Loose Ends (Jadeite)

Loose Ends (Jadeite)
Date of Cutscene:	08 September 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	It's easy to hate Jadeite. It's so easy that Jadeite even hates himself. Takes place the morning following scene 391.
Cast of Characters:	Jadeite
Tinyplot:	Dangerous Orbits

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A young man with tousled blonde hair has been sitting on the edge of his bed since 3 a.m. That's when he got home and staggered his way into his bedroom. The alarm goes off on his phone, alerting him that it's now 4:30 a.m. Time to get up. Having not slept at all, Jason Dite just stares at the phone for a bit, once the piercing sound gets his attention. Eventually, he realizes maybe he should do something about it.

He allows himself to fall backwards from his sitting position, spreading his arms out on either side, and just staring up at the ceiling.

"I don't want to go to work." he says out loud.

The alarm is still going. Jason continues to not sit up or do anything about it for several more minutes while he tries to find the energy to do anything at all but lie there.

"I don't want to go to school either." he says after some time. The cluttered room has no response, except to continue echoing the phone alarm at him.

Every night, when he manages to get to sleep, he solemnly and earnestly wishes, from the bottom of his heart, that he never wake up. He didn't even manage the sleep this time around, so he can't even be disappointed by the failure of his wish to come true.

He continues to lie there until he is a full ten minutes past when he was supposed to be getting up and getting ready. He never managed to change out of his suit, so at least that's taken care of. Forcing himself, more by habit than willpower or strength, Jason finally manages to sit up, and rise to his feet. He kicks a cardboard box or something on the floor accidentally during his zombie shuffle towards the bathroom, and that makes him aware he didn't even get his shoes off last night.

The student and young businessman somehow manages to navigate to his destination. He flicks on the bathroom's overhead lights in passing on his way to the sink. With his head hanging, and his hands shaking as they grip the sides of the sink after turning on the water, he catches sight of himself. He slowly raises his head, noticing that his eyes have dark rings around them, he is absolutely death-pale, and his features are a bit sunken. He looks like a dead man. A zombie. Maybe a ghost.

He hears the alarm on his phone still going.

"Shit." he mutters. He forgot to turn it off before walking all the way over here. He just hangs onto the sink for a bit longer while the water runs, unused. "Pull it together, Jadeite." Jason says as he watches the water spiral around and disappear into the drain.

He splashes water on his face several times, finishes in the bathroom, and returns to his bedside to pick up his phone and turn off the alarm. He pauses after shutting off the alarm, seeing he has many unread text notifications and missed calls. He had just stared at the floor through all of them. Masato, Naru, Darien, Yoshi, fucking Beryl of all people (probably just a secretary or assistant), and fucking Himeko too (why Hematite thought it was a good idea to give her a phone, he'll never know). Also some unknown numbers, a message from one of his youma he planted somewhere... He couldn't remember where right now.

He'd deal with it later. Right now, he needed to get himself in order and get to work for a bit before switching into student attire and going to school, then going back to work afterwards. He'd maybe fit a nap in there somewhere. He had superhuman endurance, but even he had limits. He had to sleep eventually.

Not bothering with feigning being a mere mortal, Jason doesn't go out the door. He just teleports straight to his office in Obsidian Tower. He doesn't hesitate to stride purposefully towards one of the walls, and slide open a hidden panel. Inside is a storage crystal brimming with siphoned human life force. Bits and pieces, accumulated over time. Not enough to satisfy his masters (neither of them), but enough to help him get through a rough time or boost his recuperative abilities like he had to after the fight at the warehouse with Sailor Moon, Mars, V, the assassin, the idol singer, the cat and anyone else he's forgetting right now.

Right now, he needs it just because of overworking his mind and body. He feels energized after touching the crystal and shattering the whole thing in the palm of his hand. A flood of power fills him, and he inexplicably feels the urge to laugh maniacally. The sleep deprivation getting to him, probably. He refrains, and instead just closes up the panel, makes a mental note to put a new crystal into the storage space, and to remember he doesn't have a back-up anymore. Jason checks himself in a hand mirror from a drawer of his desk, and sees the color returning to his face already. Good. He can keep powering through another day or two without more than a couple hours of sleep if he has to, without anyone noticing.

Office laptop open, the Obsidian corporate spinny on the loading screen, nothing to do for a little bit while it gets itself sorted out, Jason turns in his chair and looks at the smoked-glass window that spans the entirety of the wall behind his desk. He can't see out through it unless he activates the feature that makes the crystalline composition switch from 'scattered' to 'orderly'. He usually prefers not to make himself a target by sitting or standing in front of a window that can be seen through from the outside, even if that denies him a view of his own. He has far too much work to do, and just doesn't have the time to be assassinated.

