Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 42

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: It's story time for Josephine, and it's not a pleasant tale.
Word Count: 1,381
Rating: Teen+ if that's a thing.  Think of the darkest Jojo's and Buffy moments.  It's not super in depth, but it's pretty much on par.
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.  ALSO, IT GETS JOJO'S DARK.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

 

            “So,” Josephine states quietly, drawing every eye in the room to her, “I guess it’s time.”  She sighs.  “I’m not much of one for speeches, or for storytelling.  I like to kick butt first and ask questions later if not never.  Mercia…” she laughs.  “Mercia would have all the questions.  She’d do her best to befriend all of you, and she’d probably do it in just a few minutes.  She was social studies.”

            Willow wanders in, rubbing at her eyes, and Buffy’s awake enough now to grab her a mug of tea and what little is left of Andrew’s food.  The witch wanders over to the table and sits next to Kakyoin, still looking half-dead.

            “Anyway, she was my bestest of best friends.  I hated her at first, thought she’d been sent as some sort of babysitter because Daddy couldn’t trust me to my own devices, going to college in England.”

            Jotaro snorts, but doesn’t actually comment.  Xander’s mom doesn’t seem to notice.  “Never mind that the Speedwagon Foundation was there, that I could go to them easily enough if I needed any help, no, he had to have someone watch my every move.”

            She stares down at her hands, black eyes looking a little haunted.  “So, I pushed her.  I tried my best to get her to admit that she wasn’t actually my friend, that she didn’t care about me, that it was just a job.  And all I did was hurt her.  She still cared.”

            Kakyoin frowns, like he hasn’t heard this before.  Kujo looks…well, not indifferent.  His expression is a little off.  But he definitely doesn’t look surprised, or disappointed.  Just calmly…something.

            “She’d go on and on about destiny and about how amazing the Joestar family was, and at first it was just hero worship.  She had trouble figuring out where I began and my family ended.  But I realized as she spent time around me, she cared about me, too.  More than just some name.”

            She laughs sadly.  “You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if she brought her son up with the same awe.  Xander’s probably got a battle, trying to live up to the legacy.”

            They all jump at the breaking cup, but Jotaro doesn’t look at all apologetic, his Stand cleaning up the mess quickly as he sits like he’s carved of stone.  It doesn’t look like he’s actually going to say anything, though, so Josephine continues.

            “We ended up as friends.  But then she ended up meeting him.  Gordon Sarde.  She said nothing changed, but she was so distant, we never spent time together anymore, and I didn’t trust him.  There was just something about him…And then we went, one summer, on this…it was supposed to be just some safe little journey.  Just something fun.  Russian history, one of those core classes out of the way.”

            She bites her lip and looks like she’s in pain, but forges ahead anyway.  “But then, there was a man with an Arrow, a man with glasses.  I tried to protect them, but…but Mercia, like an idiot, jumped in front.  She could’ve died, but she wanted to protect me anyway.  I was the one with a Stand.  And then he got hurt, too, and I tried going after the one who had hurt them, but I…”  She growls.  “I wasn’t fast enough.”

            The room instantly gets colder as both Kakyoin and Jotaro look angrier.  “We never caught him.  And they lived, but…”

            Her shoulders slump.  “Mercia never recovered.  I mean, she lived, that wasn’t the problem, but she was never the same afterwards.  She…I could always count on her to be cheerful, to have a smile on her face, but she never meant them, not after.  And she had even less and less time for me.  And there was definitely something wrong with that jerk.  He was outright rude to me, and Mercia didn’t say anything.  And the Foundation didn’t care.  They were happy enough to have another Stand User.  They didn’t listen to me when I told them that something was wrong, because I didn’t have any proof.  Mercia actually told me to mind my own business.  I called Cousin, and he was on a flight in, but you know, I was too late.”

            Bye Bye Beautiful appears and punches the wall.  There’s a dent now, but given where this is going, none of them are very worried about that.  Even Willow looks fully wide awake now, and not a little murdery.

            “So, we go to a museum.  We’re having fun, well, as much as Speedwagon can anymore.  And then suddenly the lights go out, and the displays are falling on us, and someone’s laughing.  And Mercia, Mercia who’s so brave, looks terrified, and it’s up to me.  I have to save her.  I will save her.  So I use B3.  I open a portal.  I don’t even try to choose where it goes.  Anywhere but here.  And we run.  The problem is, we’re not alone.  For the first time, someone manages to follow behind and not get swallowed by We’ll Be Waiting.” 

