sorry about that, what was it you were doing here? Was you wanting to see Jackie?”

“She was returning the madam’s radar, miss.” The younger one simply pointed, the older one squinted at said pointed object.

“Ahh. Um, is Jackie here?” She would first ask the younger maid before waving the question off. Assuming the young one didn’t know. Instead, she just patted the younger maid and went off. “Stay put you two, alright?”

---

Jax and Flare were on their way to the kitchen, firstly. The young flame hadn’t had breakfast nor lunch yet. This older maid, however, caught the two while they were walking in the lobby and waved them over.

“Huh?” Flare perked a brow at the maid before being told of Shizen being here. Jax tilted his head at the mention and looked back up at the elemi with bulbous eyes.

“That’s your problem.” And now he’s starting to act like an ass. The little robot walked of to the kitchen without her, the young flame clenching her fists as she watched before just letting it go, nodding towards the maid and following her back to the room. Between all this, this younger maid would just be nervous watching Shizen, seeing if she was going to try fleeing without the others coming back.

They’d be back pretty quickly, the older maid and Flare actually stepping into the room this time. The young flame took a single look at Shizen with some widened eyes.

“Shizen? What… are you doing here?” She stepped a bit forward to the half-elemi, eyeing the room around her in the process. Was she just not trying to look at her? "I, didn't expect ya to be back. I mean, after all we did you ended up leaving. With my radar- That... you brought back?" She just blinked at the controller, mustering up some dignity to lock her red eyes with Shizen's greens.

"Ah. Shit, I was... I'm sorry, I was a bit mad that you upped and left like that, so I didn't bother looking around. Where'd you go?"

Flare took in a deep breath at Shizen’s words, closing her eyes for a bit so she didn’t feel too much about it. Now wasn’t the time to be accidently burning the hippie.

“You could have told me. But, other than that, I didn’t really need the car replaced or fixed. I have too much money as is.”
It didn’t seem like she didn’t appreciate the effort though. The young flame’s words have gotten a little soft around there. “['I should probably do something more than that, but what? She’s… incredibly innocent.]” The thought of it made her look back up at Shizen with weary eyes.

“I don’t mind that you did it though. The thought of the matter counts.”
Flare tried walking up to the hippie and easing her down away from the window. With the simple firm grab of her wrist, if at all possible. “And I don’t think I could stay mad at ya. You’re too… innocent and cute to even try forcing myself to.” If at all successful, she’d try to shoo away the two maids that were still in there just watching.

“Private matter, could ya please leave us be?”
She probably even didn’t need to say that, the older woman was already on her way out from respect. The younger one had closed the door behind herself quietly. With that, Flare looked back at Shizen and decided to let her wrist free should the half-elemi not do anything further with the grasp.

“So what if it was a little stupid? No one’s perfect, hun.”
Flare started a reconciliation, slowly making her way to the bed to sit on it. “And look, you’re here now. I don’t know where you’ll be wanting to go next, but… Could you maybe not run off again? Stay in touch with me, you know? I’m dancing around my feelings right now. The feeling of passion for another.” Usually, the young flame would be more straight-forward with her feelings. She’s, of course, trying to ease Shizen into this notion of “dating”.

“We could get to know each other better. I might have come on a bit strong before, but I think with a little effort we can have something here.” If not cheesy, it was something important to say. They hadn’t been friends before this, they just met and became entangled from near the start. “You told me you didn’t understand these feelings, but I want to help you understand them.”

“‘That guy’s Empire’?”
That was the first thing Flare muttered to herself as she sat next to her, her being the one to keep a straight face and try looking at her in the eyes. It seemed the hippie was too embarrassed to look back though, eventually covering her face to hide it. This is the shit that gets her, a young woman with such shy and timid reactions to things. Even still, it was when she uncovered that face and started spilling the beans that Flare squinted her eyes.

“Wait, the PTO? Was this what you were also doing while you were out?”
Her voice rose only slightly out of a natural easy frustration. Again, she was visibly trying to compose herself. Shizen was already planning to go away, OFF-PLANET this time? That was a bit much to take in. Shizen could probably feel Flare’s hand tense up as they touched, the young flame blinking back at her. The suddenness now makes her grow a very light shade of red. Damn elemi nature, she couldn't help but feel like that at the simplest of touches.

