Recast Steel: Sedition

by Niko Nightwind

Sequel to Survival. In a world where Libra fell 3 years ago, eventually your wounds have been licked clean & there's more to life than just getting by. Sometimes conflict, a revolution, becomes inevitable... and who wouldn't want to win?

14. Veracity

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Chapter Fourteen

Veracity

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Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.

– Nathaniel Hawthorne

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So here we are with another giant chapter after way too long of a silence from me. Sorry about that, really. And since that apology probably doesn't mean much to you, how about this? I was going to end this chapter on a cliffhanger; I was totally all set to do it, and even started to put my ending notes in. I'd already hit 47 pages, after all. But then Duo popped up all happy and naughty and I couldn't just call this done after his little bit of fluff, and my beta agreed with me. And I didn't want to move his scene to the next chapter. So basically, my beta pawed at me about actually ending arcs… and yeah, we're getting close to the end of Sedition, so why not… and, well, Jake finally getting confronted on his stupidity really ought to be in the chapter whose title is about the truth coming out, huh?

So… Many thanks to Big Fisch for talking me into making this monster of a chapter even bigger… and I'm really going to laugh if handling all these resolutions ends up meaning I actually get short chapters again. If only, man… they get hard to conceptualize as a whole in my head after 30 pages, damn it…

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September 1st 198 – Monday – Munich, Germany – Sarracenia

"And then we found her calm as could be, having tea in the galley. She said she hadn't wanted to bother anyone."

Jake bit the inside of his cheek to keep his laughter contained, then shook his head at Illian when the man shot him a questioning look, moving towards the kitchen. "Well, think of it this way," he muttered into the mic. "She's showing you security flaws to fix."

"She's playing with my security," Zechs half snarled. "She managed to get a badge off one of my colonels for computer access and rearranged and renamed nearly a terabyte of data."

…He really missed Leia. She'd always had a flair for creativity that he couldn't help but admire. If she'd tried to delete things, she would have probably run into access problems. That, and they would have called the newer files a complete loss. This way, they knew they had critical data in their files, and had to take the time to find it.

"Then had the nerve to tell me that it had made barely any sense before, and she hadn't been able to find anything worthwhile."

And because the access code she'd managed to get was fairly high ranking, Jake was pretty sure that a good chunk of those files would be classified, so they couldn't put some grunt to work opening everything and figuring out what it was.

"One of the new primary folders is named Chartreuse."

Jake bit his lip hard.

"I didn't even know what that was. I had to look up it up," Zechs ranted on. "It's the name of a color!"

He'd known that, actually. He wasn't sure why, and he couldn't remember what shade it was, but he'd known it was a color. Grinning broadly, he launched himself up the pantry stairs two at a time and palmed his way into Relena's office. The princess wasn't inside, but he could hear water running in the bathroom; he probably had around twenty minutes before she was ready to work. Plenty of time, he mused, turning to his desk area and grabbing his laptop before throwing himself on one of the couches.

He appreciated the idea of the desk, really, but only in the organizational sense. He'd never managed to actually stay sat in front of one for more than an hour; even back when he'd had an office in Brussels, his desk had been there more so people had a place to drop papers for him, than a functional work surface.

He shook his head as the prince continued to vent, listing off a few other incidents in detail. At first, it had been constant complaints about the people around her, or her accommodations, the food, and then, having tested the basic boundaries, had started to get… inventive.

He didn't have the heart – or hate of his eardrums – to remind the man that it had only been three days. He knew for a fact that Zechs had only discovered the tip of the iceberg. He seemed to be under the mistaken impression that he could sate her whims and she'd agree to being a high maintenance prisoner, once she'd had her pound of flesh. He didn't seem to understand that after three days? Leia was simply testing the waters.

There had been reasons Dekim avoided seeing his daughter for years at a time.

Still, for the sake of everyone who was on a space shuttle with Zechs and couldn't hang up on him, he continued to listen and make appropriate noises periodically while he wrote up a few documents, organized a couple folders, and checked Hayden's numbers on the latest crop reports. He didn't really expect to find any mistakes – and he didn't – but it was habit, and it couldn't hurt to be careful. In so many ways, he felt like he was losing control of so many of projects he'd started with Relena, and babysitting the results made him feel a little less out of the loop. He actually hadn't wanted to give up his 'personal assistant' position however much he'd complained about it, but it had been beyond feasible for a while, and, well, he acknowledged that he had control issues.

Control issues. If that isn't a fucking understatement…

"Aa, she does that," he was muttering in a conciliatory tone when Relena came in. Glancing up at the clock, he raised his brows when he realized that he had just burned almost half an hour on the phone since coming upstairs. That was… impressive. He wasn't sure if he'd ever seen the man this annoyed.

The woman had talent.

"Hey, Zechs? I'm sorry to cut this short, but weren't you already saying she did something that was killing your bandwidth?" Relena frowned slightly, and he rolled his eyes before gesturing at the paperwork on the coffee table, specifically pointing to the things that needed her signature. "I'd offer to help, but we're not hooked into the mainframe from here." He had designed a security net far better than what the Regime insisted on using when they moved; it had been an excellent excuse to cut ties and make his life easier. Securing Relena's work without altering Zechs' system back when they were in his base had been a nightmare. "Someone in Brussels should be able to sort it out, if no one out with you can."

The other man made an irritated noise. "I can't."

"Uh…" He raked his brain for some reason for that, and came up empty. "Why not?"

"She broke into my phone the other night," he seethed. "And among other things, replaced the numbers for my direct lines to different departments in Brussels with her local L2 pizza parlors."

He bit his lip and shook, he was trying so hard not to laugh. Yeah… it wouldn't be very good if someone found out about that. And since those were private, secure lines for Marquise's personal use alone… no one else would know them.

It would look a few steps beyond weak to have to own up to just how he'd lost them, too. "That's…"

Relena was frowning in concern now. "Jake?"

"I'll see what I can do about that," Jake decided quickly. "I've got to go, call you back." He'd barely hit the end call button before he started to crack up.

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September 3rd 198 – Wednesday – Berlin, Germany

Marlé frowned, biting her lip as she considered the pros and cons…

"This isn't an RPG. There's no secret treasure if you take a certain path."

She scowled, refusing to look up, tucking her hair back behind her ear. "That's not what I'm doing," she argued.

"Then why is it taking so long?"

"I dunno, maybe I've never done this before?" She tapped the route she'd penciled in. "This way has more places for us to hide."

Odin walked over to lean over her shoulder. "It also doesn't take us to half of the places we need to go."

Marlé rolled her eyes. "It's not half. And besides, your map sucks, a couple of the places you listed aren't even on there. You could've told me that they were secret bases, you know."

Her brother gave her a very level, 'Why are you making stuff up?' look. "This is not a video game."

"It kinda is when you only give me part of the data!"

He made an annoyed sort of noise. "Which ones are you having a hard time finding?"

She rolled her eyes before handing back the list he'd given her when he said she got to try figuring out their route. It seriously wasn't half; only three of the twelve locations were circled because she couldn't figure out where the hell they were. She'd kinda thought it was a test; you know, see if she could tell when he was bullshitting, but apparently she'd totally read that wrong. So she just crossed her arms when he reached around her to type up a search for the coordinates, and felt rather smug when he came up with no results, just like she had.

"Hn." She gave him an annoyed look, and he shrugged. "Point taken, you win." He frowned. "But I'm not remembering this wrong."

"You're sure?" Not that she really doubted his crazy good memory, but… It was a jumble of numbers and sometimes, something had to give.

"I lived there for five years."

Well, there went that theory. "What about the other two?"

In the end, it turned out that one of the ones she hadn't been able to find was only on a construction database because it was just an asteroid without any active mining work, too small to be of much value. The third had been renamed, so it popped up for the coordinates he put in, but hadn't responded to her search based on the names Odin had given her.

Which left the only place where Odin had ever lived for longer than a couple months. Which really should've been easier, all things considered. "Um… news reels?" she suggested. After all, it was pretty rare, but sometimes a colony would drift out of its orbit, and it was always on the news, because they had to decide if it was safe enough where it was, or if it needed to be moved back.

Odin's frown deepened as he opened up a page on the news networks and started a search for the colony by name, then froze. "Oh."

"Huh?" He hadn't even opened one of the links; only the URL and the date showed on this screen.

"It's gone," he admitted, letting out a sigh. Shaking his head, he shrugged, closing the window. "Well, at least there wasn't anything important there."

"What do you mean, it's gone?" She narrowed her eyes. "And didn't you have stuff there that you wanted?" This was the colony he was trying to text her about while he was in South America, wasn't it?

"It was Wing Zero's first casualty," he noted dismissively. "And it was just a curiosity."

Uh… Huh. A handful of space structures had disappeared over the course of the war; she'd known that. Two colonies, a couple resource satellites, and, if she remembered right, at least one free space station, not to mention the stuff like Barge and the damage caused by battles, or even the debris left from battles where civilian casualties were kept to a minimum.

There were totally reasons why space had always been so pacifistic. Conflict up there caused a lot more problems than it did on Earth, and for all that the planet had been devastated by Libra's fall, L1 and L4 were still trying to mitigate the damage caused by ongoing collisions of pieces of the battleship or dolls that hadn't fallen. It wasn't as severe as what had happened to Earth, and they already had a system in place to handle it, but that didn't make it not a major problem.

But… "Wing Zero?" What did the newer, sometimes hallucinatory gundam have to do with that?

He frowned at her, then tilted his head. "That never made the news, did it?"

Ooookay… Because that isn't ominous. "What never made the news?" She'd been lectured left and right about propaganda campaigns and military history in school, so she wasn't surprised that stuff had been left out, but this… She really didn't like where this seemed to be going. There had been that footage of when someone had gotten the bright idea to take Wing Zero into a colony – mind-altering, read: people get stupid with it – but OZ had chased it back out into space before too much damage was done with the Mercurius and Vayeate. There was plenty of footage on the net of the dumb thing romping around a carnival like a overgrown robotic kid.

Odin tapped the colony name on her list. "I hadn't paid attention to which colony it was at the time, but OZ only started to suspect Wing Zero's existence after Quatre destroyed it. It went dark, and when OZ went to investigate, all they found was rubble. Next it was a resource satellite; same thing. We caught up to him before he took down another colony, thankfully."

She felt her eyes round at the news. "Quatre." Sweet, kind-eyed, absurdly strong space-heart Quatre. Destroyed an entire colony. Space-hearts were rare, but she knew enough to recognize the signs; her fifth grade teacher had been one, though not half as strongly as the Winner seemed to be. With how fast and hard he'd reacted to her little emotion surge…

How did the guy fight at all? Let alone do something like that?

