A/N: I've seen Episode 2 twice now. I'm still not sure what the heck it's about. Personally, I liked Phantom Menace better, but of course I've always had a soft spot for Liam Neeson... *sigh* And Anakin scaaared meee!


Chapter 6 - Vérité Fausse



Tak.

The pen tapped slowly on the surface of the deep, red mahogany desk. A few papers lay there in specially organized piles, rustling in the mild breeze that blew softly through the room.

Tak.

Black velvet curtains hung heavily on the windows, a musty barrier against the invading forces of light. Dust hung thick in the air, swirling with every breath and sticking to the sparse furniture and the plush red carpet.

Tak.

The man at the desk was not one you would expect in such a room. His face was round and florid, he wore tiny round glasses, and he was SHORT. His toes barely touched the ground underneath the desk. He scratched his last few black hairs, combed carefully over the pink dome of his large head, and brought the pen down.

Tak.

"This could be dangerous, you know," he said, his voice shrill and worried. The black cat on his lap plurted with smug satisfaction. He chewed his lower lip. "I'm worried about the Commander, to be honest. He doesn't know what he's getting into." The cat blinked at him.

Tak.

He scratched it between the ears. "But you understand," he murmured to it, fondling its ears. "You've always understood." The cat mewed.

Tak.



Neris saluted hurriedly. "Terribly sorry to bother you, Sergeant Detritus, but have you seen a tall Vampire with long, braided black hair come in?" she rattled off nervously in one breath.

The troll adjusted his whirring cooling helmet. "Yah, sent 'er up to Mister Vimes," he replied. "But she gone now."

Neris swore under her breath. "Right, sir," she said. "Thank you, sir." She tore off another salute and spun on her heel, running out of the building.

Neris paused outside the building to catch her breath and inspect the street. Shocked street vendors, beggars nursing bruised shins, small black scorch marks on the cobbles... Neris grimaced. Paj had gone THAT way, then. And in a huff, at that. Neris took off again, mumbling excuses as she elbowed through the midday crowd.

What the dickens did that fool girl think she was up to, running off like that? From the marks, though, it looked as though Mister Vimes had turned her down... but WHAT had he turned down? Neris felt ice in her stomach. Paj hadn't offered to HELP, had she?

Aha. A familiar head of hair bobbed up and down over the crowd a ways down the street, moving erraticly back and forth. That was Paj, all right. When she was pissed enough she tended to weave when she walked, didn't look where she was going. Neris picked up her pace and laid a hand on her sister's shoulder.

Paj jumped and spun, nearly knocking Neris to the ground with a back-hand swipe that would have clobbered a taller man. She blinked amd stared at the empty place behind her.

"Don't DO that!" Neris hissed from the ground, crouching and clutching the sides of her helmet. She glared up at her sister, who blushed.

"Sorry," she mumbled, giving her sister a hand up. "You surprised me."

Neris grumbled to herself as she brushed the dust off. "Well, admittedly, yes," she growled, cossing her arms and glaring up at the other girl. "However, that STILL doesn't excuse your behavior."

Paj went from enraged to innocent in a matter of seconds. "Behavior?"

"You KNOW what I mean, Paj," Neris scolded as the crowd of people flowed around them. "Going out without telling me, taking the black ribbon, going to Commander Vimes..."

Paj looked miserable. "You're psychic, aren't you?"

Neris subsided, sighing heavily. "No, I can just read the signs. You made it fairly obvious."

"I only wanted to HELP," Paj moaned, staring at the ground and kicking a cobble stone. "They wouldn't even let me give them information! They said..." Paj paused, and glanced up at her sister with wide eyes. "Uh..."

Neris glared at her. "They said WHAT?" she growled.

Paj thought fast. "They said they didn't think I would know anything anyway," she said in one breath, her features darkening. "Can you BELIEVE the NERVE?"

Neris appraisingly looked her sister up and down, her eyelids at half-mast. "Yes," she responded finally. "You're BRISTLING. You're WILD. You're... you're..." She came to a brick wall in the labyrinth of her thoughts, and went into default copper. "You're just not a reliably accurate witness, to be honest. Sergeant Detritus wouldn't take evidence from you in the middle of summer without his cooling helmet."

Paj gasped like a fish. "But-"

"Because, Paj!" Neris groaned, massaging her temples. "To a copper, you seem emotionally and mentally unstable enough not to trust. You're walking on a razors edge, girl."

"You're not my mother!" Paj retorted.

"But I'm your older sister so you have to listen to me!" Neris yelled back, glaring up at her sister.

"No I do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

Neris and Paj glared at each other, panting heavily. A few people had stopped to watch the two girls scream at each other, but had wandered off after the show was over.

"Sorry," Neris mumbled.

"'M sorry too," Paj mumbled back.

"Peppermint?"

"Sure, thanks. Let's go home."

"No problem here."