Author's Notes

...oh, good lord, I'm actually doing it. Pray for me ;_;

Okay, first thing's first: I really shouldn't be doing this. Y'know how I like to wait to post till a story's complete, or at least till I've got buffer chapters? Well for this one, this is it. This is all I got. O.O;;; But it's been a while since I put out an actual fic, so I just felt compelled to go ahead and post something already. Needless to say, updates may be sporadic...but I'll do my best!

Second, I know I haven't been reading/reviewing as much lately. I won't apologize, I've said elsewhere I needed to calm down a bit. Instead I'll reassure you that the deal goes both ways: if you don't wanna review this, don't. If you just want to say you liked it (or hated it!), do that. Don't leave a longass review unless it's fun for you, no matter how close we are. If I'm not gonna do it, you shouldn't have to either. ;)

Third, hey, it's a Botan sequel‼ (That probably should've come first, lol.) I know I said I wouldn't do one - but the ideas just kept bugging me, damnit. I'll warn you ahead of time that this story won't be like the last; that one became Kensou's story as much as Botan's, which this won't. Kensou'll get his time to shine, though, don't worry.

I'll also warn you ahead of time that this story is gonna get dark.
Not brutal...but dark. ...really, really dark.

Enjoy‼ :D

Chapter 1: That Fateful Day

"Irasshaimase! Nanika osagashi desuka?"

...she was so sick of that phrase.

She'd been on the path to godhood once. Twice, even. She'd been able to wrap people around her finger, make them do anything she wanted. Literally, even. She had been special. Unique. Gifted. Capable of ultimate control. And with the right moves, she could have achieved absolute power.

Instead, on that fateful day, Botan - Botan the Puppetmaster - was standing behind the counter at a freaking Starbucks.

Her current customer wasn't making it any easier, either. He was one of the indecisive ones, the kind that acted like they'd never heard of Starbucks or even coffee before. His eyes crawled down the menu slowly...studiously. His order might take the rest of the hour; it might take the rest of the day. At least there weren't any customers lined up behind him, for now.

"Can you tell me what's in the dark mocha chip frappucino?"

Botan blinked. "What's...in it?"

"Yes."

...milk and sugar. It's COFFEE, MILK AND SUGAR, you idiot. What do you want from me⁇ She kept the scowl off her face, though, as she recited the extra bits, the 1% of the ingredients that made this coffee taste different from the other fifty kinds they had.

She shouldn't have needed this crappy job. She shouldn't have needed money again for the rest of her life. When you can make anyone do anything, money really is no object; she'd stored up piles and piles of savings, too, since using cash was often easier. But when you don't trust the bank system (they wouldn't even keep her money separate!), your best bet for storing those piles is a safe deposit box. And when the man that gave you one off-the-book suddenly remembers doing it, he has no problems opening it and taking your money to Aruba.

"What's the difference between blended and double-blended?"

Five extra minutes, a thinner drink, and a punch in the face. She left that last part out of her reply, of course; she'd probably leave it out of the order, too, unfortunately.

The postal worker wasn't the only one who'd snapped out of it, either. On the day it all came crashing down, she hadn't just lost her special gift - she'd lost control of everyone still in her clutches. Was it a dozen people? Dozens? She had lost count at that point. And just like that, all of them had realized what they'd done...and, often, that she'd made them do it. Which limited her recovery options a bit.

"Can you get the cappuccinos without foam?"

"...actually, no," Botan muttered, managing to only narrow her eyes a little bit. "It's...kind of what makes it a cappuccino."

"What do you mean?"

As she explained it to the man, she tried not to think about what life had been like in the two months since...or where it was headed. She'd had no money, no job, no experience, no skills, no education, and no quick routes to any of it. She was just lucky she still looked good - and the best thing that got her was a minimum-wage gig at a coffee shop (and a uniform that made her look lousy anyway). She wanted dearly to move forward with this new life, to make some kind of goals beyond petty vengeance. But right now, she was exhausted just from making ends meet.