“Come with you? Why…”
There was a lot to think about in that. On one hand, they’d be pretty close and could have leisurely time out in other worlds. Exploration, an idea she always liked as a kid. Then again, on the other side, she has a business to run. Plenty of other things, like a plan to open a dojo after her former master’s disgraceful face left this planet.

“I.. I don’t know, Shizen. I have a lot of stuff here. My mansion, my business. I have other plans here, on Earth. It’s my home and has been since I could remember. I don’t even know who these people are who want you to help them. I’d be leaving behind a lot of my equipment and life’s works for it.”
It was by no means going to be easy to decide on this. Not so suddenly.

“I would have to think on something like that. For a while. You said they were leaving soon?”
Her hand would tense up again in Shizen’s hold. “I can’t promise anything. I’d first want to see who was leading this… PTO revolution. I’m sorry, I just can’t think about leaving Earth with you so suddenly like this. It’s nothing against you.” In some sort of attempt to cope, she would place her other hand atop of the ones that are holding.

“Is that what you really want though, to help some nationalist vindication?”
She probably shouldn’t be using strong and hard words like that for Shizen to try and decipher. But, she had to make sure the question had been asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier to stay here?” Appealing to something that doesn't matter. She's already said she promised them, and that they were leaving. She wasn't going to just let that stop her though.

The name Vaneera rang in the back of her head as she leaned back a bit and listened to the hippie. So, it was the small pale woman walking in on her previous open expo of her robots that was offering this to Shizen? Well… She couldn’t be all that bad.

“Your mom, eh? She wants you back that badly?”
Flare didn’t even know of her parents, risen by rich humans who thought the redhead cute and fiery from such a young age. She didn’t even know that her own parents worked for PTO at that time. “I… can understand thinking I’d get super mad though. I mean, I did get mad but I wouldn’t have done anything bad. Not to you. I don’t want to see ya burned by me again.” In the middle of her response, the hippie had leaned into her chest, making her blink at her. She was trying preeetty hard, wasn’t she? With a sigh and a bit of laughter she pat the blondie on her head.

“I… don’t know if I have anyone in mind. The only person I could think of is my advi-”
She stopped that sentence there and cleared her throat, moving her chest while shizen still laid against it. “Oh, nevermind. He’s gone as well… The only person I could think of to keep watch for me is my little robot, Jax, but he has not been capable enough yet to handle such a task. The thing barely understands anything beyond a command, and he has been acting up recently. If only I had some help with the A.I…” On the topic of Earth… Yeah, it was beautiful. And despite her recklessness and general carnage and anti-green attitude, she liked it. It was home to her as far as she was concerned.

“A vacation, eh? Well, I’d still need to talk with Vaneera and this… Motet, before I wandered off with ya. I’d also need some time to fix up Jax, which I may not have if you’re leaving soon.”
The young flame squinted her eyes for a moment, trying to picture something with no luck. Instead, she went to wrap arms around the little nature pixie and hug her from the side.

“Even if I can’t come with you, I think it’d be nice to spend some time with ya anyways.”

“Eleven years. Huh.”
It’d have been something if anyone close to the Flame had hunted her down for that long. She couldn’t imagine what that would have felt like for the young nature elemi. “And by that, you mean she probably wouldn’t be a big fan of me? Gee. I could feel the family love already.” Flare rolled her eyes in a sarcastic manner, just hugging Shizen from the side like that for the time.

Right, the power thing. If Vaneera didn’t have the strength for it, in numbers or in self, then why were they trying to bring Shizen along? Because she’s just stronger than them? That would leave a bit of a nasty taste in her own mouth. If anything, Flare could be teaching HER the martial arts. - Then again, Shizen didn’t seem the type to try using fire.

“Wait, you’re the strongest of them now? Why-”
That very last sentence made her laugh. Maybe a little obnoxiously, but it was a genuine laugh. Hearty and loud. She just tried kissing the Hippie’s cheek, should she still be looking up at her. “Why doesn’t she wait? I could teach you and her. Hell, the whole lot. Even then… I-” Flare stopped for a moment to reminisce on what her former master told her before dying by her hands.

