AN: Okay, you guys can get mad at me... ZERO is undergoing yet another re-write. And I would REALLY like reviews to tell me how it's going. It would really help me get on a single track and stay there. This story has been a real challenge for me. And I'm not sure why. I get to a certain point, then I get stuck. So please let me know how I'm doing. And PRAY this is the last time I put off or re-write this!
ZERO
Chapter One
The dark eyes of Wufei Chang stared at the computer screen, finding concentration on his project very hard to hold. An odd pang inside his chest throbbed with each heartbeat. The unexpected phone call earlier in the evening was sad news, indeed. But he never thought it would affect him this way. Sally Po, his long-time partner in the Preventers organization, had been involved in a terrible automobile accident that afternoon. Paramedics declared her dead on arrival.
She had been a valuable colleague, certainly. Since the day they met, during the war, he identified something within her that he had lacked. Their partnership within the Preventers had been almost perfect. Their strengths and weaknesses balanced with each other in a true yin and yang fashion. But it was just a professional relationship, wasn't it? There might have been a genuine friendship, even a small admiration for the woman, but nothing more than that. Then, why did his heart ache so much?
He sat back in the chair, rubbing his tired eyes, body and mind begging for rest. But he couldn't get the ache to stop. Insomnia completely claimed him in the late hour. He had thought getting some work done would take his mind off the words burning as bright as flames. Sally's dead… But he couldn't concentrate on the work, finding himself more focused on things Sally would have said or done. Once her face appeared in his mind, she was all he could think about, and the pang in his chest worsened.
He gave an angry sigh as he stood, slamming close the laptop lid so hard, he wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work when he opened it again. Not that he cared, at the moment. He walked to the open window and looked out into the cool night. He was still trying to get used to the constantly changing climate on Earth, compared to the controlled atmosphere of the colonies. One night would be hot and dry; the next would be cool with the promise of rain. Even though the meteorologists could predict the Earth's weather patterns, there was still a margin of error, of uncertainty. Like Sally.
As long as they had been partners, he knew what he lacked, she had. He knew the way she worked, the passion for her job. As well as he knew her, though, she always managed to surprise him in some way or another. That was one of the things he admired about her, she was never dull. Admired? That wasn't right. He reached a hand to his eye as he felt an unfamiliar sting. He pulled it back, eyes wide open is surprise, feeling a wetness that began streaming down his cheek. Tears that fell made him truly understand the pang in his chest.
The funeral had been nice, small. It was only a gathering of friends and colleagues, including the former gundam pilots, all but one he noticed. But that wasn't all that surprising. A few nice words had been said, primarily from the Lady. Even Relena Dorlain had taken time out of her busy schedule to make an appearance, though it was more for moral support than an official presence for the late Preventer, which Wufei found endearing.
He knew that Sally would have appreciated the simplicity and sincerity. Her casket had remained closed during the service, a decision made by Lucrezia Noin, who had planned the funeral. She had been the one that called Wufei with the news. He closed his eyes, remembering the conversation, the quiver in the woman's voice. He knew they had been close friends, soul sisters, and it was very apparent at the graveside service.
His eyes opened, settling on her as she stood next to the casket, her back to him. The shaking of her shoulders were the only sign of her silent tears. He had thought everyone had already left. He had things he wanted to say himself, but didn't feel it appropriate for the others to hear, so he had waited. He didn't expect Noin to linger.
In three quick steps he stood beside her, laying a hand upon her shoulder. He didn't know why he felt the need to comfort her, as much as he was hurting, himself. He felt her shoulder tense and her head jerked just slightly as she looked up at him. He hadn't meant to startle her; it was obvious that she believed she was alone, as well.
"I didn't think you would be here," she said, softly, taking in a deep breath to halt her tears. She released it in a long sigh, relaxing her shoulders.
"Why wouldn't I be?" he replied in a steady voice after a long pause. He had no other answer for her, not without betraying his pain. "She's… she was… a good friend…" He didn't look at her, his eyes resting on the casket lid, wanting desperately to open it, to make sure the woman he was already missing was inside; that this wasn't just some long horrible dream.
She watched him for a long moment, unable to decipher the look in his eyes. "You ass…," she said in a hard voice. She slapped his hand away from her shoulder. "She wasn't just a… good friend… Damn it, she loved you!" she screamed at him, unable to control the emotions running through her. A fist jabbed into his shoulder as she turned and stormed toward her car.
He rubbed his shoulder idly, watching her walk away. It didn't really hurt, but the words stung. "I know she did," he said, knowing she wouldn't hear it, mostly confirming it for himself. He looked back to her casket, resting a hand on its lid. He sighed, wanting to say so much, but he couldn't find the words. After a long silent moment, he walked away.