"...okay...I'll have a decaf, low-salt, half-percent-milk, gluten-free - "

"Sorry," she cut him off as politely as she could, "but we don't have half-percent milk. Just one-percent or skim."

"Really? ...oh, man. That changes everything. Hold on..."

"Take your time," said Botan, smiling through gritted teeth.

She was idly wondering if you could kill a man with an espresso machine when a new customer came in. She took a quick, absent glimpse at her - then did a frantic double-take, as she realized she had just glimpsed a head of purple hair.

...holy SHIT. It only took her half a second to confirm that yes, this was Athena Asamiya, waltzing into her coffee shop without a care in the world. Botan, of course, couldn't have possibly cared more; she immediately turned and dashed to the back, leaving her customer at the counter with a confused look on his face.

Her coworkers looked confused, too, when she got back there. "Botan? What's wrong?" one asked, as she flattened herself against the wall.

"Cover for me, Yumi!" she gasped, throwing the woman her apron without looking.

As Yumi headed for the front, she and the others stared at Botan with raised eyebrows. But Botan ignored them completely, staring at the doorway and trying not to hyperventilate. What in the hell is she DOING here⁇ This wasn't Osaka! This wasn't even Tokyo! She would've moved if she'd lived in one of those cities, just to avoid this encounter. But apparently, this girl popped up everywhere at some point.

She might notice her without even seeing her, really. One of Asamiya's psychic powers was sensing evil...and Botan wasn't sure if she counted. She hadn't done anything evil lately; her only evil intent was revenge (and really, was that so wrong?). But if she could see more than that...if she could sense the darkness in someone's soul...Botan didn't know how much she'd find.

Swallowing, she creeped around the side of the doorway, risking a peek at her enemy. She had just started her order, her face all smiles and her attention still elsewhere. Grimacing, Botan ducked back in and waited a minute, then peeked back out. Now Asamiya had finished the order, and she stood at the other end of the counter; her face had drawn into a frown, and she looked around carefully...but she never managed to look in quite the right spot.

She can't see me, Botan thought, backing up to the wall with a sigh of relief. She did not want a confrontation with Athena Asamiya. She had done terrible things to the girl and her teammates; they would probably be seeking vengeance, too. Granted, the psychic was probably too nice to kill her - but what would she do? She could do just about anything...

"Ahhh, so that's the problem, Botan-chan!"

Botan whipped her head around to find another coworker grinning at her. "That's Asamiya-sama, isn't it?" he oozed. "You must be a fan."

"Grow up, Hiroshi," Botan shot back, grimacing and rolling her eyes.

"Don't worry, Botan. I'll help you out," he replied with a wink. He then started strolling around the corner, holding his hands to his mouth. "Ms. Asamiya!" he shouted. "Ms. Asamiya‼ I've got a - "

Botan grabbed his wrist and looked him dead in the eye.

"I will kill you," she told him. And she meant it. And she looked it.

Paling, the man dropped his grin and backed off, holding up his hands. Before he could say anything, though, he stopped and turned his head, staring at the counter and looking even more surprised. "It's...it's nothing," he called out sheepishly, surely answering Asamiya. Then he backed away further, moving out of the girl's view.

"How'd she look?" Botan asked grimly.

"...kinda angry," said Hiroshi, clearly shaken up. "She...she kept staring at me..."

Shit. That one thought, that one little outburst, had put her on Asamiya's radar. Breathing hard again, she waited, keeping a firm grasp on her coworker so he could serve as a lookout. After a moment, she asked if the girl was still looking; the man peeked outside again, then shook his head.

"No, she's getting her drink now," he reported. "Still frowning, though. ...she thanked Yumi...she's heading out...and she's gone."

"Oh thank god," Botan sighed, sliding down the wall in relief. That was way too close.

"...what in the world was that⁇" Hiroshi asked.

"It's a long story," Botan answered. "...a long, stupid story."

