Boy, it sure feels good to be back! Okay, folks, here's the deal—if you don't know who I am or if you're new to my work, I highly advise you read through this first section. However, if you do know who I am and what this is, feel free to skip the next couple of paragraphs unless you're just dying to read a page or so of notes.
Ode to Joy is the sequel to my last story, Leap of Faith. It jumps right in where we left off, so if you haven't read Leap of Faith yet, you're going to be completely lost. I know Faith is a long story, but the response has been so overwhelmingly positive that I don't feel like I'm bragging (much) when I say that I think you'll enjoy it. If you haven't read it yet, at least scan through the first five chapters. If you aren't hooked after Chapter Five, well, sorry I wasted your time. Those of you who are strictly yaoi fans probably won't go for it because I mostly stick with het pairings, but give it a shot if you have some time on your hands.
One last warning (spoiler alert): This isn't going to be quite the rollercoaster that Leap of Faith was. There are plenty of twists and turns, but it's mostly a slow build to a pretty big finish. That being said, there are more characters involved and chapters will probably be longer to incorporate the extra storylines. Unfortunately, this means that updates might end up being a little slower than we'd all like. I'll do my best to establish a good publishing routine, but I can't make any guarantees at the moment.
Okay. I think that's all I needed to say. Let's get started, shall we?
Thursday April 2, AC 215
The black car hurtled down the highway at a speed that was more appropriate for the race track than a public thoroughfare. There was no other traffic to present a challenge at two in the morning, though, and the Preventer-issued license plates kept police from interrupting the driver's late-night mission with frivolous traffic stops.
It was a good thing, too, considering that Faith didn't have her license yet. The Porsche wasn't exactly hers, either. Two weeks ago, she'd been too scared to even touch the car, but now she understood that fear was relative. Faith didn't have time for something as petty as a fear of driving. She had bigger things to worry about.
Such as the fact that nobody, not even the Preventers, cared that terrorists had taken her dad hostage. They all kept saying that he was just undercover and that going after him would violate Directive Zero-One, which forbade anyone from interfering with an agent on a covert mission. It was all such garbage. Faith knew better, even if her mom and the Preventers were happier with the wool over their eyes. Her dad wasn't coming back on his own. He'd as much as told her so when he'd turned himself over to the Red Fang two weeks ago.
"You'll understand someday, when you have a son or daughter of your own, Faith."
No, he wasn't coming back—he wouldn't have said that if he planned on returning. Faith cranked up the radio, hoping to drown out the echo in her memory. She didn't need to hear that again. Instead of listening and giving in to her urge to scream, Faith kept her foot steady on the gas as she sped away from her mother's seaside villa and toward the only place on Earth that kept her sane these days.
Relena Darlian sat at the kitchen table, staring at her cooling cup of tea as she waited for her late-night snack to finish cooking. It seemed like her entire life had unraveled over the course of the past few weeks, and things didn't look like they were going to improve anytime soon. The ESUN Senate had decided to conduct an official investigation into the cover-up surrounding Faith's disappearance as a child, and Relena had a feeling that the upcoming trial was going to be nasty.
The oven timer beeped and Relena hopped up to retrieve her frozen pizza. On top of everything else, her housekeeper had quit and Relena suddenly found herself trying to juggle household chores in addition to dragging her reputation out of the mud and keeping tabs on her rebellious teenage daughter.
Her daughter, the straight-A student and amateur engineer, who had snuck out again. Relena huffed at the memory of Faith's empty bed and reached into the cabinet for a jar of jalapenos. Two weeks ago the girl had quaked in fear at the mention of driving lessons and now she "borrowed" Heero's Porsche every time Relena turned her back. It was infuriating, to say the least. Relena started forking jalapenos onto her pizza, hoping to make the cardboard crust and greasy sausage a little more palatable. At least her appetite had finally returned, even if everything else in her life was going wrong.
"That pizza looks like the worst case of heartburn I've ever seen. Please tell me you're planning on sharing."
Relena started guiltily when her unofficial sister-in-law, Lucrezia Noin, stumbled into the kitchen. She hadn't meant to wake anyone. But since Lucy was up, Relena thought it was probably as good a time as any to get a few things off her chest. Confidentiality agreement or no, there were some things Relena just couldn't tell her psychiatrist.
"Help yourself," she said, capping the jalapenos and putting the jar back into the cabinet. "Faith is gone again, by the way."
"Damn it!" Lucy muttered as she tossed a couple of slices of jalapeno-sausage-pepperoni pizza onto a plate. "I guess I should have hidden the distributor cap a little better. I didn't think she'd know how to put it back."
"Don't beat yourself up," Relena replied. "She's been helping Duo fix cars since she was big enough to hold the tools. I'm more worried about the fact that she doesn't seem to feel like she can discuss this with anyone. She used to be so—open. And now she hides everything."