It was quiet in the bar that night, as it usually was during the middle of the week. She loved working nights like these. Though the sales were few and the tips almost nonexistent, there was no trouble on these slow nights. Not that there was much trouble on busier nights. The usual patrons of the bar knew better, Kailyn didn't allow it. More than one fight she had broken up, not without breaking a few bones herself. Sure, there were always newcomers that got a little rowdy, but a single glance from her usually quieted them down. She was a silent person, but the owner knew she kept to herself for a reason, having been her caretaker for years. She kept his bar and his patrons safe. And he had no problem, whatsoever, letting her run the place alone.
Cobalt eyes occasionally stared through chocolate bangs at the only patron, a Chinese man in a Preventers' jacket at the opposite end of the bar, as she tallied up the night's sales and closed down the cash register. It was closing time, but she knew the pain in his eyes as he just stared into the drink he had ordered when he'd first arrived, the ice having melted some time ago. She wouldn't disturb him. She shut the register drawer and walked to the door, turning off the 'open' sign and locking the door.
"You don't have to leave," she said in a low, almost monotonous voice, as he started to slide off the barstool. "You're welcome to stay as long as you need to." She walked back behind the bar to begin putting things away.
"A little careless of you, saying that to a strange man," he said, sliding back into his seat. He watched her curiously. He really hadn't intended to stay this late, and the last thing he wanted to do was to stereotypically pour his heart and soul out to a bartender over a couple of drinks. But this young woman was something else. She never asked him his problems. She just let him be. He gently pushed his glass towards her as she approached, meeting her eyes, briefly. In them he could see she was anything but careless. And, he could swear he saw something familiar in them.
"Maybe," she said, taking the glass, pouring its contents into a sink just behind her. "But I'm capable of taking care of myself. And I don't think I have anything to worry about from you, Mister… Chang…" She nodded towards the Preventers' identification badge on his chest as she placed the glass in a tub full of soapy water. "You've got way too much on your mind to even think about causing me any trouble." She gave him a brief glance as she washed the few items in the tub, setting the sudsy dishes on a clean towel next to the sink.
"So bartenders really are mind readers?" he asked, raising a brow in her direction as she now rinsed the dishes, placing them carefully up on shelves to air dry. She didn't smile, but her eyes showed a hint of amusement. He got the impression that she didn't show emotion often. He had seen this stoic character type before, but not from a woman.
"Only those that let their patrons drink so much they forget that they've spilled their guts." She lifted the plastic tub and slowly poured the dishwater into the sink. "The rest of us are just good at reading people, and listening to our friends." She set the empty tub down, grabbing a hand towel. She dried her hands as she walked back to the register and dropped the towel next to it, pulling off a photograph she had taped to it. She stared at it for a long moment before carrying it back over to him and set it down on the bar next to him.
Curious, he picked up the photograph, staring at it for what seemed like an eternity before looking up to her. "You were Sally's friend?" he asked softly, looking back to the picture of three women at the bar: Sally and Noin, in their Preventer jackets, bright smiles spread across their faces, and this bartender, still wearing the stoic expression, but her eyes were lit with pride and her arms were wrapped around the waists of the older women. He stared at the image of Sally and a small smile curled his lips. She had had a beautiful smile, one he saw often when they first began working together. But the longer their partnership, the rarer he saw it. He sighed, the smile fading from his face.
She nodded only slightly before leaving him for a moment, making sure bottles were closed tight and put in their places, taking care of a few other minor details to closing up, finding something to keep her busy to give him a little bit of privacy. "We had many of these late night conversations… She never had anything bad to say about you. Lu, on the other hand…" She left the thought unfinished as she walked back towards the door.
"Lu…? Oh, Lucrezia… Noin… I can imagine the things she said…," he said, laying the photograph back down on the bar, looking back to her as she pulled closed curtains on the windows around the door. "I can't say that I've ever heard her mention you, Miss…?"
"Kailyn," she said, as she walked around the room, stacking chairs on top of tables, picking up bits of trash up off the carpeted floor she knew the vacuum wouldn't pick up. "Doesn't surprise me… She always said she had to take care of how… personal the conversation between you. She never wanted to compromise your working relationship." She stood still for a quiet moment, sighing. She walked back behind the bar to drop pieces of trash into the garbage can. "She was always hurting. But she was more worried about hurting her… friendship with you…" She looked back to him as he silently stared down at the photograph. "I know… not the kind of conversation you want to have with a perfect stranger… you're hurting too. But, as a friend of Sally's I can tell you she never wanted to be the reason for your pain." She picked up a cleaning rag and started wiping down the bar.
"Hn…," he said, the small smile tugging at the corner of his lips again. "She always did put others before herself, no matter the cost… I wish I had been as strong…" He glanced back to her, noticing she was just wiping the same spot over and over, but the spot wasn't that soiled. She clutched the rag tightly and he raised his eyes to hers as they stared down at the rag. Still no emotion on her face, but her eyes showed everything, she was hurting, also. He leaned towards her, laying a hand on top of hers as she stopped wiping the counter. "I'm sorry…," he started. He didn't know what else to say. He didn't know this woman, but Sally must have placed a great deal of confidence in her.