She didn't tell him the truth, of course. But she told him enough of it that she realized something important: she shouldn't have survived that encounter to begin with. The Dragon Spirit, the one who had ruined her life, had given her several orders. It had told her to leave China, and she had; it had told her not to return, and she knew she never would. But it had also told her that if she approached the Psycho Soldiers again, she would perish...and she hadn't. Being near Asamiya hadn't killed her, not even when she'd literally approached her from behind the wall to look at her.

Could this final order have just been an idle threat? Could she get to the Soldiers after all? That was very interesting news. Of course, the kids spent most of their time in China; that ruled them out. And Gentsai spent most of his time with Kensou, the one who held the Spirit. That sure as hell ruled them out.

But nothing ruled out Asamiya. Not even the darkness in her soul.

As she turned away from Hiroshi, Botan smiled. One step closer to ONE of my goals, she thought with a grim sort of glee.

Meanwhile, Athena was anything but "without a care in the world".

More like a nervous wreck, in fact. Had been ever since the Incident, as the Soldiers had come to call it. She'd had a short burst of optimism after Botan's defeat - but within days, it had given way to self-doubt and bitterness. She hated that she hadn't been strong enough to beat Botan herself...and, secretly, hated that Sie had been.

The bitterness soon gave way to determination - a desperate need to learn to defend herself. She devoted every spare bit of her time to training, pulling out of future tourneys and all but abandoning her career. Before long her powers, scary enough to begin with, grew exponentially.

She learned to throw stronger projectiles, put up tougher barriers.

She learned to heal allies from a distance - and immobilize enemies.

She learned to teleport efficiently, use telekinesis extensively.

And she finally, finally learned to focus through pain.

Of course, Chin was delighted to help...at first. But it wasn't enough. She wanted to learn even more, to train her telepathy as well. He soon ran out of things to teach her for that - and that didn't stop her, as she started using Kensou to experiment instead. Of course Chin didn't approve of that at all...but Sie was always happy to help.

He had been in training too, of course. But where Athena was obsessed with her personal strength, Kensou was desperate to master the Dragon Spirit. Through some dangerous experiments of his own, he'd occasionally summoned it in times of "crisis", a.k.a. his own imminent death. But calling on it at will was still far beyond him.

On that fateful day, the two decided to combine their missions. Kensou, hoping to pinpoint what he felt when he summoned the Dragon, had asked Athena for help putting him in danger repeatedly. She'd agreed a lot faster than he should've liked, claiming she knew just the way to do it. Being in Japan - on Chin's business, for once - limited their options for private training grounds, so they wound up going well outside the Tokyo prefecture.

After a quick stop for coffee at Kisarazu, the two ventured out into the spacious woods nearby. Eager to work and now loaded with caffeine, Athena could barely wait for them to get a safe distance inside. Then, without a word of warning, she showed Kensou her plan...by slowly lifting him into the air.

After a brief shock, Kensou turned to his partner in awe. "You can use telekinesis from there now?" he asked, grinning. Last he knew, her best distance was a couple of yards.

"Yup!" she said, smiling from about ten feet away. "And I can use it from a whole lot farther than that...!"

Then she started quickly lifting him into the air.

High, high into the air.

At about twenty feet, Kensou balked. "Uhh...Athena? How high are you taking me⁇" he called out.

"As high as I can!" she yelled back cheerfully.

"And how high is that⁇"

"We'll find out...!"

The answer turned out to be about fifty feet. At that point he stopped rising, and Athena started to grimace. Kensou quickly noticed she was struggling and paled. "You're gonna be able to catch me if I screw up, right!?" he shouted.

"Just a little...further...!" she completely failed to answer.

Then, a few seconds later, Athena cried out in anguish - and Kensou started to fall.

Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap... In his panic, he barely had the presence of mind to call the Dragon. But it didn't respond; it wasn't even there right now, or at least that's how it felt. Knowing he'd blown it, Kensou started to scream -

- until Athena caught him, slowing him to a stop over the last ten feet.

