Chapter Text
Part One
“Well that's settled, Dahlia Rose really is our Juno isn't she? Who else would turn back at the mouth of Hell to ask for seconds?” Buddy shakes her head, resting it for a moment in the palm of her hand.
“That moron! She should have left with you! We could help her! Back on the ship I could scan her brain, figure out what kinds of sick experiments they were actually running! Start undoing some of it!”
“I know, Ms Vespa, but she's scared.” Rita offers, not any happier about the situation now that the Ruby Seven is back on the ground.
They stay just in sight of the building, ready to make their escape at any moment, hoping to see the detective doing the same.
“She has every reason not to trust others right now,” Jet observes. “If we want her to trust us, we'll have to let her make her own decisions, and be prepared to catch her should she fall.”
Peter listens to them in his ear piece, trying and failing to keep a neutral expression behind the wheel of a stolen car.
“Ransom, has the conference concluded?” Buddy's voice is crisp over the line.
“It has.”
“Rendezvous with Rita and Jet, we'll come up with a plan once we're all together.”
“I can't do that.”
“And why not?” When Peter doesn't answer, Buddy asks again, more insistent.
“I'm following Diamond.”
“Why on earth would you be doing something silly like that?”
Peter doesn't answer, and takes the ear piece out so she can't ask again.
“Ms Buddy, Ms Rose just left the building. She's getting into a taxi.”
“Well follow it, love! If one of us is going to follow a woman through the streets of Eleazar we may as well all do it!”
Diamond Hijikata leaves the second her driver stops the car, she rushes through the security gate and onto the doorstep holding a coms to her ear. The security guards move to let her inside. Nureyev watches from the street in a stolen car, wondering what to do next. Before he can get out to follow her into the building a taxi arrives, carrying a frantic woman, who shoves her way past the guards.
“Juno…”
“Diamond! Diamond, where are you? I saw your car outside! I know you're here!”
“Jade! Where have you been? What are you wearing?”
“Nevermind what I'm wearing. What did you do?”
“What did I do?” Diamond stops, considering her frantic wife, “Jade, where were you? What have you done?”
“What have I done? What did you do to me? ” Juno is yelling now, and in a moment of desperation she pulls the stolen blaster from behind her back. “What have you done, Diamond?”
“Doll, put that gun down, you're going to hurt someone.”
“I'm sick of asking you, talk!”
“Alright, okay, I can see you're upset. Tell me what happened.”
“I got shot on Mars, and a couple of days later I woke up. On Mars. I lived my life for 20 years and then one day the ship I was on shot me into space!”
Diamond lowers her arms.
“The break in at the office, was that you?”
Jade switches the safety off and fires a shot at a painting on the wall. It hits the face, scorching it away and burning a hole through to the other side.
“Answer my question, Diamond." Jade steps closer, but Diamond doesn't back away like she expects her to. "What did you do to me?”
“I saved you!" Diamond looks miserable, "Doll, you were so lost, and hurt. I found you and I helped you! I gave you a happy life, happy memories, I fixed everything!”
“You killed me! You killed Juno Steel and a hundred other people, Diamond! You killed him and then you took his corpse and you turned it into someone you could play house with!”
“I love Juno Steel! I did this for us, Jade, baby, don't you get that? You were-”
“Shut up!”
“No, I won't, you'll listen to me now, Ms Hijikata. You were dying! You were lost, and I never stopped loving you, not even for one day! I could see how much you needed someone to look after you and isn't that what I've done? I've taken all of it away, the pain, the scars, and I've given you a new life! A happier life! With me,” Diamond steps closer. “Put the gun down, doll. I know you love me, I know you won't hurt me.”
The detective hesitates, but she keeps the blaster pointed at her wife.
“You hurt me.”
“No, no baby. No, I never hurt you, I would never hurt you, Jade.”
“Don't call me that…”
“What should I call you then, Juno Steel? Better yet, Detective DR?”
“What?”
“You think I didn't know about your double life? Of course I know, and I let you do it because I could tell how happy it was making you to help people! That's what I love about you, doll, you want to help people. That's what my company is trying to do too, we're helping.”
“You're kidnapping people! You're stealing them from their families, from their friends! You're hurting people!”
“No. No I'm not. Those people were miserable before the Izanami trials, you were miserable.”
“I was loved! I had friends, a family, a…” Jade does put the gun down then. “I was married, Diamond.”
“What? No. No, we researched Juno Steel, he wasn't married.”
“He was! He was married to a man, a man that,” makes her feel things. Makes her feel like there's something else out there. None of it sounds right coming from Jade's mouth. That's Juno’s husband and Jade doesn't have any idea how to be Juno Steel.
Who is Peter Ransom? The man she can't remember, a man who never stopped looking for his wife for three pointless years. Nureyev, the widower.
“Juno Steel was married to a man who wouldn't have done what you did to him. I'm leaving, Diamond. I'm never coming back, and,” Jade backs herself to the door, “if you follow me, if I ever see you again,” she stops before turning the handle, “I'll kill you.”
