tp5: kippei and yukimura

[shattermelt]

It hadn't been easy to slip out of his suite of rooms undetected, but he'd managed it with only a little bit of trouble. The new guards were persistant; not that he wasn't surprised, what with the Elder being there and all. But he finally knew of the plans, and was not happy about them.

This was not going to go well, at all. He'd managed to get some trust out of some of the people here, but this would destroy all his work. And they had the audacity to want to take his prize away from him. Oh hell no.

Checking his chronometer, he moved quickly towards the Fudomine Ambassador's office. There wasn't any time to waste. Not bothering to knock, he stormed into Tachibana's office and closed the door. "Do not argue with me. Get up and let's go. We can't stay here."

Kippei stared at him in shock for a minute, wondering how in the hell the Rikkai ambassador got into his office unannounced, and secondly what the fuck he wanted.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" he asked coldly, standing up to glare at the man. "Get out of my office." Like hell he wasn't going to argue.

"Oh, a lot is wrong with me at the moment." Yukimura retorted, glaring right back at Tachibana. "I don't like you. That's no secret. But others do like you and even, heaven knows why, care about you. So I'm doing this for them. If you value your life, and the lives of your people, shut the fuck up and follow me before they show up."

They? What the hell? "Why should I trust your word on that?" Kippei demanded. "Why would you care about any of my people? You don't give a damn about any of us." He couldnt' believe the man was trying to use his own people to get to him, and like fucking hell Kippei was going to follow him anywhere. He didn't trust Rikkai as far as he could throw him.

"I don't know what the hell you're trying to pull but if you think I'm just going to follow you blindly you've got another think coming." He was angry enough to feel a red haze starting to color his vision, and his hands gripping the edge of his desk were white to the knuckles. Yukimura was going to get himself assaulted if he didn't get the hell out or start making sense in a damn hurry.

Well of course he didn't know. No one knew about it except him. And the Elder, of course. Fuck. He really hoped he wouldn't have to use force; but damnit, he would if he had to. "I realize I'm probably not the most trustworthy people that you could follow. But damnit, Tachibana! This is beyond you or me now. In two hours, this station is going to be overrun by an army, one that even Chief Fuji can't withstand. This station will be taken over by my people, and their first order of business is to kill you. Now get your sorry ass in gear and let's go before they get here. I don't particularly care to have that Ibu boy and Inanna come after me because I let you die at their hands."

Kippei stared at him with narrowed eyes, weighing that declaration. An army? A Rikkai army? "So you expect me to believe you're a rebel now?" he asked skeptically. Why the hell would Rikkai's ambassador, who admittedly hated his guts, suddenly want to help him against his own people?

"How do I know they didn't just send you to take me right to them?" he asked suspiciously. And why was he bringing up Inanna and Shinji? After he'd told Shinji had he had Rikkai blood himself just to torment him, or did he want something else? "This had better not have anything to do with Shinji or I will kill you right now."

"Oh please. Use that head of yours for once," Yukimura snorted derisively. Why the hell was he doing this again? Oh right. Ina. God, that woman was going to be the death of him. "Why the hell would I go and tell you our plans if all I was going to do was take you to them? Seriously, I could care less about your boyfriend. They won't hurt him; he's one of us, even if he won't admit it."

A rebel? Him? This guy was insane. "If you th ink I'm a rebel, you are an idiot. I'm doing this for personal reasons." He didn't like being left out and damnit! Tachibana was his to kill!

"No, I don't think you are a rebel," Kippei told him, glaring. "That is why I don't believe you aren't cooperating with this supposed army, if they are in fact coming. You are theirs, you are loyal and a bastard, and you care nothing for the peoples your armies trample underfoot. And Shinji is mine," he added, leaning across the desk with a snarl. "He is not one of you and never will be." He was worried now, wanting to get the hell away from Yukimura and whatever insane idea he had and make sure that Shinji was okay.

"What personal reasons could you possibly have for.... 'helping' me?" he asked, not bothering to hide his scorn.

The fact that a certain redheaded beauty would kill him? Oh no we won't be mentioning that any time soon. "You got one thing right at least. I'm not a rebel. I am loyal to my world...when they are loyal to me." He growled, the last couple of days having been more then even he could stand. "I told you before. I could care less about Ibu. He's inconsequential to me. Do whatever the hell you want with him, I don't give a damn. He isn't my concern."

He moved to the door, peering out briefly. At least they hadn't shown up yet. Good. "My reasons are my own to keep and not for you to know. But do know this; this was not why I was sent here. This...takeover is not part of the plan and I don't know what the hell they're doing or why. Now, are we leaving or are we just going to sit here and wait for them to come kill us?"