He landed gently on the ground with a tremendous sigh. Then he looked up at his partner and scowled, actually angry with her for once. "Jesus christ, Athena! You came this close to - "

But then he actually looked at her, and he realized she hadn't. She was standing with her hands clasped behind her back, an innocent smile on her face. "...you weren't struggling at all, were you?" he asked, his scowl becoming a sheepish grin.

"Nope!" she giggled. "I can do this with trees now, Sie. Don't worry."

"Oh, man," Sie laughed, shaking his head at her progress. But then he frowned a little bit. "...shoot. I wish you hadn't told me that. Now I know I'm not in any danger."

"Hmm... Well, I could go into your memories and - "

"Perfect! Do it."

And so the fools pressed on.

The experiment went on for about fifteen minutes, not once ending in success. Sometimes Sie would feel some kind of tug in his head; once he even glowed a little bit. But for the most part, nothing. He was growing increasingly frustrated, too, especially since he never knew whether Athena could catch him or not. (Whenever he realized she always would, she simply wiped his memory again.)

Athena, on the other hand, had gotten bored. She'd had fun showing off and flexing her psychic muscles at first - but then it became the same thing, over and over again. Kensou didn't seem to be learning anything at all, and of course Athena had nothing to learn from this. After a while she wound up just as frustrated as he was.

Lucky for her, she didn't have to deal with it much longer.

"...what on Earth is this!?"

Athena whirled around to find Master Chin, emerging from the nearby brush with a shocked expression. "Master!" she gasped, her hands clapping to her mouth -

"AAAAAAHHH‼"

Whirling again, she looked on in horror with Chin as Sie began to fall. He wasn't fifty feet up yet, still much closer to the ground - too close. Athena stretched out her palm, but she knew she couldn't save him, knew that he was going too fast -

- but then he saved himself, a blue fountain of energy pouring out beneath him just in time.

The Dragon Spirit roared to life once more, coalescing even as it broke Kensou's fall. It never stopped moving, either, carrying him high into the air as he let out a whoop of relief. Athena and Chin watched with their usual awe, appreciative but wary of the frightening beauty. After a brief circle, it came back to the ground and stopped about ten yards away from them, letting Kensou hop off before retreating within him. ("Thank you," he said solemnly; it did not reply.)

Once it was over, Chin reached out and smacked his pupil upside the head. "Are you insane!? What were you even doing⁇"

"It was just an experiment!" said Athena, cringing and rubbing her scalp. "Kensou's still trying to summon the Spirit, and he wanted help getting in trouble...so..."

"...so you levitated him. Over and over," Chin guessed, seething. "Hoping you could catch him each time."

"I knew I could catch him," Athena scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Then Kensou joined them, breathing hard but grinning. "Could've fooled me," he laughed, giving Athena a playful shove.

"You did it, Sie! Congratulations!" she beamed (as Chin furrowed his brow).

"Oh, I didn't just do it. I felt it," Sie said fervently. "I know the key, now. It isn't just fear, or desperation...it's a need. I knew I needed to summon the Spirit, or I would die. ...I mean, I knew I could die the whole time, of course - but when you dropped me so early, that's when it really sank in."

"That's great, Sie!" Athena gushed. She couldn't help but follow up with a triumphant smirk Chin's way. "There, you see, Master? We knew what we were doing - and it worked!"

"Is that so?" asked Chin, his eyes narrow and dark. "...and how exactly did he know?"

Athena blinked. "...eh?"

"Why was Kensou so certain you, Athena, could've killed him at any point?"

"Well...um..."

"...how many times, Athena."

"...six, Master."

Kensou looked back and forth between them. "Six times doing what?" he asked, totally lost.

"Six times erasing your memory to keep you in fear," Chin said grimly.

"...oh." Kensou paled a bit. "Uhm. ...wow."

"You go too far, Athena," Chin barked. "I don't care how much danger you think you're in - you're now putting your teammates in actual danger. And I won't have it."

"But Master - !"

