Just a Good Book

Lt. Commander Richie

Disclaimer: With the rousing amount of reviews this has gotten, I couldn't help but follow my little Goa'uld muse and just keep writing. Curse you, you little System Lord snakehead. Curse you.

Chapter 3

Her hair and books splayed around her head like a red and yellow and white halo, Rachel Leon laid on her bed. She wore a brown tank top with the Final Fantasy Seven SOLDIER logo on it and a pair of blue cotton shorts, her legs totally bare until it hit the pair of bright orange socks with chili peppers on them at her ankles. A green and blue penguin-print bra peeked out from the edges of the tank top, and the shorts were a bit short. Around her shoulders was nestled a big green blanket with a curling design across it, and she idly itched her shin with one foot. One of her hands, fingernails slightly blue despite the warmth of the room, reached out and alighted on the corner of a picture. It was the one from the back of the final Log Book, carefully creased only down the center. The picture began to leak green smoke, pouring across the bed and falling to the floor.

“One more time.” As soon as the form of Yuu Kanda materialized completely, Rachel took her hand off the picture. The image wavered for a moment, and lost a bit of detail.

“Would you stop it? I'm not an experiment!” Kanda, irate since this was the seventeenth time in two hours that he had been pulled back from beyond and nearly sent back, was just about ready to pull Mugen on her. Rachel held her hand out steady as she pushed herself up to a sitting position, fixing the Japanese teen with a big watery green look complete with half-lidded eyes and a pouty lip. Kanda took in the look, then managed to notice that she was a little bit lacking in the clothing department. “What the hell, woman!? Put some clothes on!” The green construct promptly reeled back and covered his eyes with an arm, mortified.

“I'm wearing plenty of clothes, Bakanda.” As if to illustrate the fact, Rachel itched at her stomach with her free hand and exposed a bit more skin. The redhead grinned maliciously as the Japanese Exorcist promptly turned around and looked up at the ceiling. Silence passed between the two of them as the college student pulled herself into a cross-legged position, carefully lowering her raised hand. Kanda's image wavered for a moment, before sharpening back into its original perfect construct.

“Your control is better.” Kanda paused for a moment, fidgeting with the knotted rope around the handle of his Mugen. “Even if it is over a stupid ability.”

“The Earl wanted it. It's not too stupid if he thought it was a threat.” Rachel blew a red and blond lock of hair out of her face, her back hunching as she sat her elbows on her knees and her hands in her lap. “Yours is cooler, though. Everyone else's are. I bring things in books to life, but you guys had mallets that controlled nature and boots that let you fly and swords that controlled illusions and conducted massive power and could pull your freaking arms off to make swords.” With a sigh, the redhead laughed. It was kind of bitter, but not terribly. “If I had the right training, if this was still wartime, maybe I'd be able to do amazing things with the Ink Speaker. I don't and can't, though. I bring people back from the dead so I can get a good history grade.”

“You shouldn't want to be part of our war.” Rachel cocked her head to the side slightly as Kanda turned around, a finger pointed at her. “You should probably be thankful you were born after we did all the hard work. It's just bad luck that you managed to be born with a parasite-type! Hell, you shouldn't even know about our war!” Towards the end of his tirade the swordsman began to really yell, his short temper having come to an end. The redhead his attentions were focused on gave him a slightly sad smile, and his hand went to the handle of his katana. “And stop smiling at me, you goddamn stupid rabbit!”

“I'm smarter than Yuu!” Rachel retorted, sitting up on her knees to make herself almost as tall as the Japanese teen. She didn't blink as the tip of a nearly-incorporeal sword stopped just in front of her nose.

“I'll cut you.” He ground out, his eyes narrowed. The redhead put a single finger up to each side of her head pointing up like ears, and stuck out her tongue. The two were at a total stalemate.

“You can't, you're made of smoke.” She said, only pulling her tongue into her mouth long enough to speak before sticking it out again. “Besides, you don't hurt your comrades.”

“You're not my comrade. You haven't fought in any war, and you never should.” Rachel sat back, assuming a cross-legged position once again. She drug her blanket back up around her shoulders despite the coziness of the room, slouching over and blowing a lock of hair out of her face. As her concentration wavered just a little bit, Kanda began to fade.

“The Earl told me that I don't just create, I bring souls back in the case of real living people. He could manipulate his own form when I brought him back- all it takes after I bring you back is concentration on your part.” The redhead flopped onto her back, itching idly at her stomach where a slight rash was forming because of her slight Cranberry allergy.