Kippei hesitated for a split second, going over the options in his mind. He still didn't know what the hell Yukimura was up to, but he was at least partially convinced that the man wasn't in league with this army he was talking about. The whole thing made Kippei's blood boil, the idea of this station overrun with Rikkai. So that was why there were so many of them in Brown lately. His jaw clenched, hard, and then he nodded stiffly, coming around the desk and keeping a wary eye on the other.

"You were sent to kill me," he pointed out dryly. "I don't see why it makes a difference if you kill me or they do."

Yukimura sniffed indignantly. "It's the principle of the thing." No use hiding what he'd come to now, now was there? Not now at any rate. The guy already knew, and maybe they could actually have a decent fight once thigns settled down. If they settled down. "I take my jobs very seriously and no one, absolutely NO ONE takes anything from me." Didn't matter if it was a kill, a dog, or a lover.

Kippei shook his head in disbelief. The man was certifiable. "So you're going to take me off somewhere they can't get to me, and then kill me." There was still no reason for him to follow this lunatic anywhere.

Pfht. "Of course not. I'm not stupid." Yukimura crossed his arms and then smirked. "I'm going to take you off somewhere so you can start a rebellion and then once these assholes are gone, you and I are oging to have a nice little fight like we both want. See? Everyone wins! We get rid of the idiots, you get to stay alive and I get to kick your ass."

Kippei eyed him. Definitely certifiable. But somehow, Kippei was certain he was telling the truth, and while he thought the man was insane, it wasn't like he couldn't take advantage of it.

"Fine. Let's go. Try anything and you are a dead man."

Smirk. Yukimura knew that Tachibana would see it his way. And he wasn't insane; that was left for the Elders. But he did know how to manipulate and get people to do what he wanted. If Tachibana wanted to think he was insane, all the better. An insane person was always quite unpredictable. "So you say. But I'm already a dead man, and not by your hand." So saying he checked outside before he led the way out of Tachibana's office.

Already a dead man? Kippei knew that feeling, although... he wasn't that anymore. It was an odd, warm feeling, realizing this. He wasn't just a walking dead man anymore. Shinji had made him live again. He was highly curious, though, to know why Yukimura felt the same as he once had. Surely Rikkai had no reason to feel that they were dead no matter what they did. Conquering bastards.

"Don't expect any sympathy from me," he said coldly. "I should be only too happy to make sure you were dead, if no one else should manage it, though I can't imagine a Rikkai man of your station being so defeatist."

"Who the fuck said I was defeatist? Unlike you, I see things as they are." Yukimura informed him quite coldly, sniffing indignantly. Like he was really going to explain himself to Tachibana. This was his to deal with and he certainly wasn't going to give Tachibana any information he didn't have to.

"I see things as they are," Kippei told him in a soft, dangerous voice. "I see you playing peacemaker when you have no intention of peace, you representing a people who think they can win by sheer numbers, you being a ruthless bastard who will kill anyone who gets in the way of _you_ being the unchallenged rulers of anything you fucking want." He was blindingly, furiously angry that anyone who spoke for the relentless crushing machine that was Rikkai would insinuate that he had anything to lose--as if any of the smaller nations that came up against their juggernaut were any real threat. It was insulting and false and felt vaguely like condescension, and it grated on him worse than the smug superiority he was used to from this man and others of his kind.

"No, no you don't." Yukimura corrected him with a stern look. "You're as blind as everyone else. All you see is what's on the surface; everyone from Rikkai is a fucking bastard and should die. It doesn't matter to you that there are children on Rikkai suffering, just as there are on other worlds. That there are people struggling to live. All you see is the government and what a bastard they are. Well, newsflash, buddy! We aren't all out to kill you. I, personally, couldn't give a rat's ass about you. I am here on orders, nothing more. Do you really think I would give a damn about you if I hadn't been ordered to come here? Think again."

"That's nothing to do with anything," Kippei told him coldly. "I could care less about you, either, if you were not here and on orders--it is your orders I despise, and the government you work for. You are loyal to a world who cares nothing for the life of others, and you have forgone any right to have anyone care about your own. The surface is all I see because that is all your kind show, and it is enough. For what you have done there is no forgiveness."

"I don't expect forgiveness and I certainly don't expect you to care about me." Yukimura growled, his eyes fierce with his anger. "You are loyal to your own world, so it's no different with me. Yes, I love my home. I would do anything for it, and have. And would do so again. I love my people and my homeworld. I want to see them safe and happy. Your people have done just as much to us, as we have done to you. So kindy cut the bullshit about being "the victim" here. It's rather annoying."