Odin's eyes darkened. "Zero… Some people handle it better than others. But no matter what your affinity, the first run of it is always… traumatic. Though it can be entirely mental, as well as… real."

She stared at him. "Did you just say that everyone goes on a psychotic rampage the first time they touch the damn thing?" she demanded. "I thought it just made people high or something!" In a crazy sensory brain way, or something, like meth, or cocaine, only smart like modafinal and computery like Snow Crash.

Not that that didn't sound stupid dangerous enough.

He shrugged slightly. "It's a good rule of thumb to simply point the pilot at someone you don't like if it's their first time with the system."

Her eyes narrowed. "Did you totally lose it too?"

He considered for a moment, tilting his head, before admitting, "In a very focused way."

Of course. When is he not? "What did you do?" She almost didn't want to know, but at the same time…

"I killed an army."

"…An army."

"Not a very large one," he reassured in a distracted tone, eyes faraway. "But the mercenaries I was working with weren't much help. They mostly just got themselves blown up."

"An army." She took a deep breath. "What army?"

He tilted his head again, looking up for a moment, before shrugging once more. "It really didn't seem important at the time."

"…It didn't?"

He gave her an incredulous look. "Mercenaries."

"Why?"

"It seemed like the thing to do at the time."

"Oh my God!" She threw a pen at him, and he dodged easily, starting to grin. "You're not even screwing with me, are you?!" She covered her face with her hands. "Okay. So… Quatre blew up a colony. You took down an army. Zechs did Libra."

"Duo got an army too," her brother pointed out helpfully.

"Great," she deadpanned. "You're practically twins." He started to laugh. "Anyway-"

"Libra wasn't really Wing Zero," he interrupted, still grinning. "That was Epyon. Actually, my army thing was Epyon too, but… yeah. When Sanc fell again, Zechs and I somehow got the idea that we needed to fight each other even after the battle got called off."

"Uh huh. Because it seemed like the thing to do at the time."

His grin was downright devious now. "Yes. And then I made him trade with me."

"…You what?"

"I took his helmet, told him I was taking Wing Zero," he explained as if it was as simple as going to the store. "And then I left with it."

"And he just let you do this?"

"Well, he didn't stop me."

She glowered at him. "Maybe he was still a little bit sane at that point."

He started to laugh outright.

"Who else was stupid enough to play with this thing?" she demanded after a moment. "I mean, I get that you, at least, got it to work right and not hurt anyone you didn't mean to, but who else tried?"

He frowned at her, somewhat reproving. "Quatre and I had no idea before it was just happening to us," he reminded her. "And Duo was forced; he didn't want to touch it after he'd seen what Quatre did, but they were holding Hilde's colony hostage until he played test pilot."

She frowned. "Who?"

"Someone with the Treize Faction." He shook his head. "They had the idea that they could figure it out for a while, but after Quatre and I escaped, I think they only tried one trial on their own before deciding they wanted a test subject they didn't care much about."

Marlé wrinkled her nose. Sometimes, people really sucked. "Anyone else?"

"Trowa, out of desperation, once." He pursed his lips. "He seemed to get some of his memory back from that. And Wufei."

"Why did he?"

He shrugged. "I told him to."

She groaned. "Should I even bother asking why?"

His grin was back. "I thought it would help him get his head together."

"…Please tell me you're joking."

"It worked."

"Oh my God."

He was visibly trying to contain laughter now. "I thought you trusted my judgment."

"What did he do?!"

"What he was trying to do?" He looked confused now. "And he knew what he wanted when he came back."

…There was just nowhere to go with that. Sighing, she tried to remember where exactly this conversation had started before Odin took her down the rabbit hole. Failing that… "So, no Zero for Quatre, then. Like, ever. He's the one who encrypted all your little drives, so he'll help us put it all back together, and then that's it?"

Odin frowned at her. "He's fine with it now."

…That really shouldn't have been heart-stopping. "And when, exactly, was take two?" she asked with dread, trying to remember the date of the other total colony demise during the war.

"During Libra; that was how he countered Dorothy."

Okay, that makes at least some sense. "So he wants a copy once we're done too?"

To her surprise, he shook his head. "He doesn't need it anymore. He only used it the first time he outwitted Dorothy's dolls; after that run, he could strategize at that level without activating the system."

Ooookay… And that's even more terrifying. "Can you do that?" she asked warily, just waiting for the next bombshell.

"No."

…She couldn't decide if that counted as a bombshell or not. On the one hand, at least there weren't two people with that kind of ability. On the other… Quatre apparently trumped her brother in more than just art, which was upsetting. Which, logically, made no sense. Odin was awesome, and crazy capable of all sorts of stuff, and was, she was sure, still better than almost everybody at plenty of stuff, but not the best at everything; that'd be nuts. Therefore, there was only one real conclusion she could come to on this news:

Quatre was totally badass. In scary brainpower ways. And empaths might not be in the same league as the crazy sci-fi telepathy crap that didn't really exist, but that didn't make them not dangerous enemies. Especially since the gundam pilot had proven, over and over, that he was fully capable of cleanly, meticulously killing despite constantly feeling his opponents' – his victim's – emotions.

…Holy crap, but Quatre was scary. Really fun, witty, sweet guy… And also utterly terrifying.

And Odin was giving her a confused, mildly concerned look now. She flashed him a smile, and looked back to her list, with the of a place that no one would ever go again. "So… This was your home base for Operation M?" Looking up, she added, "I mean, before it got Quatre'd?"

His lips twitched, but otherwise, he didn't comment on her choice of verbs. "It was." He tipped his head to one side. "Before the retraining, at least."

She frowned. "Retraining?" He'd used the word before, but she'd only recently started to realize that he was referring to something specific, not… well, not just some sort of training.

Odin just shrugged again, looking away from her and focusing back on the computer screen. "It wasn't a good time," he noted dismissively. "I try not to think about it."

…Yeah, that was not good, Odin seemed to actively enjoy overthinking every little thing. She had a theory at this point that it was his way of trying to, like, make everything he did more efficient; he was obsessive about trying to make sure he never repeated the same mistake, and drilled the same logic into her at every turn.

How bad did something have to be for him to actively not want to think about it?

"Odin?" She almost felt like she shouldn't ask, he'd been trying to get out of talking about it already, but he could always just say so more directly…

"Hm?"

"What was the retraining?"

He went quiet, and Marlé bit her lip, knowing she didn't want to take the question back, but…

"Have you ever been so sad… so upset by what was in front of you, that you couldn't think?" He wasn't looking at her now, just staring off into space.

"…A little bit," she admitted after a moment, "when I landed on Earth." He nodded a little in acknowledgement, but didn't say anything. "I…" She swallowed. "It didn't last very long, though. You showed up."

He smiled gently at that, though his gaze stayed focused off to one side. "I know. That was why I decided to help you." He glanced over at her. "I remembered how that felt." He pursed his lips for a moment, before shaking his head. "I remembered what could happen, if the wrong kind of person found you. Someone who wanted something from you, instead of someone who wanted to help."

He looked away again before continuing. "There was a little girl, once, who gave me a flower. I had just finished planting the explosives to destroy a nearby Alliance facility, and I was taking a little time to myself." He smiled a little. "It was a nice day. And it was the first time I'd been back to L3-X18999 since my father had died. It was…" He shrugged uncomfortably. "It had still been under construction when I was there before, and I knew that, but at the same time, I was amazed at how much it had changed; at how beautiful it had become." He paused. "I think, on some level, that I decided that meant that I was doing the right thing. It had been more than five years, and I was back where I had started. I'd followed my emotions when I accepted Dr J's offer to join Operation M, and I had a new sense of focus. I'd mastered things I knew that Odin had never been very good at, like piloting, and… I believed that trying to liberate the colonies was the right thing to do.

"I was thinking about all that, when this little girl walking her puppy came by and asked if I was lost, and when I told her I thought maybe I had always been, she tried to get me to play with her dog." He smiled. "To 'cheer me up'."

He closed his eyes, pausing for a moment before continuing. He looked far more sad, now. "I had time before I set off the charges, so I thought I'd try to find the part of town I'd been in before, to retrace my steps. But I couldn't find anything familiar. I think, between the fire and the fighting that was starting back then, that the whole area was rebuilt."

"It was," Marlé found herself interrupting. "My mom was a big part of it – we lived there, when I was little. She was a volunteer at St. Jude's during the rebellions."

"And she was the first RLTT candidate," Odin finished for her, nodding. "Right." He froze for a moment, then relaxed as he eyed her critically. "You left before 194, though."

The way he said it was obviously not a question, but Marlé nodded anyway. "Mom started medical school just after I turned six, and we left before that, in…" she thought for a moment, "I guess it would have been in 191. So she went to school, and my grandfather hired Meagan and bought the house on L3-X16512, where the good schools were, for me."

Odin nodded again, his eyes faraway. "So, like I said, I wasn't able to find anything… and I decided that that was closure. That the past didn't have to mean anything for the future."

"But what about now?" Marlé protested. "You've said that so much about what you do now-"

"I am not an assassin."

Marlé snapped her mouth shut as she stared at him, realizing he was scowling.

Odin took a deep breath and closed his eyes, gripping the back of her chair with one hand. "I will never kill someone for something so… pointless, as money," he continued in a less harsh tone. "I refuse to kill another person unless I have weighed my reasons and believe it's necessary. I will not be another man's tool again, and I will not bear more lives on my conscience for any reason other than my own." He dropped his head down so his hair hid his face. "I don't understand why my father did it, and I doubt I ever will. But I know that he regretted his life enough that he wanted to die. And I know… I know that if people were just a little less patient, a little less remarkable, I would be dead for the same reason as him. And if so many of the people I met during the war can be so constant, so forgiving, then no one should have the right to kill a person for something as petty as a paycheck."

Marlé just stared at him, trying to think of something to say. That was probably the most riled up she'd ever seen him get… and what he'd said hurt too. It said a lot of things about what had happened without actually saying them… which was very Odin-like, really.

Swallowing hard and licking her lips, she nodded a little to show that she understood, before tentatively asking, "What happened in 194?"

His grip on her chair tightened and he brought up his free hand to cover his face before speaking. "I miscalculated something. I never found out if it was because I was distracted with the past or if I didn't have all the information I needed, or if it was just bad luck, but when I blew the charges, part of the base toppled into a series of apartment buildings. Those complexes toppled outwards into those near them, and then again…" He took a deep breath, still hiding his face. "In the end, nearly three blocks of the neighboring residential sector collapsed."