“Jade? Jade, come back!"
The first thing Jade Hijikata, formally Juno Steel, notices about the chilly summer streets of Ganymede are the security guards laying around her yard. The second thing she notices is the slender man standing near her front door, panting heavily from the action of planting the guards there. He lost his jacket in the fight, got a nasty bruise on his forehead, but he still somehow looks like he's ready to go dancing.
Dahlia Rose smiles, then she asks. “Are they dead?”
“No.” Peter is about to say more, but before he can he's being grabbed by the wrist and pulled down the moonlit street.
“Did you hear us?” Dahlia is running, forcing Peter to keep up. She looks at the blaster in her hand then tosses it into a rubbish bin on the sidewalk.
“Some, I was coming to help.”
“You did.” She doesn't look back, can't bear to meet his eyes while thinking about what she's discovered tonight.
“Do you have a way off this planet?”
Just then the Ruby Seven makes a trilling noise from the street, following along to match their speed.
“Mr Ransom! Ms Rose! I'm so glad you're alright! The police are on their way.”
“Get in, we can take you wherever you wish to go!” Jet calls, and the Ruby stops as the duo approach.
The dress and earrings from the gala are still in the backseat, folded neatly in a pile. Jade throws them on the road, then snaps the chain around her neck, and tosses the diamond ring as far as she can.
"Where to next, boss?"
Part Two
Where to next?
Where to next? Juno Steel is holding her long lost husband's hand in the back of a car breaking every traffic law in the city, trying to decide who she’s supposed to be in this moment and Rita wants to know where to go.
“I need to sleep. One hour, maybe two.”
“Oh course,” Jet says.
Do you have somewhere safe to sleep? She wants to ask, but she can't. Do you know somewhere I can be alone? Am I safe with you people?
“Oh, I could take a shuttle off of Ganymede...” She mutters it into her free hand. Why hasn't she let Ransom’s hand go? “My disguise… people will stop me without it… Drop me off at my office! You've been there, Cafe Serenade near the space port!”
She knows who to be in this moment. Detective DR, missing people. She's had five separate offices in the city and leaving them is an art. It starts with picking a business you trust, or even just one trustworthy person.
“Yvette… I'm leaving town. You have my number?”
Yvette nods and follows DR to her office in the back halls of the building. Dahlia finally lets go of Ransom's hand to undo the locks of her office. She dragged him all the way back here without thinking.
“Great locks, I wanted to say that the first time I saw them." Peter points to two in particular, "These would take me an hour to get though, and I'm very good with locks.”
“Sometimes an hour is all the time you need to come up with a plan.”
“DR, this is my first time seeing your face. You're awfully pretty.”
“Yvette… that is so nice of you to say. We just came from a party.”
Yvette takes the two in. Sweat covered, no jackets for the cool night. The man DR dragged over looks like he got in a nasty fight. Then there's the detective. She looks hollowed out, beautiful and elegant like always, but worn down.
“Why don't you go in first and get changed, I'll stay out here with your guy.”
“Thank you. Can I leave you the office to take care of? You know what to do with it?”
“Mulch the files, sell the equipment.”
“You're the best. If anyone comes by looking for me and they offer you money for information take it, tell them whatever you want. If it's a client give them my card.”
“Yeah, yeah. The lease agreement?”
“I'll leave it on the desk. Thanks Yvette.”
DR closes the door of her office, finally alone for a moment. She keeps disguises in the water closet, so she ducks inside to change. When she sees the mirror on the wall Jade cuts her hand breaking it. She immediately opens the first aid kit over the sink to patch herself up. Then she takes a deep breath and pulls on a fresh change of clothes.
On her way out Jade stops at her desk, pulling out a handful of creds from her pocket. She drops them into the second drawer. All the money she has, stolen from pockets throughout the night. More than what she owes the Cafe, so Yvette can keep the rest for her help.
Jade tries to focus and her head feels like it's cracked in half. She takes a deep breath and grabs a bottle of pills from the top drawer of her desk. She goes to take one but stops herself, no longer trusting the medicine her doctors have prescribed these past three years. Jade puts the bottle in her pocket, then pulls out the space station vouchers from the top drawer, prepaid, enough to go anywhere in the solar system. When she gets back to the hall Peter and Yvette are laughing.
“What a cool party!”
“It had its moments. A memorable evening. Detective, you look-”
Dahlia looks like the detective he first saw at the spaceport. Hat pulled low, scarf over her face.
“You look amazing!" Yvette says, "Love these colors. Are you heading out?”
Jade looks to Ransom and she doesn't stop herself from doing what she wants to do. Still she doubts herself as she takes his wrist, and places a jacket in his hands.
“I brought you a jacket, it's one of mine, but it'll fit.”
“Thank you, detective.” He puts it on, and they look like two normal people.
“Sorry, Yvette. We are heading out.” Jade hugs her friend. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I will. You do the same.” Yvette pulls away first, patting the detective on the back. “You're a good person DR. Don't let the galaxy change you.”
The detective laughs, a small and tired huff of air.