"We are not the ones who started this," Kippei told him in a quiet, savage voice, turning and rounding on him in blind fury. The man was so insufferably self-important, so indoctrinated and blind. "We had done nothing to you until you attacked and forced us to fight back or be destroyed. If we had not, we would have been annihilated. There is no excuse for starting that kind of war, none. That your people have women and children in misery is your problem, not ours, and any sympathy you might have earned is far outweighed by the misery you have dealt out in it's place. You did not ask for help, nor did you hesitate to ease their suffering at the expense of others. So kindly cut the bullshit about your loyalty being the same as mine. You deserve nothing, least of all respect."

No...Tachibana was lying. He had to be. Rikkai hadn't started it; he remembered as a child the attacks from Fudoumine. The ones that had killed his family and made him hate them so much. Yet, he knew that Inanna was from Fudoumine, and yet, he let her slip into his heart. "Yes, well. Neither do you. Even if my orders here were not on the up and up, you had the chance to try and make amends between our people. To make peace. And every single chance I gave you, you threw it back in my face. You don't want peace anymore then the Elders do. You just want a fucking reason to kill the lot of us. What makes you any better then us in that regard?"

"What peace?" Kippei spat at him. "There isn't any peace. If we gave you even an inch you would overrun us in a heartbeat, and don't try to pretend that your orders here ever had ANYTHING to do with peace. You fucking liar. You never gave us any chance, you never intended to make amends. If I had ever given you anything, your people would just take it as another sign that we were weak and desperate and ready for destruction to make way for the glorious Rikkai empire." He was sneering now, sarcasm and contempt dripping from every word.

"Don't fucking tell me what I want," he snarled. "If there was any chance of peace, for you all to just fucking leave us alone, I sure as hell do want it. If I never saw another Rikkai dead or alive in my life I could die happy. That's what I want. But there is no chance of that, and you fucking know it. Us trying to make peace with you is just asking you to murder us. I am not ever going to let that happen. Over my dead body we give you people one single scrap of anything. If you want my world, you're fucking going to have to kill every last one of us. It is not yours, and we won't just lie down and die for you without a fight. So if we have to kill you to keep you from taking it, then hell yes, I fucking HAVE a reason to kill the lot of you. What I want is a way to do it without the few of us that are left dying in the process, because YOU fucking killed most of two generations already and there is no one left." He was breathing hard, glaring at Yukimura from inches away, and then abruptly he turned away, disgusted, and started walking again, not really caring if the other followed.

Comments

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

A cold smile fell across Yukimura's lips as he looked over at Tachibana. Ah, youth. He looked at Tachibana with pity in his eyes before he took up the lead once more. "If you truly believe that, then I pity you, Tachibana. I pity you and your narrow view of the world. Not everything is so clear cut and black and white. If only that were the case, so much misunderstanding could be avoided. But whether you approve or not, I will do my part to end this bullshit. Just as you will. If you're not too much of a coward to try."

Kippei stopped in his tracks and whirled around, glaring fiercely. "You know nothing," he bit out. "Nothing at all. Don't talk to me about cowardice. You have never tried." He stopped, knowing it was useless to rant at the man; he was too convinced of his own narrow views, which were as black and white as Kippei's own in their own way. He stood with his jaw locked for a minute, grimly forcing his temper under control, and then he jerked his head for Yukimura to start walking again. "I'd rather die than take help from you, you supercilious bastard, but dying isn't an option for me so if you had a plan here other than insulting me and my world and making me want to kill you where you stand, hurry the fuck up and do it."

Snorting, Yukimura ignored Tachibana and led the way down a side alley. He'd been doing just that ever since they'd left Tachibana's office. Without another word he led him to one of the shuttle cars. Motioning for Tachibana to enter, he did likewise and hunched down in front of a panel. Removing it, he tinkered with the electronics inside untilt he craft began to move.

Kippei stared at him, but what the fuck ever, it wasn't his job to police the place, and if Yukimura wanted to steal a shuttle then Kippei wasn't going to stop him. He did wonder vaguely why Yukimura didn't have some kind of shuttle of his own, but then again he didn't really care. He held on grimly as they started to move and wondered not for the first time if he was really incredibly stupid to be doing this. How could he trust the man who represented Rikkai? And he didn't, not at all... but he knew that at least part of what he'd said had been the truth, so here he was, taking the risk and hoping he hadn't misjudged things all to hell.