Her stomach sunk down into her toes. Oh Odin… She stood and threw her arms around him. He'd have been what, fourteen? Just a year older than her.

He didn't react to the hug, but she held on anyway as he continued in the same flat tone. "I couldn't stop thinking about the little girl from earlier; she was young enough that she couldn't have been far from home when I'd seen her at a park near the base. I knew what I would find, but I couldn't stop myself from searching."

He stopped and she squeezed him tighter, before he finally said, "I found the dog."

The way he said that, his voice so flat… She felt tears well up and shut her eyes before they could make it out.

"Her hat was there too, and there was rubble all around. I knew, but… I couldn't stop thinking that it was the dog's blood I was seeing, that there wasn't enough to be hers. That she'd gotten away, and I just had to find her." He stopped again, and she could feel a slight tremor start to run through him as he swallowed hard. "I searched for hours. It wasn't until J sent someone after me and they asked what I was doing that I even realized I'd been carrying the dead dog the whole time."

Slowly, almost like he didn't remember how, he brought up his arms and wrapped them around her, leaning a bit of his weight against her. They just stood there for a bit, and she thought that was going to be it. But then, after a minute or so, he started talking again.

"When Dekim heard, he wanted me cut from the program. That that sort of… weakness… was unacceptable. I was… glad. I didn't care that I was in so deep that being removed from the program meant dying. I couldn't stop thinking about what Odin had always said, about how you couldn't live with regret, and to follow my emotions, and all I could think was that there wasn't a way I could live with that kind of mistake. So it was alright, if they wanted me dead."

Marlé realized that she was shaking now, and that her face was wet, even as she pressed in against the fabric of her brother's shirt. Her grandfather had said he wanted Odin dead… and he hadn't argued? She fisted the back of his shirt in her hands, suddenly understanding why her mother had always shown so much loathing for the man… Because right now? If he wasn't already dead?

She had never felt such hate for anyone, anything, in her life.

"But Dr. J convinced him to drop it," he continued in a quiet voice. "He said he could… fix me. Retrain me to not feel so much. Promised that I would be the best pilot they had ever had by the time he was done.

"By the time Operation M was about to start…" He shifted his weight, almost like a shrug. "I still wanted to die… But I'd gotten it into my head that I couldn't, so long as I still had orders to follow." He rested his head on the top of hers. "And then everyone I met… They all wanted me to live, even when I gave them every excuse not to. And after a while, somehow, it got to be okay again."

Marlé tried to speak, but couldn't; her throat was clogged. Sniffing hard, she tried again. "I'm glad," she managed to choke out.

She felt more than heard his little chuckle. "Me too." He ran one hand up and down her back the way her mom would, and she started to cry in earnest at the reminder; then relieved that he didn't stop as she started to wail in earnest.

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September 5th 198 – Friday – Munich, Germany – Sarracenia

Hayden jumped when Lin threw the door open, and he knew he wasn't the only one. The normally easygoing bodyguard had his eyes narrowed, and to his dawning horror, he immediately focused on him.

"What's wrong?" he demanded, trying not to stutter.

Lincoln's eyes swept over the other two guards, and his scowl deepened before he stepped further into the room and made a sharp gesture towards the door. "Out." They scrambled to obey him, and he kicked the door shut as Hayden frantically tried to think of what he could have possibly done to get this reaction.

…There was nothing! This didn't make any sense, and Lin was never like this, so how-

Just as abruptly as he'd burst into the surveillance room, the older man relaxed, slumping his weight back against the door. "Okay."

…What?

He stood back up straight, his normal attitude back in place. "So, real quick, what I need from yo-"

He stumbled forward, arms flailing, as the door was slammed back open as Mailin barreled in. "What are you doing?" she snapped, even as she flung the door shut again behind her. Then she blinked and smiled and Lin, who was scowling at her as he leaned against the table, having caught himself. "Oh, hey! I thought I was doing this part."

The lieutenant rolled his eyes as he stood up straight again. "Lies," he noted in a wry tone. "You're a lying liar who lies."

The Australian woman's hazel eyes sparkled as she eyed him, taking up a thinking pose. "Mm," she considered. "I thought I could get it done faster?"

"Better," Lin allowed. "Conceited, but better."

She snickered. "I'm good at better."

Oh crap. This was another of the major's ploys. He'd avoided getting too deep in her last few attempts to rope him into something crazy, and he'd thankfully managed to miss the strip poker incident entirely, even if Vaughn said Dorothy owned really racy underwear – he hadn't wanted to think about that! – but now she was targeting him directly. And she already had Lin going along with it, which, to be fair, usually happened pretty early in, but once he joined? She had momentum.

"I'm not doing anything!" he found himself yelling. It came out more squeaky than he hoped, but considering the fact that he was surprised he'd managed to say it at all, he figured that had to count for something.

Mai snickered, and then she was suddenly across the room and pinning him to the wall, a hand over his mouth. "Not so loud," she ordered conspiratorially. "You'll ruin everything."

"She's lying," Lin noted casually.

"It would be really annoying."

"Well that's more likely, at least."

Hayden knew he was turning red, listening to them bicker about nothing with the major's very female body pressed up against him. He, along with most of the household, was fairly convinced that the two of them were casually sleeping together, but since no one had actually caught them yet and nobody wanted to ask, he just tried to not think about it. But now Lin was locking the door, and Mai was focused on him again – though he knew if he'd tried to break her hold while she was talking, even with the tricks the colonel had taught him, he wouldn't have been able to escape.

Major Mailin Marrakesh didn't lock doors. That was how half the crap she did got out of hand, she never kept any part of her life private, but if Lin was locking the door-

"No one's clothes are coming off!" Really not what he'd meant to say, actually…

Mai frowned faintly. "You're so uptight, you know that? Would it really hurt to relax a little?"

"I'll scream rape!"

"What exactly does he think is going on here?" Lin demanded in an incredulous tone.

"I will!"

"Seriously?" She actually looked perplexed.

"Oh my God."

"I don't get it," Mai decided.

"He thinks this is a sex thing!" Lin hissed, his ears burning red.

"Well there's an idea."

"Christ, let the poor kid go, look at him!"

"How was I supposed to do anything without letting him move, though?"

"I'm sure you could think of something if you tried."

She raised one brow, looking between the two of them, still pressing him against the wall. "He's the one who brought it up."

"You're torturing him," Lin protested as he stalked across the room and tried to pull her back.

She snickered and let him, shaking her head. "You're no fun."

"And you're psychotic," Lin informed her in the same tone as he might report the weather as he brushed off Hayden's shoulders and straightened out the creases that had started to form in his shirt. "Calm down."

"We need some of your crazy computer magic on the sly," Mai announced.

Lin's face twisted in an odd expression. "Could you maybe just… leave?"

The woman pointed at him, a disapproving expression on her face. "That's hurtful."

"So I need you to loop the office feed for at least a fifteen minute cycle, good enough to fool anyone," Lin continued, completely ignoring her. "No one should end up looking, but it needs to either be a decent spoof, or a hell of an accident in here that would explain a massive data loss including the surveillance up there."

Hayden scowled, shoving the guy back. "Why?"

"Because we need to have a private conversation."

Hayden rolled his eyes, not believing it for a moment. "Uh huh. There's nothing capable of picking up audio in the Princess' office, and the cameras in there aren't at any angle you can read lips from." Not to mention the fact that the cameras were only turned on when she had guests from outside the compound.

"But do I actually believe that?" Mai asked ponderously.

"I installed every piece of surveillance equipment in this house," Hayden retorted. Not even Jake knew where they all were. The colonel could guess at most from taking an occasional turn in the guardroom, but he'd also asked for secondary equipment that could be activated in an emergency that had a different set of angles.

No one needed to know about those, though. Not even the colonel knew where or even how many of those devices were installed.

Lin grimaced. "I still need the cameras off."

"To talk."

"…Yes."

Hayden rolled his eyes. Yeah, sure. Now that he knew that he hadn't actually screwed up, he felt a lot more confident. "Where's Jake?"

"Elsewhere," Mai informed him in a chipper tone as she settled her weight back against the desk by him. "And he should stay that way for another forty minutes, so hurry up."

He scowled at her. "Do I come into your office and mess with you?"

"Ooh, but you should."

"You don't have an office," Lin cut in, rolling his eyes. "Look, we're low on time, just cut the feed and I'll make it look like some sort of accident."

"No!" Hayden defended, spreading his arms protectively in front of his screens. "Not okay!"

Lin's eyes squinted in annoyance. "I already told you, we-"

"Just use the Princess' suite," he continued, cutting the lieutenant off. "There's no active equipment in there, and I'm sure there's plenty of shit for you to get-"

"Ideas!" Mai interrupted with abrupt enthusiasm. "He has them, I told you."

Lin just rolled his eyes again, grabbing Hayden's arm. "Fine, come on then."

This, at least, he'd practiced enough times that he broke Lin's hold almost instinctively. Well, and lieutenant wasn't nearly as distracting – terrifying – as the lady major. "I won't tell anyone!" he promised as he launched himself at the door handle – which was thankfully the type that always opened form the inside, locked or not – and made his escape.

oOo

---

oOo

Space – L5 Region

Treize pushed down his fears as he stepped into the secondary airlock. This was the crux point; if Blaine was a less astute judge of character than he imagined, if Victroff's influence was less than absolute, this was where he would breathe his last. There were reasons he had wanted to put off this meeting. His history here was certainly… rocky. They might have been on the same side by the end of the war, but that was only ostensibly, not by agreement, and he wasn't entirely sure if what he had seen as an unspoken alliance was not, in truth, apathy.

His room remained properly pressurized, the inner door beginning to unlock, and he slowly released a breath. He hadn't stopped breathing – bracing himself would hardly have saved him from vacuum – but he couldn't entirely suppress the urge to sigh. He did trust the women who had arranged this, or he never would have agreed to the setting. He was reasonably sure he could convince these gentlemen to work with him, even; he just preferred to stack his odds a bit more before he walked into a lion's den.

In any case, he was alive, and it was show time.

The young man neatly dressed in a traditional costume on the other side of the now open door eyed him clinically for a moment before offering a respectful nod that had just enough shoulder movement to be considered a bow, and gestured for his guest to follow him deeper into the ship. There was a grace to his movements that implied skill with martial arts, but that was to be expected. Wufei had been very skilled when they fought, back in 195.