            Willow’s knife suddenly embeds itself in the ceiling, and she blushes.  “Sorry.”

            “Given the situation, it’s appropriate.  We’ll overlook the lack of control this time,” Giles assures in his Ripper voice.

            “Mercia didn’t tell me before.  It’s her idea to split up, so that one of us only is the target, and the other can go get help.  And it sounds like a good idea, at first.  I mean, Cousin Jotaro is on his way, and by the point he gets here, whoever’s attacking us is going to be severely regretting their life decisions.  I forgot that I’d opened a portal to who-knows-where in the world, and it turns out that it’s not even the same world, so there’s no backup on the way.  I hear afterward about a woman giving birth with Mercia’s description, and I’m furious.  Kiss From a Rose is a pretty impressive Stand; I’ve seen her absolutely destroy with it before, but I’m not even sure she’s got the mental energy to wield it at the moment, and why didn’t she tell me that she was more vulnerable than normal?  I would’ve had her back!”  Her fists look permanently clenched.

            “But then I run into him, and it strikes me.  How in the world does some sleaze like Sarde know where to find us, when even Jotaro hasn’t tracked us down?”  She growls again, but there’s a little bit of guilt in her look now.  “But I’m too slow.  I realized too late.  He used his Stand, and the next thing I know it’s twenty years later and I have a kid I don’t even remember.”

            Jotaro takes out a cigarette and lights it.  There’s none of the calm demeanor from before.  He’s absolutely furious, and Kakyoin doesn’t look any less angry.

            “Incognito—that’s Sarde’s Stand—has the ability to rewrite someone’s life.  If I’d been faster, I wouldn’t have lost everything.  Suddenly they have memories of a life that doesn’t exist, that never had existed, but everyone else remembers them as that person, too.  It’s not like it erases the fact that you had existed.  Cousin Jotaro remembered me, even after it’d been used.  But, for the most part, you could pass your best friend on the street and they wouldn’t recognize you.  Suddenly, Josephine Joestar ceased to exist, and there’s some Jessica Harris woman wandering around.  Which, she makes me sick, almost as much as Sarde does.  I’m not saying I would’ve been the best parent.  I didn’t even want kids.  But just…being an alcoholic and ignoring him?  And not protecting him from that bastard Harris who I want to punch in the face?”  She’s suddenly standing, Bye Bye Beautiful behind her, and even the Stand looks angry for the first time.

            The silence is dark and heavy.  Buffy thinks back.  Xander’s mom almost mugging the shopkeeper makes a lot more sense, now.  Josephine sits suddenly with a huge exhale.  “But there’s no reason to angst about the past.  It’s not going to do anything.  I don’t have a Stand that can turn back time.  What I can do is find that son of a bitch and punch him until his skull caves in.  What I can do is rescue my best friend and be there for her like I should’ve been, all those years ago.  What I can do is find my son and hers, and make sure they’re all right.”

            Willow quietly raises her hand like she’s in class again, eyes dark.  “How’d you end up back to normal again?”

            Josephine nods.  “Yeah, that’s an important part of the story, huh?  Dad found me, with the help of a Stand User from the Foundation.  There aren’t too many of them, but the few we do have are pretty impressive.  His Stand, Crazy Diamond, can fix things.  It fixed me, undid what Incognito did, and in doing so it apparently changed Xander, too.  He’s a Joestar now, by blood.”

            She shrugs.  “Dad told me to stay in the hotel.  I think he’s on the warpath, now.  But I remembered Xander, just a little.  Enough that between that and my best friend I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing.”  She smiles now, and it’s a real smile, tears and pain and anger and all, but there’s true happiness and hope underneath.  “And his message to you.  He doesn’t…he doesn’t hate me.  He didn’t reject his Stand, which is good, ‘cause it probably could’ve killed him.  If he wants the heritage…”  she takes a deep breath and continues, “…then he can have a Joestar name.  Johan Higashikata.”

            The story’s over.  Buffy’s glad that they ate first, because she’s definitely not hungry after that.  And she glances at the others, sees the determination in their eyes, and feels a swell of pride.  “We’ll help you kick ass.”

            The Stand Users nod back.  Someone’s going to have a real bad day, really soon.