“People change no matter where they are. Let's go,” Jade takes Ransom's hand and leads them down the halls, through the cafe and into the fresh air of the capitol city.
Rita, Jet and the Ruby Seven are parked across the street and Peter waves to them. Then Jade turns to him, meeting his eyes, holding his hand.
“At the gala, that name I said to you... Who is that?”
Nureyev.
“Me."
“I knew it.” Jade can't look away. The part of her that is Juno Steel wants to trust this man. Colored by these huge feelings of safety, of understanding, of joy. She doesn't want to let go of his hand, so she doesn't.
“Dahlia. May I walk you to the transit station?”
“I'd like that.” Jade waves to the two waiting in the car and pulls Nureyev along as they walk to freedom.
They're walking slowly. Enjoying the cool night air. Then Nureyev speaks, close, conspiratorial.
“You could go to Hyperion. Juno has contacts in that city and he's registered to work there as a private investigator. Don't go to Venus, or Mercury. Mercury is a drag and Juno has a rather poor public history on Venus.”
Jade nods along, it's good information, but she feels annoyed that he's bringing it up. She changes the subject, feeling mean.
“I don't have the wedding ring. The one from our wedding. I have it in one of the videos we saw on Diamond’s computer, and then in the next one it was just gone.”
Peter doesn't know what to say.
“I notice you don't wear yours.” Jade says, holding up their connected hands.
“I keep it.” Peter reaches into a hidden breast pocket and retrieves a black metallic band. “We picked them out for each other. This one is a rare Martian mineral.”
Jade feels her wedding finger, runs her thumb along the empty skin there.
“Mine was gold. With some writing on the inside.” She says, half remembered.
Peter's heart is in his throat.
“That's right,” he offers her his ring, “here. They have the same inscription.”
Jade takes it and stops to read it under a street lamp.
“Trust,” just one word. The word of the night.
“I do trust you,” Jade says. “I don't trust myself right now. I'm, nevermind.”
“No nevermind.”
“I'm scared. I'm really scared, I feel like I'm making all the wrong choices. I could have shot her, made sure she'd never come after me ever again. Should I have? Would Juno Steel have shot her?”
“You're Juno Steel. You decided to show mercy when you were hurt. Whoever you are, you're noble.”
Jade laughs. Whoever she is now. With a trembling hand she passes the ring back to Nureyev, who takes it. Jade pulls them down the street and they pick up their sedate pace.
“I need more answers. I have to keep investigating this case even if I am involved.”
“Let us help you! You don't have to do this alone.”
Jade thinks about everything they found tonight, but more than that she thinks about the three years, what she can remember of it. The times she was awake and living with her kidnapper. Her wife. She thinks about the blank spots of her childhood, the confusing memories she's been having of another life. She thinks about how it feels to be Juno Steel, how it could feel to be him.
Jade holds this man's hand, and realizes she did everything she set out to do on this case. She got Juno Steel back to his family and now she's going to leave. Take a shuttle to some distant planet and hope Diamond doesn't follow her. Is that what Juno Steel would do?
“What was our wedding like?” She needs to change the subject.
“It was… intimate, meaningful.”
“How did we meet?”
“I was trying to steal an artifact and you were investigating a murder that used the artifact as the weapon.”
“You stole it out of my safe.”
“I did. How did you lose your eye?”
“That same case led me to some ancient medicine that I took to stop it from being stolen.”
Peter laughs. “Reckless.”
“Well, when you're a hammer every problem looks like a nail.” Jade stops and looks at him.
“Are you angry with me?” She meets his eyes, face still shrouded by her scarf. “For being Jade Hijikata?”
“No, of course not. Jade, you did nothing wrong.”
She likes hearing him call her by that name. Jade Hijikata, it was easy being Jade. It was boring, and confusing, but it was easy. She doesn't want things to be easy, she never has.
“It took me so long to realize who I was. We lost so much time," Jade tries to shake the tears out of her voice, to no avail.
Nureyev is overwhelmed seeing her cry. He pulls her closer to touch her face, covered by her scarf and the brim of her hat. Their watery eyes meet.
“You found us. You, Jade Hijikata, Dahlia Rose, Juno Steel. You found us.”
Jade looks at the man. Like before she doesn't think, just lets herself do what she wants.
Pulling down her scarf with one hand Jade leans in, lets Nureyev close the gap between their lips.
They kiss, holding hands in the middle of the street. The slow late night crowd easily able to walk around them.
It's the kind of kiss that defies a single category: long lost lovers, a jittery first date, a conversation, an answer.
“Don’t go. Come with us.” Peter whispers across her lips.
“I'm afraid to. I don't know how to be Juno Steel.”
“Be whoever you'd like to be. Let us meet you again and again.”
They kiss, this time slower. Jade drags their joined hands between them, wedged between their beating hearts.
“Okay.” She rests against his shoulders, turns her head away to look at the city where she's lived for three years. “Okay, let's try it.”
They stand in that cold city street and when they're ready, they leave Ganymede together.