He had never been more glad for learning to deal with Jake's speed and reflexes as when he had found himself almost reflexively taking the Chinese swordsman down. If he had been a mere nanosecond slower, Chang might very well have succeeded in his assassination that night. Even then, if he hadn't had such a considerable height and reach advantage over the teenager…

It really didn't bear thinking about. He still couldn't believe his luck in the boy's leaving him alive when he had handed himself over, back at Libra, but he had every intention of using that concession to his advantage. The gundam pilot had chosen to leave him alive; that would hopefully give him a considerable amount of latitude here, especially if they had as little idea for where he had spirited himself off to after the Fall as everyone else.

There were a number of older men that immediately began to eye him without regard in the room his escort led him to, also in traditional, though practical, dress. The boy offered them a bow for deeper than the nod he had offered Treize before exiting without a word. For his part, Treize simply stood, waiting for these men to finish their blatant assessment of him, coolly watching them in turn.

"Mr. Treize Khushrenada," one of them announced in heavily accented English, though there was a wry twist to his mouth. "The rumors of your death appear to be greatly exaggerated."

Treize felt his own lips twitch. "If it is any consolation," he noted, "The event didn't precisely go as planned."

Another of them harrumphed, giving him an incredulously amused look, while the first man to speak grinned broadly and took a seat; the others began to settle around him. "I am interested in hearing your side of the story," he decided. "To my understanding, Long's heir was rather… adamant." He gestured to a chair. "Sit. We will listen." His eyes took on a rather piercing quality. "And, then, perhaps, we may listen to the rest of your story."

oOo

---

oOo

Munich, Germany – Sarracenia – Relena's Suite

Relena frowned as they came in, locking the door behind them. "Hayden?"

Lin scowled and gestured at Mai. "That one's on her."

"In my defense, whatever is going on? I don't think including Hayden was one of your better ideas."

Lin just grimaced. "Yeah, in retrospect, he doesn't do so well with stress. Let alone Jake-induced stress."

Jerome frowned. "This is about Jake?"

Relena grimaced. "A little."

"It'd be hard to not have it be something to do with him," Mai noted. "He's got his fingers in just about everything Relena even thinks about. So unless this is an attempt to throw him a surprise party, it's got to be pretty fucking serious if we're talking knowledge he doesn't have."

"Serious, yes," Dorothy agreed, eying the major critically. Relena couldn't help but agree with the other noblewoman as she nodded thoughtfully; Mailin had shed her usual humor like a coat she no longer needed. "The details, however, have an unfortunate serving of speculation."

Mai shrugged. "If that weren't the case, I assume we would be doing something instead of discussing it."

"Point," Olivia agreed. Shaking her head, she announced, "We have maybe half an hour before Delilah Osborne arrives, and perhaps twenty before Jake makes his way home, if we are lucky."

"He'll be out longer than that," Rome negated. "Cassie has him in her clutches, and they're shopping. We've got probably three hours before they get back, and then the Noins still have to pack."

"But Ms. Osborne has a reputation for being prompt, if not early," Olivia reiterated.

Relena nodded sharply, pursing her lips, before simply shaking her head. "I'm not sure where to begin. Lin?"

Lin made a face, and sat down on the edge of Relena's bed. "Well, let's start with the biggest. Treize is totally not dead."

"What?" Olivia demanded harshly.

"Ooh…" Mai crossed her arms. "That… wickedly complicates things."

oOo

---

oOo

Alexandria, Egypt

"Hi. I got an email saying there was a package waiting here for me?"

Eliza blinked then smiled at her customer. She almost wanted to take a picture of him; her mother kept insisting that men with long hair just weren't classy, but this one? The ponytail made him look… cultured, instead of rebellious. He was wearing jeans, but with the crisp white shirt he wore rolled up to his elbows, he gave her the impression of an aristocrat taking a casual day, instead of a punk. Someone you wouldn't feel worried about bringing home to meet your mother.

"Name?" she asked chirpily.

"Katriel Dimardin." He leaned casually against the counter, and somehow, that made her feel even more comfortable talking to him. "It should have been sent from Rotterdam."

"Alright…" She opened up a window for her inventory and started to type in the city – she didn't want to embarrass herself trying to spell his name – and quickly found it. "It arrived just this morning," she agreed. "You're quick."

His smile was a real winner too. "I try."

"Can I see your ID?"

"Of course," he returned, taking it out of his wallet and handing it over, and she only checked to see that it was the same name as what was on her computer before handing it back.

"Just a minute," she murmured, going to the back of the store. It didn't take her long to find it; the box was pretty big, but not too heavy. Not light, but not books either. Nothing rattled as she shifted it in her arms, so whatever it was, it was well packed. "Okay here we are," she announced as she came back to the front desk and set it down before handing him her clipboard. "It's all set and paid for, but I need you to fill this out for me before I let you take it."

"Mmhmm," he grunted agreeably, picking a pen up off the counter and doing as she asked, resting the board against his box to hold it still. "This is a nice system," he noted after a moment without looking up. "At first, I thought I'd have to get a P.O. box, but I'm only supposed to be in the area for another couple of weeks."

Eliza nodded understandingly. "We hear that a lot, these days; after the Fall, more and more people aren't keeping truly permanent addresses. This usually ends up being a good compromise, I think. We just have to have a card on file for if the recipient never shows up, and we can charge to send it back to a default address the sender listed."

"It's nice when you can keep things simple," he agreed as he signed his name with a flourish. "Thanks."

"Have a nice day!"

oOo

---

oOo

Munich, Germany – Sarracenia

Cassie sighed as she hugged him, resting her weight against him for a moment. "Don't wait for the apocalypse before you come visit again," she muttered sullenly into his shoulder.

Jake huffed a sigh back at her as he returned the hug. "I'm totally over doing that sort of thing, promise."

"And the princess would have your guts for garters if you tried."

"And Relena would have my guts for garters if I tried," he agreed, amused in spite of himself.

"You need to get off your behind and talk to that girl."

"That's not the greatest idea," he argued back mildly. Kissing her crown, he stepped back and took her hands. "It'll work out soon, though."

Cassie rolled her eyes, and Des snorted, but neither of them tried to argue the point further. They'd made their opinions clear – though Cassie, at least, didn't have even half of the full picture – and at this point, they'd agreed to disagree.

Instead, Des stepped forward to hug him as well. "If you see my daughter before me, you make arrangements. I understand if she thinks the house is being watched, but you can play middleman; if you ask me to come somewhere, whatever the circumstances, I won't ask questions."

"If I see her first," Jake agreed, returning the hug tightly. "Same thing in return, yeah?"

"I'll come up with some excuse or other," Des assured him as he withdrew. "Take care of yourself, and don't be a stranger.

"You too. Drive safe."

"Will do."

He stayed outside long enough to watch their car leave the winding driveway, then sighed, turning and walking back into the house.

He still couldn't completely make up his mind about what he needed to do next. The Noins' visit after his own vacation had allowed him to put it all off, but even with the much needed break…

His options still looked really fucking bleak. He'd almost picked up the phone to call David at least three times this week for advice, before remembering that the other man's opinion was already damn set in stone, and he wouldn't actually listen to him. Which made him pissed off all over again. And even more furious with himself for thrashing the other man for his opinion. It only went downhill from there.

He just… needed to follow through. He'd talk to Relena, and-

He sighed as the imperial march started up on his phone, and Vaughn frowned in confusion at him from the desk in surveillance before starting to laugh. Jake rolled his eyes and pulled his phone out of his pocket, debating if he was actually in the mood to deal with another of the prince's bitch fits. He'd called no less than four times over the past week to vent about all the problems the Barton Heiress was causing, and frankly, most of his amusement over it had faded before the end of the second. He stuck his tongue out at his driver and silenced the ringer, before frowning. "Where's Hayden?"

"Came out of here like a bat out of hell about two hours ago, while you were out with the Noins," Vaughn explained with a grin. "Yelled something about having 'nothing to do with it,' and I'm pretty sure he left the compound before he called me and asked if I'd take the rest of his shift. He wouldn't explain, but I read between the lines enough to realize it had something to do with the major."

Jake snorted as he flopped into the chair next to Vaughn, setting his phone on the desk. He'd considered trying to reel the woman in a few times, but honestly, her antics were frighteningly calculated to turn the atmosphere of the compound into more of a home than a base, so unless something illegal seemed to be going on, he was inclined to leave her be. He'd pulled her aside after the poker incident and made it clear that any claims of harassment would be taken seriously, and the look she'd given him had made it clear that she wasn't that stupid. "Anyone find the collateral yet?"

"Not yet. Not sure if she changed her mind or if it's just a slow burn, though."

"Make sure you lock your door before you go to sleep tonight," Jake advised, tipping his head back. He made a face as his phone started ringing again, Zechs again.

"Like that would stop her." He raised his brows in surprise when Jake flipped the phone over on the table, muting it again without picking up. "Do I even want to know?"

"I'm pretty sure I don't," Jake noted. "And it's not that she couldn't get in, it's about making yourself a less appealing target than those around you."

"She's made it pretty clear that she thinks choosing her victims by that principle is discrimination." He pursed his lips. "You don't ignore Relena like that."

"Relena doesn't call me to whine like a Jewish housewife every day."

Vaughn rolled his eyes. "Wow. I can't believe you just said that."

"Only because you don't think I'm serious." He frowned, glancing up at the screens. "Where is Relena?"

"Apparently free time means beauty time, and Dorothy arranged to have a spa relocate to her house for the afternoon," the other man noted, grinning. "They left maybe thirty minutes back, with Lin, Mai, and Osborne, and then the maids tagged along too." He bit his lower lip. "Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Hayden spazzed because Mai tried to move it to our house, and he thought she'd force the issue if he didn't escape."

"Sounds feasible." He sighed as the phone started ringing again. "Damn it."

"Maybe you should see what Darth Vader wants?" Vaughn suggested, grinning. "I'm starting to get curious."

He tapped the phone in the other man's direction. "You can answer, then."

He quickly tapped it back. "Hell no." He frowned. "Why's he whining?"

"He's being hazed," Jake announced after a moment, staring at the device, seriously debating if the man would try calling a fourth time, or if he'd just leave a voicemail.

"Hazed?"

"Hazed by a artistically vengeful aristocrat," Jake confirmed. "Treize style. You don't turn Leia Barton's life upside down and expect to get away with it; even Dekim was known to catch a flight if he heard she was coming to town. That woman is beautiful, tenacious, and, if you set her off, she's just as vindictive as every other Barton that's ever drawn breath."