Lucy frowned as she chewed and swallowed a bite of her pizza. "What about the GPS tracker we installed in the car?" she asked. "Did you at least figure out where she's going?"
Relena pursed her lips. "I was able to follow her movements as far as the shelf in the garage. Faith must have found the tracker when she was reinstalling the distributor cap. She really seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to machinery. It isn't your fault, Lucy."
Lucy made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. Relena sympathized. Lucy was really trying her hardest to help Faith adjust to life on Earth and Faith wasn't exactly making it easy.
"I do know where she's going," Relena said hesitantly. "Do you remember the old Sanc capital? The school? I got a call from the head groundskeeper earlier. He said someone's been using a lot of electricity lately, and Heero's car has been parked outside more often than usual. He wanted to know what was going on, in case he needed to warn the maintenance crew of anything."
The pizza slid out of Lucy's hands and back onto her plate. A jalapeno slice rolled across the table and onto the floor. Relena scooped it up before Torstin could find it and decide to sample it. The last thing she needed was a sick dog.
"My Taurus is down there. I put it into storage in that hangar after the war," Lucy said. Her chair crashed to the floor as she leaped to her feet. "Relena, we have to stop Faith. If anybody sees a mobile suit on the loose, they're going to assume it's an attack and shoot it down. She's going to get hurt!"
That didn't seem likely to Relena. Even as agitated as she was, Faith was too smart to go joyriding in a mobile suit. At the very least, she wouldn't take Lucy's suit when she had something much more powerful at her disposal.
"That old Taurus is the least of our worries," Relena replied calmly. "Wing Zero, on the other hand, could be a bit of a problem."
Lucy went very pale, and then very red. She sank slowly back into her chair and stared at the tabletop. Relena ate her pizza and waited for her friend to organize her thoughts. It was a lot to take in, especially since the gundam had been all but destroyed after the Mariemaia uprising.
"You're keeping a gundam in that place?" Lucy demanded. "Relena! What are you thinking? How can you just sit there and eat junk food while Faith is-is—"
"Faith couldn't have found Wing Zero on her own," Relena replied. "You know how tight security is, and how well the mobile suit hangar is hidden. Heero must have taken her down there before he—left."
Lucy was quiet after that and Relena decided to focus on her snack before it got as cold and unpalatable as the cup of tea by her elbow. The jalapenos were a good idea and Relena's pizza was gone before she was completely satisfied. Lucy pushed her plate across the table; apparently it wasn't to her taste. But that was fine. More for me, Relena thought as she devoured the last piece.
"What are you going to do, Relena?" Lucy asked. "You can't just let Faith run wild like this. One way or another, she's going to get hurt. Even if Heero did have something to do with this, Faith cannot take Wing Zero out of that hangar. Can you imagine what would happen if people found out a gundam is still in existence?"
Relena sighed as she stared down at the empty plates. It would be disastrous if the public found out about Wing Zero, especially given her current situation. She'd only found one reasonable solution to this problem, and she wasn't really happy about it. But she would do anything to keep Faith safe. Even if it meant giving her up again.
"I'm sending Faith back to space," Relena said. "It's what she wants, and it'll keep her away from Wing Zero. And—she might tell Duo about what's bothering her. She pretends that she's fine, but I know something isn't right. I only wish I could get her to talk to me."
Heero would be disappointed when he found out—if he found out—but it was all Relena could do. She was in the process of dealing with the legal ramifications of her actions, and she spent most of the day with her attorneys, building her defense. The rest of her time was devoted to interviews and public speeches, anything that would help rebuild her reputation. It wasn't right to leave Faith home alone, or home with Lucy and Gio, for twelve or more hours a day, and Relena didn't think it was fair to bring Faith along to the office and thrust her into the spotlight as well.
"Relena," Lucy murmured gently. "Are you sure this is what you want? You've wanted to have Faith home for such a long time."
"I know," Relena whispered. "I know. But Faith isn't adjusting to life here, and I'm not in a place where I can offer her the support she needs right now. So much for getting my chance to finally be her mom, huh? I feel like I'm abandoning her again—only it's worse this time because I'm not giving her up in order to keep her safe."
The ache in her chest was more than just heartburn, but it was familiar enough that Relena could work past it. She collected the empty plates and brought them over to the sink. When Faith got back, she would fuss about dishes left unwashed, but Relena thought she deserved a lecture.
"Hey," Lucy said. "You know you're not alone, right? I'm still in your corner. And I'm sure Heero is, too. Wherever he is."
"Thanks," Relena murmured, stepping through the kitchen door and pausing on the other side. Thinking about Heero, about what he might be facing, was more than she could stomach right now. "I think I'm going back upstairs. Sorry I woke you. Goodnight, Lucy."
It had taken a lot of work to get Wing Zero back online after Faith's first experience with the Zero System drained what was left of its stored power supply. The gundam had been immobile for so long that Faith didn't think she'd be able to fully restore it on her own, but with a little ingenuity and a lot of sweat she'd managed to get Wing Zero hooked into the building's electricity. Faith suspected the suit needed a new generator, but she didn't have a replacement handy and she wasn't sure she could fix the old one, which was located near the gundam's self-destruct mechanism, without blowing herself up.
