Title: Visiting Zark
Author: Madilayn
Rating: T
Fandom: BotP
Characters / Pairings: Mark/Princess
Disclaimer: Battle of the Planets is owned by the Sandy Frank Corporation & Gatchaman by Tatsunoko. I make no profit from my use of characters and situations
Summary: What's the real reason Mark and Princess visit Zark so often?
Author Notes: I am taking liberties with the series – and assuming it is spread over several years ad that at the end of the series the team is in their early twenties.
There are less than a dozen people who know the layout of Research Centre and who could confidently walk through the entire complex.
Of those dozen, there are only six who could do the same thing for Centre Neptune as well.
Centre Neptune, however, has some secrets and of those six, only three knew the greatest secret of all – the location of the Nerve Centre that routed all Galaxy Security transmissions and monitored space for signs of Spectra attack.
Two of those three, when they discovered the secret, technically had no authority to know about it. They were, after all, only twelve years old.
The third was the man who would eventually become Chief of Galaxy Security. And the two twelve year olds were two of his three wards – Mark and Princess.
Anderson had three wards, and they were in training for a very special combat team. They were ten years old when they visited the newly commissioned Space Centre for the first time, and they were also the first people who were able to completely memorise the layout of Research Centre.
A visit to the Centre Neptune section interested them more – they knew that this would eventually be their base. For that reason Mark, Jason and Princess decided that they should know as much about the place as possible.
They learned all its secrets and once they had that, Jason lost interest. Mark and Princess, however, found some areas on the maps that didn't match with their knowledge of the complex.
That was how, at twelve, they found Nerve Centre.
At that time, this vital area was manned 24 hours per day 7 days per week by a team of technicians. They found the small living quarters, and, more importantly, they found the actual nerve centre and its ready room area.
In time, the technicians became used to the children's sudden appearance and started to teach them what they did. It was because of these people that Princess became the technical wiz she was. Anderson and his predecessor, Nick Conway, had no objections.
What only Mark and Princess knew, however, was that they kept their knowledge of the whereabouts of Nerve Centre a secret even from Jason.
There was no malice in it, but the two of them agreed that there were times that they needed "alone" time and Nerve Centre became a place where they could just disappear for a while.
Sometimes they were alone, but mostly they went together. Sometimes they talked, but other times they just sat, keeping silent company. As time passed, though, they stopped going alone and always went together.
At sixteen, they were the first people to discover that the Nerve Centre was to be automated and their friends were to move to another area. They understood why, but knew that it would not be possible for them to visit as they had.
The technicians, however, made sure that the pair was given full access to Nerve Centre and the old living quarters. By that time, they knew exactly who these two were and the part they were to play in the G-Force project.
It was about this time that Mark and Princess found each other interesting in lots of other ways than they previously had.
It was in the now deserted Nerve Centre that they worked out what to do with noses and tongues and kissed for the first time.
And the second. And the third. And quite a lot of times after that. It never ceased to be a fascinating exercise to the pair.
It was around this time that Chief Anderson stopped being "dad". He also noticed Mark and Princess' changing interaction and had a long talk with Mark, who was not happy at all about the outcome.
Mark and Princess retreated to the deserted Nerve Centre and had a talk of their own – the outcome of which was decidedly better. They agreed that they would keep seeing each other, but only in the safety of their own sanctuary.
They found it hard to do and never could stop their flirting. The presence of other people, though, helped them to not go beyond a certain level.
The funny thing was, once they were alone, there seemed to be all sorts of constraints between them. They could, and did, talk about all sorts of things. But whenever they came to their own feelings for each other, both became tongue tied.
When they tried to kiss, it was awkward.
But both remembered how much they enjoyed kissing and cuddling each other before Anderson's little chat. Both tried with other people but it wasn't as good.
It was when Mark was nineteen and they had been fighting for about a year that he had a brainwave. He still loved Princess and every day that love grew. He desired her constantly and even his visits with Jason and Tiny to places of dubious reputation where the three young men were able to obtain sexual release without worry of being discovered didn't really help.
Even worse, as they grew older Mark and Princess found the opportunities to escape to their sanctuary grew fewer and fewer.
Then Mark received a request from Zark that he felt necessitated a formal visit from the G-Force Commander. He realised that this was a way that he and Princess could get some time alone in their own sanctuary.
They would visit Zark.
When Mark explained this to Princess, she thought it was a wonderful idea. Afterwards, they could retreat to their sanctuary again.
Then she kissed him, and he kissed her and everything seemed to be back to how it had been.
Their visits to Zark went completely unnoticed, as did their long absences afterwards. To make it seem even more innocent, they suggested to their teammates that they should visit as well, but none of the others took them up on the offer.
Then, when they were twenty-one everything changed again.
She found a corner in a deserted room of their sanctuary where she cried all the tears she had in her when she thought he had another lover. When he found her, his own cheeks were stained with tears as well and he reassured her that how ever attractive other women were, they didn't give him the same feelings as she did.
He kissed her again there, and, in the dusty room, it was possibly the best kiss that they had ever shared.
Things might have gone further at that time, had Anderson not called the G-Force team to his office for a briefing.
He didn't go there when he thought he had killed her. In those terrible days when she was missing, in the middle of all his ache he tried, but as he got closer and closer to that area that they considered "theirs" his stomach began to churn and Mark spent the next half hour in a bathroom retching until all he had left was bile. He then went back to his home and contemplated joining her in death.
They visited Zark again when she was found and returned – not entirely safe, and damaged in mind, body and spirit. But over months, his gentle touch and loving arms healed them both until she could, once again, welcome his kisses and his hesitant caresses.
The next time they visited, they were desperately tired and needed to confront a new phase in their feelings.
The destruction of Research Centre had left them both thinking that they might die. It had been because of their intimate knowledge of the complex that they had been the ones chosen to do a physical search of the complex for a tiny transmitter.
The one gratifying moment had been when they had been able to finally replay their technical friends for their years of training and friendship and had assisted their min-sub leaving.
That small group of men and women who were the only ones, apart from Chief Anderson and the rest of their team, who knew who and what they were out of uniform. That small group who had watched them grow from children to adults and who all had tears in their eyes as they saw them remain, knowing that death waited.
It was during that wait for death that they finally managed to convey their love. It wasn't their sanctuary, but they found that kissing amongst the destruction around them was just as good. And this time, they wanted things to go further. If they were going to die, then they would die together, but not before they consummated their love.
The only thing that stopped that was the arrival of Phoenix and the necessity to help Jason and Keyop.
Jason's sharp eyes saw her swollen lips and flushed face and the fact that she was still in her civilian clothes. He never mentioned anything.
After that nightmare, when they returned to Centre Neptune to find only minimal damage, Jason kept the rest of the team busy.
Mark and Princess visited Zark and then, in the place they called their sanctuary, the place where they were surprised to find an ice bucket and a bottle of Champaign, they did finally make love.
It was as good as they could have hoped and they slept that night in each others arms, waking to a need for the other and they made love again.
Watching over them, making sure that nothing would disturb this time for them, was the person who they hadn't told this secret too.
But then, Jason too had needed a sanctuary and he had found his one day when he too visited Zark.