"…I can't decide if that description was awesome or… gruesome."

Jake tipped his head back, grinning, as his phone finally stopped ringing. "That's the beauty of it."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Vaughn asked, "Do you have an excuse planned for why you're ignoring him when he asks, later?"

He closed his eyes. "What are you talking about, I left my phone on my nightstand again."

"Ah, right."

"I'm terrible with cell phones. Keep forgetting I even own one." He sat back up to meet the other man's eyes. "I have a long history of this problem. It might as well be to my advantage for once."

Vaughn started laughing a deep, genuine laugh, and Jake relaxed into the sound. He was aware of the fact that he'd been doing little other than relax for three weeks now, but at the same time, the tension never seemed to go away… and damn but it felt good to just let go. Vaughn didn't know enough that meant he had to work to hide from the daredevil. He could spend a little while just sitting and bullshitting with his men; camaraderie was important. He'd been away, letting Lin and Rome – Mai had been something of a happy accident, in terms of her taking the reigns all the damn time – take over for him. And for all that he had originally groomed them to do exactly that, it was…

It was upsetting to come back and realize that they had all slid together perfectly without him to orchestrate it. They didn't need him anymore, which filled him with enough pride that he thought his chest would burst, but at the same time…

At the same time, it meant that his time was running out. And this time, the satisfaction of finishing a job so well wouldn't even come close to eclipsing the loss of this life. That… that had never happened, before now.

No one like Relena had ever happened, before now.

On the bright side, knowing her, there was a good chance she'd forgive him eventually. He imagined it'd take a while – it had taken him almost a year to realize that she had never forgiven her brother for sending her away, let alone for the destruction he'd caused – but eventually, he was fairly sure she would at least be willing to be his friend again. This spark of theirs would probably have disappeared by then, and she would have moved on and probably be seeing someone with at least a tenth of his baggage, but… He could live with that.

Probably.

"Boss?"

Jake's head snapped up; he hadn't realized that they'd stopped talking. "Mm?"

Vaughn's face was concerned. "You okay?"

He tipped his head to one side at that, giving the question real consideration. "Well, I'd better be." It was a done, sealed deal, really. That was what had made the situation so fucking depressing; he was living on borrowed time, and had been for a while. The only thing left up in the air was when.

Realistically, it would be best if he forced the issue, made his own timeline, and resigned. Walked away before she could actually burn him, and let her find out through some means that she might not immediately connect to him. He'd been thinking about that a lot lately, trying to work out the details and come up with a kink-free plan. He'd come up with a few solid ideas.

The problem was, while it all sounded good in his head? He just couldn't do it. He'd started insisting to himself that it was because if she realized he'd just left for reasons she would no doubt put together over time, there was no way she might take him back as a friend down the line; Relena appreciated honesty. She forgave people with time, but he'd still rather make the least amount of ripples for her to consider in the long run. She… she had changed, lately. Sometimes, she was clear as glass, and other times, he was starting to wonder if he was only seeing one of the mirages she directed at her peers. She'd encapsulated his own policies more thoroughly than he would have ever imagined possible… And in some ways, it was that adaptability, that changeable strength, that made her so… So…

Powerful. Ideal. Dangerous.

Perfect.

…In the end of the day, it didn't matter. Whatever excuses he came up with to feed his dying ego, he wouldn't leave any sooner than he was forced because for all that he had enjoyed his time away in Tivoli, each day without the woman had been cripplingly empty. Then somehow, coming back to his own damn house, seeing her again but not being as heavily involved because the Noins were still a distraction, had made it even worse.

And he knew, had known even before they managed to settle into their full routine again… being so close he could smell her on everything he owned again, of sleeping just a few yards away but knowing it was impossible to get closer… It was going to hollow him out even further.

And he still couldn't let go.

It was so idiotic it made him want to laugh until he cried, but damn it, he couldn't stand to do anything but drink in these last drops for as long as she was willing to allow it.

"I am so fucking whipped," he groaned aloud, leaning forward and dropping his face into his hands. This was seriously a few steps past pathetic, but damn it, it was what it was.

He wanted to talk to David. He could apologize, and-

A melodic tune made up predominantly of violins started up on his phone, and he groaned again, even as he reached for it. He wouldn't ignore this one, for all that, considering the timing, he was pretty sure he knew exactly what it was about. "In my defense," he started as soon as the line connected, "I didn't think he would go tattle on me if I ignored him."

Relena sounded exasperated. "How long has this been going on?"

"A week."

"He's only had her for a week," the princess protested.

Jake frowned. The context no longer worked. "He's been complaining since he got her, but I think I missed something."

"You fail at recognizing my brother's boundaries," she continued playfully. "She's broken him."

He resisted the urge to laugh. "That is pretty sad. I thought it'd take at least two." He frowned. "How broken are we talking?"

"He wants to be shut of her," Relena explained, still sounding entirely amused, though there was an underlying irritation as well. "And apparently she's made it clear that you are the only acceptable option." She started to snicker. "Did you know that your phone number is the only one she left be on his phone? He had to look mine up."

He started to laugh helplessly; that certainly explained a few things. "Not in that much detail," he admitted. "That sounds like her, though."

She giggled. "I'm not sure if I'm going to love or despise this woman."

"Oh, I know you," he teased. "It won't matter what you think of her; you'll want lessons."

Vaughn and Relena both got a good laugh out of that as Jake grinned and shook his head. "So… He's bringing her back?" he asked once the giggles had mostly subsided.

"Oh no," Relena chirped in a dangerously sweet tone. "He's much too busy for that. And of course, he can't possibly spare the kind of guard he'd need to simply send her to us. She might escape, you understand, if she's not with someone beyond coercion. Which somehow doesn't include anyone else in his empire."

Jake groaned even as he started to chuckle again under his breath. "Please tell me he's willing to negotiate."

"If he was, he lost the urge when you didn't pick up your phone five times in a row," she added in an innocent voice.

"Four times," Jake corrected. "And what the hell would I have said if I'd suddenly answered after he'd already tried twice? Give me an hour or two to theoretically find my phone and let him cool down, and I'll try talking him down; I'm not sure how to even begin extricating you enough from the current politics for a trip of that magnitude." It would take at least ten days to get to Zechs' fleet, based on their last position. "He might be more willing to listen to me."

"How did Noin fall for such a chauvinist?"

"He used to hide it better," Jake adlibbed, though he was fairly sure it was accurate. Most military men were, to be honest; even having capable women alongside them didn't help, as most could tell themselves that their female comrades were the exception to the rule. "And he's a lot more neurotic than when he was a teenager." Softer, he added, almost under his breath, "He doesn't really have a reason to try, anymore."

Relena sighed, sounding exhausted. "Right. Of course. I'll just head home, then."

"No, stay," he argued. "Have some fun and relax. I can't really start to work on it for another ninety minutes at least, and even if I can't get him to compromise, you don't have anything going that a few extra hours now would fix, if we really have to pick up and go at his whim like this."

"Jake-"

"You deserve some spa time," Jake continued, overriding her. "Take tonight, and let me try and work my magic."

She huffed at him, but she sounded grateful at the same time. "Thank-you."

"Whatever you need," he assured her. Whenever you need it, he finished silently to himself. A thought occurred to him. "Real quick, though?"

"Mm?"

"What did she do?"

The giggles returned, and he could hear other women laughing in the background as well. He felt his eyebrows raise as Relena actually attempted to explain a few times, but only got a word or two in before sputtering back into helpless crying laughter. He shared a worried look with Vaughn.

"Hi, Colonel!" Mai announced in an absurdly chipper tone. "Let's just say that he won't be appearing on vid screens for a while."

He felt his stomach drop as something close to hysteria bubbled out in the form of yet more laughter. In reality, he wasn't sure if sobs might not be more appropriate. Despite the years of wearing the mask and having convinced the majority of the population that he had some major deformity, the tall royal had always been vain. Specifically, he had always been absurdly vain about his hair. "Did she manage to dye it?" he demanded.

"Bleach, actually," Mai negated happily.

Vaughn frowned. "He's… already blonde?" he noted in a questioning tone.

Mailin snickered. "Lots of bleach."

"Orange?" Jake demanded, trying to imagine it. Most people who hadn't had a bad dye job didn't know it, but if you kept stripping hair after you'd run out of color, it would turn nigh fluorescent on you.

"How would you get that past him?" Vaughn argued, skeptical. "It kinda has to set a while."

"Powdered bleach. Lemon scented. Mixed in his dry shampoo."

Jake choked. Both powders were a must for long-term space travel. Water rations were a constant annoyance, and the less fluid brought onboard, the less weight you had to account for. But…

Fuck, but he'd actually teased Zechs before about his fruity shampoo powder smelling like an obsessive woman's kitchen. The unscented was honestly anything but, so on some level, he could understand. The prince had always insisted that it was subtle, and covered up the scent of 'scalp sweat' better; he'd always insisted he couldn't get the sweat smell out of his nose on long trips, and all the other scents sold in the powders were too feminine. Jake had long since decided that whatever the other man thought he smelled was more psychosomatic than anything – he knew his sense of smell was more sensitive than the other man's, and they always had enough wet wipes to stay clean even if it was a solid five days between opportunities to wash their hair.

That and he would forever maintain that jasmine was an androgynous scent. If someone as badass as his uncle could pull off a damn jasmine lime cologne, cocoa jasmine powder really couldn't go down as girly. It just made him smell like cookies, and seriously, there were worse things. If anyone other than Zechs disagreed with him, they hadn't had the nerve to say it.

But… fuck, no wonder he was pissed, this was a single shade shy of poisoning. Powdered bleach didn't activate until it got damp but, well, sweat happened… and Zechs had always dashed a touch of the water he got for teeth cleaning over the top of his head to get rid of the frizz after all the oil was absorbed. Then, with how much pain that Jake knew he was regularly living with since Libra, some of which was nerve-based, and the fact that he was damn sure the man was taking prescription painkillers on a regular basis? It might have taken an embarrassingly long time for him to realize there was a reason he was having a shitty day.

And the burns… fuck, how much of his hair would have just fallen out?

On the other end of the line, Relena had apparently gotten control of herself enough to take back the phone. "I'm sorry," she apologized breathlessly. "It really isn't funny, it sounds horrible and you can tell he feels wretched, but it's just so ridiculous!"