"We're staying in Japan another week," he announced, looking at both of his pupils. "During that time, you two will not work with each other without my supervision. I'll be staying at your side, Kensou, to make sure that takes place. And if you, Athena, can't control yourself, at the end of the week we will leave for the dojo...and you will not be coming with us."

Now Athena paled. "What⁇"

"Consider it a vacation," said Chin, his voice firm and cold. "You've wanted one for years anyway, if I recall." He turned to his other student. "Come on, Kensou. We're leaving."

"Uhm, okay," Sie mumbled, still a bit shaken up. He let Chin lead him away from her, putting some distance between them.

For a second, Athena thought she would cry...but something much worse happened first. It occurred to her that hey, she was already erasing memories here - why not just do it a couple more times? If Chin forgot her transgression, this all would be forgiven; if Sie forgot her transgression, this would all go away...

...and then she fell to her knees, bursting into quiet sobs.

What is HAPPENING to me...?

About a thousand years later, Botan's shift ended. Her brief jolt of enthusiasm was long gone by now; working a job you hate for no money tends to take it out of you. She slunk out of the shop, slunk onto the last train of the night, slunk into her crappy new apartment, and collapsed on her beautiful old couch. (The furniture she'd saved from the old place still seemed so out-of-place in the new one.) She didn't want to think about goals or vengeance or anything else right now. She just wanted to sleep.

She did just that, for about an hour...and then she heard the doorbell ring.

...who the hell? It was probably close to midnight at this point. Besides, Botan never had visitors; she didn't even know anybody, except for her coworkers (who she wasn't too chummy with either). Grumbling, she struggled up from the couch and staggered to the door. Probably religious nuts or something; maybe she could give them that punch in the face she'd missed out on earlier.

Her face grim, Botan opened the door to find a man in a business suit.

Ah, crap, she thought, not even bothering to hide her sigh.

"Good evening, miss," the man began, bowing. "Terribly sorry to disturb you. I'm from the Hanashita Corporation - "

"I don't want any," Botan cut off, already shutting the door.

"No, wait!" he responded, holding his hands in the air. "I'm not here to sell anything!"

"Then what?"

"Well, ah...we're going to be doing some construction in this area tomorrow," he explained. "We'll start around 7:30 or 8 a.m. I just wanted to warn you about it now, so it wouldn't disturb you too much."

She sighed again. Great. And tomorrow's my day off. "And you thought it wouldn't disturb me to tell me at this hour because...?"

"Oh, terribly sorry," the man said again, bowing. "But we didn't get much notice ourselves. It was a rush job."

"Right," Botan muttered, rolling her eyes. "Well as long as you rush through it, too, I'll be fine."

"Of course, miss. We're very quick," he replied with a nod. "Hanashita's been in business for over thirty years, now. We only hire the best of the best!"

"Uh huh," Botan said tiredly. Here came the sales pitch.

"We're building a gazebo right now, but we do all sorts of things," he went on. "Room remodels, room extensions, new rooms, new floors - "

"This is an apartment," Botan pointed out.

"Oh, yes, but we've done those too!" the man smoothly transitioned. "Window and stair installation, balcony repair, fencing - "

"Look," she sighed, "if I agree to take a card and call you, will you give it to me and go?" (And she was gonna call them, alright. Once she had the energy to bitch at them properly.)

"O-oh, ah - yes! Yes, absolutely!" His face lighting up, the man reached into his shirt pocket and pulled a card from what looked like a stack of them ("warning us about construction", my ass). She took it wordlessly, stuck it in her own pocket, and started to shut the door - but he grabbed her hand first.

"Thank you so much, miss!" he said happily, shaking it profusely. "Make sure to tell all your friends!"

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered again. "Now get outta here."

Immediately, the man dropped Botan's hand and turned to leave. Then he stopped and blinked, looking uncertain. A couple seconds later, he turned around and shook Botan's hand again, his smile not quite as wide as before. "Have - have a good night, miss."