"What am I going to do with Naru Osaka." Jason muses to himself. It should be obvious. Use her as bait in a trap for Sailor Moon. It's obvious the two know each other, and even more obvious that at least Sailor Moon cares about her. If only the Henshin of the magical girls didn't obscure their features from memory and record. Even with what he lifted from the witnesses' minds, the details on everyone except Naru were blurry and unreachable. Likewise, the security cameras couldn't pick up more than blurs, streaks of color, and optical glitches that could be explained away as a malfunction. But Naru Osaka wasn't hidden, he knows where to find her, and he knows -- or believes he knows -- what the leader of the Senshi will do to get her little friend back.

He feels full of energy right now, able to do anything, but he still has that disgusting human side of himself that doesn't want to do anything. Jason Dite wants to let this one slide, and to not involve people he knows in his schemes.

Jadeite wants to get a win of some kind, something he can show as proof that he is worth keeping around. Despite the reassurances from Darien, Her Majesty might not hold the same opinion of his necessity. And then Pyrite takes his place. Ah, Pyrite. What a problem. Jadeite has tried so hard not to fear or hate her, or what she represents. He understands that she is connected to someone he cares deeply about, and that hurting her might hurt Hematite in turn.

But he still doesn't want her to replace him if he falls.

His phone buzzes in his pocket.

"What if I just pull back and focus on finding the Silver Crystal? I won't need to involve Naru or Sailor Moon or Himeko or anyone. Just focus on the mission. I can do that, can't I?" Jason is unamused and vaguely aware that he is talking to himself, and that it's not usually a good sign for one's mental stability.

More time spent staring at a window he can't see through. Another buzzing of a message on his phone.

Jason sighs and turns his seat back around, and starts sorting through notifications, emails, and everything else. All the mundane, boring, human parts of a business. The slow things.

His phone buzzes again, and Jason whips it out of his pocket and throws it across the room with a scream of frustration.

The phone stops a centimeter or two from hitting the far wall by the door. Jadeite's arm is still extended, as the Shitennou sits there in his chair and uniform, keeping the electronic shackle hovering in place. Then he sighs heavily and gestures. The phone comes flying back to his hand.

Jadeite starts to look through his messages.

Naru sent him something of a kitten the other day at the mall, and he's only just now gotten to it. "Wonderful. Very helpful." he mutters. It's all downhill from there. It starts off bad and keeps getting worse. Jadeite feels sick by the time he gets to the messages about Naru Osaka being abducted. He's being framed. That's the first thing that comes to mind. He's being framed because of his veiled threats at the mall the other day. The same day that Naru sent him that stupid cat video or whatever.

No, it's someone named 'Sunbreaker' who's responsible. Who the fuck is that? Jadeite doesn't know. Sounds like a Magical Girl. Why would one of the Enemy kidnap a civilian? Is this Sunbreaker so stupid she thinks Naru Osaka is evil? What a buffoon.

He chokes on air and goes into a coughing fit when he reads Himeko's message.

TXT from Himeko: Some of my fetters broke.

Why she is telling Jadeite of all people, he doesn't know. He doesn't even know what that means exactly, but it sounds bad, and like something Hematite should already be aware of. But what if he's not? Things have changed between those two since the incident at the Soryuu Shrine. Perhaps they've changed in ways that make it more difficult to track his subordinate's status precisely. Maybe not. He doesn't know, but it's not the stupid duck gif she was sending him every day until he blocked her number, and then she whined to get unblocked, and she hadn't sent him anything since then.

This isn't Himeko the child, this is Himeko the cognizant teenager talking to him. Himeko the child, Pyrite the murderous apprentice, wouldn't have even bothered warning anyone.

He reads through the rest, trying to prioritize the various disasters and updates as he goes along, sorting them appropriately into the right mental directories.

Then he gets to the updates from that youma of his. The agent he planted as a spy. Where was it again? A telepathic scan through his own memories, turns up the answer.

The color that had only recently returned to Jadeite's face drains away again.

TXT from Miranda: Lord Jadeite, the humans you targeted at the hospital are all alive and awake.
TXT from Miranda: They are being treated by a magical girl who visits frequently. Green hair, in multiple braids. There is also one with pink hair in two pigtails.
TXT from Miranda: Lord Jadeite, the human woman 'Rana' is alert and actively speaking with the green-haired girl. What should I do?
TXT from Miranda: The orderly who you ordered to terminate the human Rana is also still functional. I've spoken with him. He doesn't appear to remember either you or the compulsion. I believe that the magical girls purged all of them of the changes you made, and they are speaking openly about the incident at the Four Clover Mall. Should I eliminate the magical girls?
TXT from Miranda: Lord Jadeite, please give me orders. The humans are being discharged!

A second, much louder scream of rage accompanies the phone being thrown again, this time with superhuman strength enough to make it explode against the wall in a shower of electronics.

Jadeite is already gone before the pieces hit the floor.