Yeah… That summed it up pretty damn well. "I'm not sure how much ground I can get him to give if his scalp is seriously covered in bleach burns," he ground out after a long moment. Depending on how bad it was, they might actually run him through a dose of Remalene over the next week or two.

"I know," she agreed in a tired, miserable tone. "It is what it is; if he's going to pull crap like this, there's not much we can really do, in the end. Just… Try, okay?"

"You got it. See you later tonight."

"Ja."

Jake sighed again as he disconnected the call, meeting Vaughn's eyes with a tired expression. "Shit."

"You really weren't kidding about the whole vindictive part," his soldier noted, his expression caught between incredulity and horror.

Jake scrubbed a hand through his hair. "In her defense," he explained, "She probably thought he'd realize something was wrong and wash his hair within an hour or two. Zechs is just really good at getting stubborn about ignoring little discomforts. Most people never would have been able to stand wearing his mask every day for years on end. Think of how uncomfortable a motorcycle helmet is, even a nice one, after a few hours."

He grimaced, rubbing a hand over his face in memory even just thinking about it. "Right. Crazy tolerance. Still, wouldn't that burn?"

"Get used to ignoring enough things, and you'd be surprised how many pain responses just get lost in the mix." And if he was still taking any opiates, the effect would be compounded. Shaking his head, he gestured at the desktop. "Upload Lena's schedule to the house server again, just to be sure it's up to date, I've got homework." He might as well have a good handle on what points he had to fight for before he talked to the prince.

"You got it." He spun back to the keyboard, and Jake was standing to leave when the driver started to snicker. He glanced up and noticed his superior's gaze before shrugging in response. "You said it earlier, but…" He shook his head. "Nail on the head, Boss. You are totally whipped."

Jake rolled his eyes and casually flipped the other man off as he walked out, making him laugh harder.

As if he needed the confirmation.

oOo

---

oOo

Paris, France

If she didn't know better, Priya would think both men were deliberately trying to play with her. Seriously.

Realistically, she could acknowledge that it was just an instance of intelligence and due caution, but seriously…

Odin Lowe's trail had vanished completely after he'd made it across the English channel, and despite her sitting for a week watching for the slightest twitch from any of the feelers she had on him, she had nothing. He'd turned into a ghost the same way Katriel had after Macedonia, and she'd been ready to buy herself a tall whiskey in recompense for her failure.

Then, suddenly, a flag she'd left on Katriel Dimardin's accounts – a different one than had been used for the Skyview Suites, but still definitely his – pops up back in Egypt. Really damned close to where she had been, before chasing after his friend in the west.

She had the distinct suspicion that as soon as she started chasing Katriel, he'd vanish again too. And then maybe Odin would pop back up on the map in Africa, just to switch things up.

At the same time, however, Odin was just a distraction; Katriel was the entire reason she was dashing around Europe to start with, and after a couple of years of no activity at all, he had no reason to suspect someone might try to trail him. She had checked to be sure before starting, but the name Katriel Dimardin had never come close to being identified as an alias of Quatre Winner by any government, despite the capricious way he would use it then allow it to simply collect dust. Of course, presumably Watau Enterprises was handling its sedentary periods… Come to think of it, this fancy footwork of his was probably annoying Permilla as much as it was her.

She sighed and shut her laptop, starting to pack her things back up. Whatever she speculated would happen next, the fact of the matter was that she'd been dead in the water before this lead, and while she'd consider just ignoring Odin Lowe's movements in favor of a hunch, she couldn't do the same for Katriel. Whether he was actually Quatre Winner or someone who had stumbled upon the right papers to make use of them, she was here because they needed that confirmation, one way or another. Whoever Odin was, there was a good chance that even if she caught him, he might have no idea who Katriel Dimardin was, in false or real terms. Spending the night under the same roof implied friends over business accomplices, but really… This was a lot of speculation and guesswork.

Nothing for it, she decided grimly as she started shoving things back in her suitcase. If this goes on much longer, though, I'm bringing in Tay, whatever Freddie says.

oOo

---

oOo

Amsterdam – Devil's Den

Duo blinked and reflexively wrapped his arms around Karina as she dropped more or less into his lap with a rather gusty sigh. "Hold me," she demanded belatedly.

He smirked. "Long day?"

She wrinkled her nose in an adorable fashion. It would have been more adorable if her face wasn't flushed and blotchy, and he frowned as he shifted to check her for a fever. Rina rolled her eyes but didn't try to stop him, though she snuggled deeper into his chest. "Long week," she admitted after a moment. "Day's technically been okay, so far." Sighing again, she relaxed fully and rested her head back on his shoulder. "It just needs to be next week."

A few pieces finally clicked a few pieces together. Ah. "What anniversary would this have been?" he asked quietly.

"First date," she replied without hesitation. "I was terrified. I worried I'd maybe read him wrong, you know? But…"

"But he changed everything," Duo agreed.

She made a face again, sniffling. "That's just it though. He didn't… I even started to regret it, after a couple months when the Slingers came out higher up in the power hierarchy. And after that, when I decided I needed to play him, everything got a lot scarier." She let out a soft sob. "I was so…" Another cry, louder this time. "What was wrong with me?"

Grimacing, he reached up to cradle her head against his chest. "You were scared."

"How could I do that to somebody?"

"You were fourteen and terrified, and everyone fucks up sometimes," he reminded her. "It's okay."

"It's not okay," she argued, her voice thick with tears.

"Luc decided it was okay, and that's all it takes," he insisted firmly. "He wouldn't have traded his time with you, with Renee, for anything."

"We don't even know if she's his," she whispered hoarsely. "I never even told him I didn't know."

Duo closed his eyes for a moment. "He knew."

She twisted so she could glower at him. "Don't make shit up, Kay."

He steeled himself again. "He knew, Rina. He knew you were pregnant as soon as you did. He didn't know who until after you'd made up your mind, but he knew, and he didn't care. He loved you, and he really believed that Renee was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He didn't care that there was a chance she wasn't his blood; she was his from the moment she was born."

The little blonde threw her arms around his neck as she began to cry in earnest and he just held her, running his hands alternately over her back and through her hair. And if he shed a few tears of his own while she got it out of her system, it wasn't anyone's damn business but their own.

She was doing better, at least; the last time she'd come looking for a shoulder to cry on had been on Renee's first birthday, almost three months ago, and everyone had gotten a bit weepy, really.

…They were all going to be a mess when December came around again. But it had been about nine months since the riot now… And, well… All in all, he thought they were doing pretty good.

He opened his eyes again when Karina's sobs had turned to whimpers, and found Melissa standing in the doorway watching them with a forlorn expression. He offered her a tired smile, and she just shook her head, padding softly the rest of the way into the room. Rina didn't protest when his wife lifted her legs up so she could settle on the couch next to him, just curled into a tighter ball after the other woman settled, her knees to 'Liss's belly, then again to grasp her hand when the brunette wrapped one arm around Duo's back and settled the opposite on Rina's hip.

Yeah, he decided as 'Liss rested her head on his shoulder, and he turned to kiss her crown. We'll be okay.

oOo

---

oOo

September 7th 198 – Sunday – Regime Fleet

Leia stayed perfectly still as Zechs came into the room, her expression neutral, hands clearly visible. She was more than willing to admit that things had gotten out of hand absurdly quickly. She had been aware that she was pushing it a bit hard and fast…

But she hadn't meant for this to happen.

"I am sorry," she spoke softly after a moment, when he didn't say anything. "I swear to you, that as a physician, I take my Hippocratic oath very seriously. My intent was to irritate you, not harm." She hadn't anticipated that he might be so stubborn as to refuse to wash his hair once he realized a prank had been played. She had even checked the ship's water tables before following through with the idea, made sure that there was an excess for him to take advantage of, and even went to the trouble of allocating that excess to the dictator's personal use and setting a box of baking soda on his bathroom counter, once he'd finished with his morning routines.

She suspected, in all seriousness, that it was only because he recognized those gestures after the fact that he had not had her charged with attempted assassination or conveniently tossed out an airlock while she "attempted an escape".

Peacecraft – and wasn't that name ironic? – didn't respond as he closed the door behind him and approached her, and Leia carefully didn't look up to meet his eyes. She had no idea just how furious he was, but all the same, she didn't want to do anything at this point that he might interpret as defiance. If he was truly close to the edge, it was best to play to predator/prey drives, and make it clear on a subconscious level that she was submissive and no threat. And if he was not so far gone as that, the gestures couldn't hurt; perhaps he would take them as genuine contrition, or at the least, understand her sudden respect for his dominance. He had been very firmly in control the entire time, after all; she had simply taken advantage of his lax attempts to appease her in order to rile him.

But now she had pushed too far, and instead of irritating him to the point that he was willing to pass her off, she had made it instead more likely that she would be looking at the inside of a far more stark prison cell with no communications or amenities for quite some time. She thought herself lucky, really, that he had only had her assigned room stripped of everything but shampoo and food before locking the door and barring any passage in or out, instead of throwing her in the brig. She knew for a fact that there was more than one cell unoccupied, right now.

She jumped slightly when he dropped something on the table in front of her and glanced up reflexively. He was healing rather well, at least; he must have begun a Remalene regimen, to be seeing this fast of a turnaround. Good. She swallowed, meeting his eyes and letting him see the sorrow in hers, hoping he didn't misread the self-hate, her disgust with herself, that she had done this to him, to anyone. She may have fallen in love with a soldier, once upon a time, may appreciate what they did and be glad that her daughter was learning to protect herself, but Leia had never been able to bear the idea of physically harming another person. Her father had called it a weakness, but had already had plenty of reason to dismiss her before that came to light, and so had been saved any of the… corrective measures she had seen him put Trowa through when she was a little girl.

She was so glad that Marie had gotten away from him before the sadist thought to crush what he would have seen as weakness in her amazing, compassionate little girl.

"Leia?"

She jumped again as the voice came from beneath her instead of from the man's mouth, and belatedly realized that it had been a phone that Zechs dropped in front of her. Unsure, she tried to glance down at the device without looking away from her captor. What should she say?

And irritated expression flashed across the tall blonde's face and she flinched reflexively as he scowled and stepped back, storming back across the room and slamming it behind him.

"…Hello?" The voice asked, sounding confused. "Zechs, come on, put Leia on."

"He left the room," Leia whispered. After a moment, it occurred to her that the speaker might not have picked up the noise clearly. "Hello?" she returned tentatively, eying the screen. It had gone dark, dormant, but it looked like the same model as Zechs'…

"Hey, Leia," the man on the other end greeted in a reassuring tone. "You okay?"