"Sure. You too. Go."

Another instant drop-and-turn, followed by another pause. From there he shook his head a bit and started to leave...but this time, Botan caught it. "Something the matter...?"

"Oh! N-no, miss!" he assured her, laughing (but not looking back).

"Hey, hold on a second!" she said quickly. "...I, uh, I can't read the number on this thing."

Had he not listened to her, none of it would've happened. Had he followed his instincts, she would have forgotten the whole thing. Had he not been such a sycophant, he would've saved them so much pain.

But on that fateful day, he was. So he didn't. And he did.

He walked back to her, still looking uncertain. Botan was holding the card now, stretching her right hand out with it. He reached forward to take it with his own...but she grabbed it instead.

"Stop."

He did.

"...don't move."

He didn't, except to widen his eyes.

...raise...your...left...hand.

He did so, his eyes - but not his neck - turning towards it in fear.

Botan nearly peed her pants.

"Holy shit," she whispered, staring. "It...it can't be! ...t-turn around."

He did it - and, in doing so, moved his hand. Botan didn't have a tight grip on it, so it fell from her grasp. He immediately stopped, then yelped and whirled towards her, his eyes wide as saucers. He stayed like that for less than a second - but that was long enough for Botan, who grabbed his left hand as he tried to run away. With another quick order, the man was back in her grasp - literally and figuratively.

...she still had it. She still had it. She still had her powers. The Spirit had ripped the Thread away from her mind, but it hadn't ripped away the control. The Threads must've just been a conduit, a way to reach out and touch people. All she'd really needed, all this time, had been a touch of her own.

A slow grin crawled across Botan's face. She went from zero to Evil Mode in three seconds flat, her old dreams of ascension coming back in spades. Meanwhile the construction worker stared at her in horror - or rather, stared away from her, since he couldn't move. He was amazed he could still breathe, let alone use his eyes; apparently that didn't count as enough movement for the order to stop it.

"Well, well, well," Botan purred. "Isn't this interesting."

He didn't, couldn't respond. He couldn't even scream. Instead, he did all he could do: let out a pitiful squeal from his near-frozen throat.

"Quiet," she barked, scowling. "No more noise out of you." And he stopped.

Botan considered her next words carefully. Even at full strength, her powers had limitations, and this time they seemed to fail as soon as she lost contact with her victim. She needed to speak to this man as if she had no powers - as if she'd never have control of him again. She needed to do to him what she had done to Hiroshi.

"You will never tell anyone about this," she said finally. "You'll never reveal it to anyone, in any way. If you do, you will die, slowly and painfully. And then my friends will find your friends, and your family and everyone you've ever loved, and they will murder them. And then they'll go right on doing what they were going to do anyway. In the end, you'll have done nothing but kill everyone that's close to you.

"If you understand this, nod your head."

He'd never nodded so vigorously in his life.

"Good. Off you go, then. Quietly now."

She let him loose, and the man shot off like a rocket, his racing footsteps the only sounds on the street.

She barely managed to close the door before the laughter began. The evil, maniacal laughter that seemed to take her whenever she scored even a small victory. ...but this was no small victory, make no mistake. Sure, her "new" powers were temporary - but she could adapt. She always had. Sure, she didn't actually have powerful friends...but she could make some, now. And she knew just where to start.

Botan was back.

End Notes

...dun dun DUN, lol. XD

So if I haven't smashed you over the head with it yet, this Athena is stronger than my others. Granted, they've never exactly been canon-compliant; I know that better than anyone. (No, really - I've studied her now. Look for my findings on the Discord, if you're feeling masochistic.) But Botan Athena has always been my strongest by far...and it still wasn't enough. So now she's gonna go into overdrive, and it's gonna be a beautiful thing.

Or is it? She may be totally OP now, but she's on the outs with her team at the moment. Will her power alone be enough to save her from Botan? Here's hoping you stick around to find out...and that I stick around to write it, lol. (Just kidding. ...I think. ;P)

See you next time!