“And you listen to the Earl?” Kanda sheathed Mugen after seeing no other option since it would be silly to stand around holding a sword, and finally sat down on the edge of the bedspread with the slightest crinkle of the sheets. He stared out the window, even though it was half-covered by venetian blinds, and sighed. His form became a little more corporeal, just a little bit sharper, but he was still green and slightly see-through.

“He's dead, he's got nothing left to loose. Besides, how else did he manipulate my powers without my wanting him to unless I brought the actual soul back and not just a construct with all the memories and traits?” Rachel rolled over, wrapping herself up in the blanket as she did so. The swirling pattern managed to get lost among the downy sheets as she rolled over her school books to come to rest in her large pile of pillows. Julius Caesar sported a brand new crease halfway across seven pages.

“You're changing the subject. Why do you want to be part of our war?” The redhead wrapped in the blanket sat up and all that was visible of her besides her lower thighs and legs was her eyes and hair. The tube of blanket made a motion that looked a bit like a shrug.

“My whole life I get the feeling like I was born in the wrong century. I wanna do something with my life that doesn't involve lots of learning just so I can be a productive member of society. I have power and I wanna use it! It just doesn't seem fair that after all this time I've been given an Innocence just to find out that the war it was used for is over.” The blankets struggled for a minute before Rachel laid back down and rolled herself back out of them. Kanda reeled back and covered his eyes with one hand once she had freed herself- her brown SOLDIER tank top had managed to ride up to expose her penguin-print bra. The redhead quickly pulled the shirt back down.

“So pretend.” Rachel blinked owlishly up at the Japanese teen, large green eyes curious. She tried to tilt her head to one side, but all that did was charge her hair with a bit more static. The ends of her choppy locks were already starting to defy gravity like they had been rubbed with a balloon. “You already look like him, so make like that stupid rabbit and just pretend to be an Exorcist.”

“But Lavi wasn't pretending to be an Exorcist-” Rachel began, only to be cut off.

“Yeah he had an Innocence, and he killed demons like we did, but when the war was over he explained everything to us. I think I might have known all along, kinda. Bookmen record history as it happens and without bias, and he was only on our side as a matter of convenience so as to record our war. He was never really on our side. He was only pretending.” Again Rachel blinked owlishly, before rolling over and propping her chin up with a hand.

“You're wrong, you know.” She said, her lips pursed in a way that made the lower one stick out a bit. Kanda raised an eyebrow and turned back to looking out the window. “That may have been how it started, but that's not how it finished. Bookman Junior took on the guise of Lavi as his name while he recorded his 49th Log, but by the time the war was over there wasn't a Bookman Junior anymore. There was only Lavi, the Exorcist.”

“So then pretend and maybe the same thing will happen for you.” The redhead's pursed lips broke out into a toothy grin at Kanda's words,a nd she rolled onto her back.

“And Allen called you slow.” The Japanese teen stiffened, his lip curling slowly back as he reached for Mugen. “You're pretty deep for a guy that supposedly has hair for brains and a one-track mind that only focuses on slicing things, aren't you Yuu?”

“I'll cut you.” He ground out, fingers latching around Mugen's scabbard and handle. Rachel held up a hand, one finger pointed at the ceiling.

“You can't, remember?” In a green-tinted flash, the tip of the lock of hair between the redhead's eyes fell onto the bridge of her nose. Her eyes grew wide, and they settled on the rather solid-looking if not still green form of Yuu Kanda, who stood next to her bed with his katana leveled at her head. And then he disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Rachel couldn't help it, she screamed. She flew to her feet and began jumping on her mattress, her arms flailing like a happy teenage fangirl. Maybe she couldn't go back in time, she decided through the delirium of happiness at the evolution of her power level, but she could still pretend.

So yeah. It's a little short, but I like it. I'm not too sure where this plotbunny came from but my muse (The Goa'uld System Lord she is) forced me to write it. Yeeeesssss.

askjdfhkljasdhf I've been spazzing over Stargate recently, though I usually get this bad whenever I get on a Stargate kick. That usually happens every two and a half years or so. So don't worry. Yes, my muse has always been a Goa'uld. Yes, it's always been a System Lord. No, you had better not tell the SGC. So yeah, I'm sorry if this is a little wonky. Next couple of chapters (if I write them) will be a little more serious. A little. Probably not. Stupid Sheppard, you're making me just slightly silly in the head.

Next chapter: I have no idea. If my muse, Seshat, has anything to say about it (which she does, I'm just a host) then I'll be writing quite a bit.