I'm scared. She'd pushed things well beyond limits; that meant that Zechs was allowed to push back twice as hard, with just as much recrimination, and she didn't know him well enough to understand his boundaries. Her father had liked to offer her someone to console her just long enough to relax, before he'd come back to not only take everything again, but hurt whoever he had allowed to think was overlooked.

They were so fortunate that Marie had never recognized their moves, the periods where she was left with nannies for years at a time, as her grandfather's attempt to hurt them. Her beautiful, adaptable child had never thought to question why her mother couldn't go to school and even live on the same colony as her at the same time, until Leia had told her this last year.

"Who is this?" she asked softly, trying to decide if she should touch the phone. She had been too locked in her head to look at Zechs' hands; it would serve her right if he tried to return the favor with something harder to detect than bleach, and leave it on something she was expected to touch and not think to immediately wash her hands.

A soft chuckle. "It really has been a while, huh? Did you break his caller ID too?"

The voice was familiar, but not one she could immediately identify. But then, most of her friends weren't finished going through the throes of puberty, the last time she had had any contact… so it could be anyone. She bit the inside of her lip, debating what to do next.

"Okay… It has been a good eight years. Knowing you, you probably won't be sure of me unless we're at least on vid conference, but whatever you did to Zechs' system is still killing his bandwidth, so you're just going to have to wait for confirmation that I'm me until I get there next week. I'm glad you remembered my advice about hydrofluoric acid, though."

Jake! His voice hadn't changed that much really; just an increased dimension of depth; the cadences of speech were right for him. She almost burst out crying, though whether from stress or relief she couldn't be sure. "You're coming?" she asked quietly after swallowing hard a few times.

"In full promenade," he agreed, his tone wry. "We head out tomorrow – tonight, for you. The princess isn't sure whether she's impressed or worried by how quickly you pissed off her brother, but she's looking forward to meeting you. You'll like her; she's like a more genteel, politician version of Lu."

Leia started to giggle hysterically as she realized it really was him, and then… "That sounds a little daunting."

His tone was smug. "And impressive, right? You'll be on even ground." He paused for a moment, but didn't hesitate for long before asking, "Marie's safe, right?"

She took a few deep breaths before sighing and nodding, though she knew Jake couldn't see her. "She's in good hands." She didn't doubt that her daughter would soon be hip deep in Sally Po's operation, but she had expected that to happen eventually; she wasn't against it, per se, she had just wanted to prolong the amount of time she wasn't exposed to actual guerilla warfare.

Amusingly, Odin was teaching her all the things that she knew Jake would have, given half a chance. And Odin, at least, had proven to have a gentle hand when it came to teaching; Jake, she hadn't ever seen try, but when she had last known him, the boy she'd known had had far more edges than Odin.

Though really, she suspected that Odin only lacked a lot of Jake's edges because Marie had already had six months to buff them out before they stumbled across her in L5.

"Glad to hear it," Jake told her, seeming to let out a sigh. "I assumed, and the reports of how little traces there were of them in your apartment were some reassurance, but-"

"But confirmation is always a balm," she finished for him. Really, she liked Jake; she always had. The Khushrenadas had practically adopted him when Catalonia had grudgingly allowed the nine-year-old into the Specials, and he had been in the periphery often, those months when she and Treize had first pursued each other. When they had met again in 188, they had both agreed that Jake was the obvious choice of godfather for little Marie. Granted, they hadn't expected him to run off and go feral for a year, but even with that, she hadn't considered anyone else. If she had died – died like Treize, would that never stop aching? – she hadn't wanted Marie to be left to her family. She hadn't doubted that her father would immediately disappear with the child if he saw an opportunity – like he did, right under my nose! – but they'd made sure the legal paperwork was entirely in the young assassin's favor for a few reasons.

Primarily, though? If Mariemaia was orphaned, she knew Jake would stop at nothing to take her somewhere safe.

"I looked," he continued, his tone frustrated.

"I know you did," she reassured him. "She's safe, and happy." The idea that he hadn't been trying had never occurred to her; Dekim had only had her daughter for a bare month before the Regime had struck his group, and she knew that Jake must have had a hand in that. Her little girl had just been clever enough to escape in the confusion. And then, almost immediately, Odin had taken her under wing and protected her from everyone.

She didn't blame Jake for not being able to successfully track Heero Yuy, especially when he didn't even have the first clue that he should even be trying.

"Good." He sighed. "That's good, at least."

She grimaced. "Not much else is, at the moment," she agreed, catching the sentiment.

"I'm coming," he reminded her. "But I need you to promise me you're actually going to behave until then. I'm not sure what will happen if you don't, and I don't want to find out. You're on damned thin ice right now, Leia."

"I know," she half whispered, the enormity of it striking her again, a deep weight sinking down in her pelvis again. "I didn't think-"

"No, you didn't," he cut her off hastily, but his tone wasn't sharp. More… hurried; like he didn't want to risk her finishing the statement, because he wanted to fill in the details himself, and expected her to follow his lead.

And she knew why. He needn't have worried that she would say something over a phone, she knew better than that, but it had been almost eight years since they had really talked.

There was something wrong with the self-denounced prince. She had purposefully mixed the bleach in strongly enough that it would very quickly irritate; she had expected him to be infuriated that she had upset his routine, and possibly made him look like a vain fool in front of his men. There was no healthy explanation for how he hadn't noticed the chemicals on his scalp until evening, until he had second-degree burns, his hair coming out in clumps.

It was, however, a relief to realize that Jake must already know. He wouldn't be worried about her revealing information over the phone, otherwise.

She closed her eyes again. When he was here, when she was safely in his custody and they could talk freely, she could ask. "Tell me what I need to do," she asked plaintively. "I…" She realized she was about to start crying again, and tried to hold it back, but ended up letting out a rather obvious sniff instead. "I didn't want to hurt him, Jake."

He sighed. "I know you didn't," he reassured her. "And I think he's convinced now too, but I really do need you to promise me that you'll accept your house arrest with grace until I get you off that boat."

"Of course I promise," she agreed immediately. "I was already planning on that."

"I thought that'd be the case," he admitted readily. "And so long as you hold to that, then the worst that's going to happen is a little isolation. No net, no outside communications, but he'll let you have the phone you wrecked, as entertainment. As soon as we hang up, I have to take it off the network, and if you destroy it, that's it. He's locking you in; you have to ration your own water and everything."

"Okay." She could do that. It would be a little dreary, but she still had her needlework in here, and pen and paper, and the games on the phone weren't too bad; the device itself was really more of a tablet than a true handheld. The only thing that she really wished she had more of were-

"Any books you want me to download before I go? If you tell me what the hell you did to his bandwidth, I might be able get you a few tv series too."

She grinned even as she wiped the tears from her face. "I do have an author or two I wouldn't mind catching up on," she admitted. "And I'd be curious if you had anything to recommend." She hesitated for a moment before adding, "I have torrents running in the background for about thirty popular shows."

He groaned, before subsiding into laughter. "I'm not sure whether I should congratulate you on learning to code well enough to pull it off, or tell Zechs he needs to fire the programmers he brought with him."

"I'm not sure he brought any," she admitted. "But I used a few tricks I learned from a professional." Technically, it had been Marie who taught her, full of enthusiasm, but trying to teach her mother had been a secondhand lesson in practice from Odin.

To be fair to Odin, Leia couldn't manage it remotely, the way her daughter had shown her; that part hadn't made any sense.

"Okay, tell me where they are so I can do it fast, and I'll see what I can get to you while I claim to still be solving the problem."

oOo

---

oOo

September 9th 198 – Tuesday – Turin, Italy

"-confirmed twelve dead, with another five in critical care. However, there are still over twenty students missing."

Hilde made a face. "Why are you still watching that crap?

Adam glanced over at her, blinking out of his reverie. "I want to know the motive," he adlibbed.

"They won't release that until they've dragged out the sensationalism for another five hours," she pointed out dryly. "And then they'll just drag the kid's family through the mud, like it was somehow their fault. Seriously, there are better ways to get your news." She eyed him critically for a moment before adding, "Even on your fancy new phone."

He grinned at that, pointedly twisting the sleek device about so the light glinted off it and offering her a very satisfied look. Hilde just snorted and shook her head before turning away from him to focus back on her tablet.

Still, he turned the down the sound. He hadn't so much been watching it as staring at nothing, waiting for a change in the text while he considered the implications.

Initially, he had assumed that this would be yet another terrible incident that the Regime pushed under the rug, like the riots in the east or the blatantly ignored labor strikes and human trafficking reveals that no one but the privileged seemed to get offended about. This, though… As Hilde said, the media was having a field day with it.

Was this intentional on the government's part? A way to make the passing of some new security bill easier to swallow? Or was the media just getting more free reign than usual, with both Peacecrafts away?

Or, was this one of those things that people tended to panic about, consequences be damned? He had thought he had a pretty good grasp on sociology, but every time he thought he'd run out of things to learn, he found a new puzzle.

Adolescent violence was hardly a new trend; technically speaking, the last war had been an extreme case of that, considering how young all sides had recruited. The fact that it was a school? No one had kicked up much of a fuss over OZ attacking the Sanc palace while school was in session. He supposed that might have been because no one had died, though.

In any case, a fifteen-year-old punk had gotten a bomb from somewhere, and gone to school. Or maybe several bombs; either it was several, pointedly placed ones, or one very sloppily powerful homemade one that likely went off on accident. The jury of public opinion was still out. But he couldn't help but think that for either instance, if that kid had been born just a few years earlier? OZ would have already snatched him up and claimed him a prodigy before pointing him at their enemies.

Or the Alliance. Or a splinter cell of a rebellion. Or a roving band of mercenaries that wasn't above adopting small children.

You know, the usual types.

"What's your take on all this?" he asked Hilde curiously.

She shrugged without turning back around. "People suck. Shit happens."

How appropriate. It sounded like she was of the same mind as him. He supposed there was a reason he hadn't tried to lose her when she started following him.

Well, not yet, at least.

oOo

---

oOo

Amsterdam, Netherlands – New Renew

"Hey… What do you two think of getting a GED?"

"Awesome?"

Nolan, however, narrowed his eyes and dropped his book bag on the floor. He could see where this was going. "Universities don't like them." And one way or another, he was determined to get into a university someday.

"Universities don't like them because people tend to get lazy and quit with them," Kasey argued in an easygoing tone. "What they do like are overachievers with real life experience."

"That's grad school, not Uni."