- “You’re stronger than you think, Jackie. Use that inner strength wisely.” - Like some trance, Flare was quiet for several seconds. Staring at the window sill with some blank expression. For a second, it seemed like her red eyes were watering up. Once she, too, felt that coming she shook her head of the memory. The young flame seemed hesitant in recalling anything from her previous master.

“I can’t just let you go out there with them on this quest for power. It won’t happen like last time.”
She didn’t elaborate on what she meant by that, it only seemed to make her normally aggressive voice feel fragile when saying that line. “Only if Vaneera wanted my help, and could help me in return. Last time she came to the place, she was also interested in my know-how of machines and technology. Yeah, that might have turned out bad, but I still think she’d want me for that. Maybe?” She just looked down at the tilted head of Shizen’s, smirking.

“And keep up your teasing. You’re tempting me on various levels, hun.”
It was working, as the young flame seemed to get softer and softer as time went on.

Even though the two were of opposing elements, the embrace felt nice and warm. Coupled with the fact she was a fire elemi of course. She expected most of what came out of Shizen with light nods, blinking at the smaller woman as the hippie turned to face her. Questioning her words. Pained, the young elemi tightened both of her fists as she withdrew for a bit, sighing. There was obvious tension and stress about her now.

“Last time. I… Well, I can tell you. But please don’t hold it against me. Also, yeah. Vaneera came to one of my Expos where I showed off a new invention or two.”
To get that last question out of the way first meant something. She was still hesitant, running fingers through her hair as she tried composing herself. Flare, in a way, was being caught a bit red-handed. If you wanted to call it that. In a simple movement she leaned over to her nightstand and pulled out a pair of prescription glasses, putting them on in front of her with a dorky expression.

“Nay, don’t worry, I’m not visually impaired or anything. It’s just glasses with some regular ole’ non-prescription glass in them. This, is Jackie Jefferson.”
That was the first step. “For some time, I was dressed up to be an Earthling. Since I was a little girl, even. I still do it today, when I run my business from behind an Advisor, but erm - ...” She took a moment to displace the glasses on the side of the bed, fixing whatever hair she messed up.

“Now, not to alarm you or anything, but… Jackie is currently being hunted by Earthling Police. Suspected of murdering three people and assaulting another.”
Not that Shizen or anyone of importance really watched the news, but she was spilling some beans here.

“That persona was framed by my former master. He went by the name Scion. Was a good guy until he pulled this stunt. He and his peons assaulted me, and in self defense, I… well, my P.I. killed them. The old master somehow went to the news media and stuck that on me.”
Flare let out a whopping sigh as she decided to flop onto her back on the bed. Exhausted.

“I’m not proud of what I did once he framed me. Me and my friend, that P.I., we fell willingly to Scion’s trap where he and my best friend started beating us the fuck up. But, in a sudden rage, I remember… starting to slaughter my former master.”
One could tell her throat was pained to try delivering that one last line.

“Heheh… he had basically ruined my Earthling image at that point, so I found it infuriating. I was livid. It has been months since I done it, but I can still feel those few movements I made to burn my master to the ground… Incinerated him, with my flame.”
Flare must have been referring to some technique, seeing as this was a martial arts trainer.

“But you know what the dirtbag shouted at me as we struggled in a fight of power? His might versus mine?” The young flame gave Shizen a sad smile. She wasn’t going to cry! No, she mustn’t. “I didn’t expect you to become so strong so fast, Jackie! I must have doubted you and your friend. From master to student, I give you the rite. You’re stronger than you think, Jackie! Use that inner strength wisely!” Flare animated a ‘poff’, like smoke dispersing, with her hands a mere second after she repeated the line her master gave her in parting.

“And he was just gone. I went on to maim my best friend, whom fled the stage at the perfect moment for the gazes of arriving people to be directed at my standing body over the ash and destruction I had dealt. My best friend had no reason to be there, the fact she would pull this on me too had me in a fiery rage. Yelling at the top of my lungs - For what she had told me was utterly horrible. She gave up loyalty to a friend or cause to loyalty in power. Scion had risen her to think that way.”

She fell silent, the young flame having turned her head to stare up at the ceiling in a fit of confusion. And anger. Her crimson eyes seemed to carry a flame of their own. She looked tired, not sleepy, but tired. A physical drain on her body as she fought to contain these emotions without burning the place up.