And she wasn't ready to die just yet.
Faith slumped in the pilot's seat, panting as the aftereffects of a rough simulation wore off. Her clothes were soaked with sweat and her hands shook, but Zero still hadn't shown her anything useful. She had to try again.
"Come on," she grumbled as she punched in the startup sequence. "This is it, Zero—I'm going back to space in twelve hours, and I could really use a little insight here. You can't scare me with simulated death scenes, or space battles, or any of that other crap. Give it up already or so help me, I'll recycle you into soup cans when I get back. I can arrange that, you know."
"Soup cans, huh? You are a funny kid."
The transition was seamless , so perfect that Faith was unaware of the slip from reality into simulation. It was just like the first time, but Faith was accustomed to Zero's immersive properties now. She wasn't really surprised that it had sucked her in again—but she hadn't expected things to be quite like this.
The floor was smooth under her worn sneakers, but Faith didn't have much of a sense of her surroundings other than that. She didn't need it, though; this wasn't another battle simulation. For once, it looked like Zero was giving her what she wanted. Insight.
"Dad."
Except it wasn't, quite, her dad. He looked a little younger than Faith remembered him being, and he seemed so—calm. His face was empty, his posture slack. There wasn't any life there—no matter how real this felt, the "person" standing before her was just another one of the Zero System's illusions. Faith approached him cautiously—knowing Zero, this was probably a trap.
"What are you?" she asked, stopping a few feet away. He stared at her and his wrongness was even more apparent—he didn't move like people moved, not even to breathe or blink. Faith suppressed a shudder as she politely waited for the system to formulate a response.
"You know, basically, what I am," he replied, his tone as blank and cool as his face. "I'm a computer simulation of Heero Yuy, constructed from old data from storage and new information drawn from your own memories. You can ask me anything, but you should be aware that my databanks may not contain sufficient information to properly format an answer."
Faith raised an eyebrow. "You've never tried anything like this before, have you?" she asked. "Interfacing with your pilot so directly must be kind of weird."
"Hn," he murmured. Faith almost giggled. A non-committal response to a personal question was definitely like her dad.
"I just want to help you," Faith started. "Well. I want to help my dad, anyway. Two weeks ago, he surrendered himself to a terrorist organization that calls itself the Red Fang. It was my fault—he wouldn't have needed to step in like that if I hadn't gotten myself captured first. I can't let these people hurt my dad, and I need to know what I can do to save him."
Faith stopped, shivering as she remembered that cold, awful night. She closed her eyes, trying to push the memory back where it belonged, and when she opened them again, everything had changed. She gasped, and her breath puffed from her lips in a soft cloud. It really was cold.
Zero had recreated the launch site from her memory, from the crates stacked on the runways to the position of the stars in the sky. Only the people were missing. She was alone with her "dad" and he'd started to look a bit more like himself. His mouth turned down slightly, and Faith could see the little lines that had started to form at the corners of his eyes. He stood up a little straighter, blinked, and exhaled his own cloud of vapor.
Amazing, Faith thought, trying to look at the transformation from an objective point of view. The Zero System was still drawing information from her and using it to manipulate her senses and emotions. No wonder people decided Zero was too dangerous for just anyone to use. There are so many ways this kind of technology could be abused. It would be so easy to just crack into people's heads and steal their information—and they'd never even realize a thing!
"You aren't prepared for this," her dad/Zero said. "You don't have the training or the equipment to rescue a hostage from a dangerous situation, and getting to me is going to be the easy part."
Faith frowned, and her dad stared down at her with piercing blue eyes. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I built the fastest space shuttle in existence. I know how to disable an alarm, pick a lock, and carry a gun. I'm a damn good shot, too. I can do this."
He smiled and looked away briefly before meeting her eyes again. "You won't shoot to kill, not even if your life depends on it. And that still isn't going to be your biggest problem."
"Then what is my biggest problem?" Faith demanded.
His eyes went hard, harder than Faith had ever seen them—and she wondered again if she'd stumbled into some kind of trap.
"I am your biggest problem," he replied. "And in your current state, nothing you do will convince me to help you."
Faith shivered again, this time more from fear than from the cold that was slowly working its way into her bones. She'd never seen her dad so angry, and yet he was somehow more real now than he'd been in real life. She blinked again, trying to keep her emotions in check before Zero realized how much power it was gaining over her, and when she opened her eyes she was back where she'd started.
Slumped against the pilot's seat. Panting. Her clothes were cold and clammy with sweat, and her cheeks were hot with tears.
"Goddammit!"
Notes: Like it? Hate it? Let me know what you think! Believe it or not, reviews are quite encouraging. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can manage; check my profile for status updates and additional information.