"She was on her way here…," she said softly, the monotonous tone gone from her voice. She didn't look at him, closing her eyes instead, attempting to control the emotion in them. "I was on the phone with her when the accident happened. She said there was something important she needed to discuss with me, but she wouldn't say anything over an open phone line. Before I could ask anything, I heard the impact…" She took in a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh as her eyes opened, her stoic mask over them, and the monotonous tone resumed. "Then the line went dead… Lu called later that night to tell me she was dead. I never found out what she wanted to tell me..." Her grip on the cleaning rag relaxed as she stared down, finally noticing his hand over hers and her eyes again began to betray her emotion as the phone on the wall behind her started ringing.
He released her hand, watching her as she seemed to ignore it, continuing to stare down at her hand. "Don't you need to get that?" he asked, giving a glance to the phone.
She resumed her cleaning of that one spot on the counter, shaking her head. "I don't answer it after closing. The machine will pick it up." It continued to ring several more times before a click sounded, indicating the answering machine picking up the call.
"This is Jack… we're closed… just leave us a message…" The voice must have belonged to the owner, Wufei supposed. After another click, the machine beeped once, and the caller spoke, in the same voice, but full of impatience and concern. And there were pauses in between his words, the pauses filled with the sound of heavy breathing, like he was running. Wufei's brow rose, watching the younger woman as the look in her eye changed and she stopped her idle cleaning to listen, her grip around the rag tightening.
"Kailyn, get out of there… They're coming for you… Find your brother… Your Preventer friends should be able to locate him…"
Her eyes widened as what sounded like a gunshot resonated through the line. She spun around, dropping the cleaning rag to pick up the receiver. "Jack?" Her voice really didn't change in pitch, but the concern was emphasized as she repeated his name, not receiving a response from the caller. "Jack!" A split second later, she felt the sting in her arm.
Wufei's senses were already on alert, having heard the urgency in the warning, but he caught the movement on the other side of the door just a hair too late as the glass shattered from the shot fired. He couldn't get the message to Kailyn fast enough as she dropped the receiver. He glanced down to her upper arm as she turned to face the intruder, now making his way through the broken glass door, preparing to fire another shot towards her. It wasn't a bullet that had hit her; it looked like a tranquilizer dart.
Her eyes hardened, narrowing on her attacker as she pulled the dart from her arm and hurled it back towards him in one swift movement, causing him to drop the gun as the dart hit him in the hand. The effect seemed to set in quickly as he slumped to the floor. In a quick jump, she was over the counter, but she misjudged her landing as she felt her senses dulling in response to the tranquilizer.
Wufei was quick to catch her before she hit the floor, but she seemed to immediately regain her senses, steadying her stance as the fallen intruder was quickly replaced by another. "How long can you fight it?" he asked, a firm hold still on her arm, his eyes settling on the larger man as he stumbled over the first man.
She didn't answer, needing her full concentration to fight the medication, relying on pure instinct to do the rest. She rested her hand on his arm for a moment, gaining her senses as a quick kick sent a barstool sliding into the man's gut, simply giving him another obstacle to trip over, but it gave her the moment she needed to get her head straight. He would feel the muscles in her arm tighten as she fought the tranquilizer's effect, tugging him toward the back. She stopped as the door opened and her eyes settled for a moment on the gun barrel aimed in their direction. Her lips barely released a "shit" before she focused on the mirrored eyes behind the gun. For a brief moment, she wondered if this was a hallucination created by the drug's attempt to conquer her mind.
Wufei looked at the newcomer, taking a moment for his identity to click in his mind, as he fired off two shots past them. "Christ, Yuy," was all he said as he released his grip on Kailyn's arm, causing her to drop to the floor. He ducked to the side at the same time, finally noticing that the eyes of a soldier were more focused in the targets behind them, only two other men that had entered, with no ease stepping over their fallen accomplice.
Both shots hit their intended targets with deadly precision, and Wufei was helping Kailyn back to her feet when the two sets of cobalt blue eyes met, both glares softening in each other's reflection. "You can let go, now," his voice said, in a soft tone Wufei couldn't remember hearing in the former gundam pilot. "It's okay to go to sleep." His eyes shifted to Wufei, narrowing, silently asking, have you got her?
He just nodded, feeling her compliance through the dead weight falling into his arms. He looked down to her as he shifted her around so that he could easily lift her without possibility of injury. His eyes settled on her face as the connection finally clicked in his mind. This woman, a freaking bartender he had just met, that had been a friend, a confidante of Sally's, the unconscious bundle in his arms, was Heero Yuy's sister.