"The only reason I didn't ask before was because I wasn't sure I could do it," Amos butted back in. "I don't want to go to Uni, but having a diploma makes a big difference, right?"

"I need top scores and extra-curriculars to have a half decent shot at a scholarship," Nolan continued, ignoring his friend. His dad and sister wouldn't put up with Kay ruining his future no matter what the fears, but he knew the guy well enough to realize he needed to make his case, and make it well, here and now.

"I learned everything from the basics of physics and chemistry through electrical engineering and thermonuclear in under a year," Kasey pointed out in that same cheerful tone. "How hard can it be to teach you two?"

Aaaaand his brain crashed to a halt. "What?"

"You can go a lot faster, when you're working one on one," he explained amicably.

"You haven't been to school since you were eight," he argued. "I heard you tell Melissa."

"School, no. Education, though? I got a lot of that."

"You can't even write up a basic document!"

"In Dutch!" he snapped immediately. "English, German, or Japanese, I'd have been fine, thank you so much for letting that one slide under the rug, boy, way to be the bigger man like you promised." He scowled. "How many people outside of this country speak Dutch, huh?"

Japanese? "You're from L2, why are you fluent in Japanese?"

Kay glowered at him. "The same reason I'm fluent in ten other languages and can speak five more, one of which was Dutch! Someone originally from Belgium was with the program and G took masochistic glee in seeing what he could manage to jam in my head!"

"Okay, yelling means it's time for me to step in," Melissa announced with a sigh as she came out onto the landing from the loft. "Duo, he doesn't know enough about you to realize he's being an ass, and he certainly doesn't know what Operation Meteor demanded of its pilots. Most MS pilots aren't required to know how to even maintain their suits, let alone build a damn gundam from maybe an hour of flipping through the blueprints."

"Wow, seriously, that's how you're dropping the bomb here?"

Melissa just smirked and rolled her eyes. "Boom," she deadpanned.

"Seriously?" Amos breathed.

"No way," Nolan argued in disbelief, even as a few things started to make sense.

"Yes way," his sister scoffed. "Even if I'd thought he was lying, Dad recognized him and went all fanboy the first time he saw him."

"Holy shit!"

"Language!" his father shouted.

"What did I just say about yelling?" Melissa muttered plaintively, raising her brows at Nolan until he swallowed, before turning to glare back at Dad, since he was apparently in the loft. Shaking her head, she gestured for them to follow her. "Come on upstairs, boys," she murmured. "Story time."

"Wait," Amos protested. "If he's really…" He looked to Kay for confirmation, who nodded, before blurting, "Is Odin? I mean, that's why Marlé knows all that crazy hacking and parkour stuff, isn't it?"

Kasey smirked. "You know how good she is at all that?" His eyes flicked to Nolan even as Amos nodded.

Biting his lip, he did the same. He knew that the little girl who liked to follow Amos around was technically out of high school already, but she was obviously from big enough money to be part of an accelerated track. "She's an ACET though, isn't she?" He couldn't remember what all the words were for the anagram, but he knew it was more common in the colonies. The military academies all followed the same thing, and most of the private schools.

"She was until she ran away and Heero started teaching her last year," he agreed. "But she'd never been in gymnastics or any sports. Or taken a computer class. She only started to learn programming maybe eight months ago, and now she's writing her own BIOS."

Okay… Homeschooling was starting to sound a lot more okay, all of a sudden.

"Stop gossiping and come upstairs," Melissa ordered as she leaned on the banister.

Kasey snickered. "What, so we can gossip up there?"

She grinned. "I'm feeling excluded. I've been dying to tell my baby brother for over a year, you know?"

"Not my fault you did it in the most anticlimactic way possible."

"Just give it a minute to sink in, he'll go all starry eyed at you soon."

She… Well, she wasn't wrong. He'd decided, maybe two years ago, that what he really wanted to be was an engineer. He wasn't sure what kind yet, but… "That's how you knew Hilde Schbeiker," he realized. The crazy little armory Kay seemed to think no one noticed he had stuffed into the closet that used to be his room, Melissa's comments about him knowing circuitry like a mad scientist but nothing about combustion engines?

The way he fights… He didn't fight himself, but he'd seen the others spar, and it wasn't like he was a stranger to all the violence in the city; 'Liss had always sheltered him, but he wasn't blind. He'd overheard Luc and Shov talking about exactly what Kay and his sister had done to the Slingers, but…

"That God damn braid!" he exclaimed before he could help it.

"Huh?"

Amos hadn't been to the Den at all, back when that happened, so that was okay, but! "How did none of us figure it out when we found that damn braid?" he demanded.

Kay – holy shit not Kay, Duo Maxwell! – snorted. "I don't know, I wasn't the one that didn't figure it out, that's on you."

"You make bombs."

"Among other things."

"What all can you fly?" he demanded eagerly.

Kay's face twisted in a hell of a smirk. "Everything." He made a show of buffing his nails on his shirt. "I pilot better than any of the others, even Heero."

"I know," he agreed. The stats had been pulled together by a couple of bored soldiers at some point or other and posted on the net; Wing and then Wing Zero and been total powerhouses, and the pilot used that strength with a fantastic efficiency, but Deathscythe had always shown the most sheer finesse.

"Upstairs," Melissa groaned. "More moving, less gushing, believe it or not, we're actually on a time table here before we have to open the shop back up for the evening."

"Yeah, okay," he agreed, slinging his backpack back up onto his shoulder and racing up two steps at a time. Seriously? Duo Maxwell was his brother-in-law. He could corner him and demand details any time he wanted. "Totally picked a good one, Sis," he announced as he ducked past her into the loft.

"Tch, like I didn't already know that." She flicked her hair, loose today, back over her shoulders as she followed him. "You know he's going to drive you into the ground, right? You've seen how criminal his work ethic is."

"Hey!"

"Totally worth it," he dismissed, dropping his back again, by Dad this time. "How're you feeling?"

"Not bad, today." He smiled in a tired way. "I'd ask how much homework you have, but, well…"

"Yeah," Kasey – Duo! – agreed as he and Amos came in and shut the door. "Lets talk about that."

oOo

---

oOo

September 12th 198 – Thursday – Near Timisoara, Romania

Xutao took a deep breath as he finished his meditation, and opened his eyes.

ETA: 880 seconds

The remote base should be picking up on the first wave of attack any moment now. Good timing, he mused.

The General had taken the Heavyarms Mod today, and was leading the other wing of the attack, while he headed a different formation in a Taurus coming through the mountains, where they were less likely to be detected.

"Ah, look, here comes the welcome wagon!" one of the Maguanacs – he couldn't tell them apart over the radio – pointed out cheerfully.

"Hardly the red carpet," the General noted in a wry tone. "Still, I suppose they do what they can."

Xu just rolled his eyes. He really wasn't one for battlefield banter.

Still, once they took this base off the map, the last of the Regime holdings in the Carpathian Mountains would be blind. So far they'd managed to elude them and no one knew they had such a stronghold in eastern Europe – Zechs' attack on the Sudan base had proven a nice diversion too, suggesting that they relied strongly on their alliances for protection instead of stealth – but he knew he would breathe easier knowing there was less chance of being caught out at their primary MS base. There, they had nowhere to retreat to, really… which was a large part of the military might it housed. They had needed a stronghold nearby, when first starting; a place to house the MS and shuttles as they collected them. They hadn't begun to use it as more than a glorified storage facility until Sally determined they were actually ready to bring the fight to the Regime six months ago, and that was after they had begun to filter into the Sudan stronghold.

The General had said they were fine, to operate from there, because the terrain and their prep was such that it would obviously be a pyrric victory, should the Regime think to try. And while no one could claim to know Marquise better than her… it had still worried at the back of his mind, like a dog with a bone.

Lucrezia Noin might know Zechs Marquise better than anyone, after all, but not even she had believed he would be willing to drop Libra on South America. And Sally Po hadn't believed he would try for the Sudanese compound with China standing watchdog. He doubted Relena Peacecraft had believed he would exile her when she refused to stand by him as he closed the door on the New World.

Forecasting a psychopath's actions apparently didn't have a very high success rate.

At this point in his life, he found himself of the mind to prepare for the worst and stack the deck heavily enough in his favor that he could simply roll with the punches. He might not have multiple safe houses stashed in every country – Adam was terrifying enough for his tendency to sleep in strangers' attics alone, let alone what else he got up to. And he might not have Quatre Winner's personal army at his beck and call, the way the General did, or Yuy's glacier calm proficiency in everything physically known to man – he did not want to know anything about what caused his general to flush as she laughed softly and texted over last week. And he didn't know half the shit that he would swear Hilde made up on the spot about explosives that she claimed to have learned from Maxwell – but he thought he was doing pretty well for himself, all the same.

After all, he had made his peace about being cut from Operation Meteor years ago. All his talents, he shared with Wufei, and in every single one his old roommate had outclassed him by a wide margin, once he had bothered to try. His understanding that he was the second biggest fish in a tiny pond had been the main reason he had left the New Year before Operation M was due to launch. He'd risked a look through his own file once when he was drunk and being an idiot one night around Christmas, and knew for a fact that the only point he'd had over the other teen could be summed up in a single phrase: 'Less abrasive to work with'.

And he was very aware that he wasn't exactly a social butterfly either; his social skills were probably only worth any remark in the first place because of how singularly awfully Wufei treated people.

But Wufei was, in his opinion, probably holed away in academia somewhere again, and you know what? Even with the other gundam pilots running around, he was still one of the big fish in the entire damn universe and had been since Libra, so he really didn't care anymore.

"They are certainly dedicated, I will give them that," another Maguanac noted conversationally.

And that was his cue to join in the fray.

oOo

---

oOo

Munich, Germany – City

"Mitchell."

"Heya, Dave," Mu greeted as she walked away form the store where she'd bought the little burner. "It's your ex calling. Got a minute?"

The colonel barked out a laugh. "Like I would ever have been stupid enough to let you get away," he rebuffed. "I've always got time for you."

Safe to talk, then. David even had a secure line, vetted by Váli, he said. "I don't know," she mused. "You seem to have pretty weird ideas when it comes to relationships."

"Ouch," he complained. "You haven't dealt with too many drama queens, have you?"

She rolled her eyes. "I've heard from a reliable source that they're bad for your health."

Her friend just sighed. "I maintain that he's never done that to me before, and I royally fucked up. If Relena hadn't been there when she was, the worst he'd have done was physically toss my ass on the curb, and so long as I made it clear I'd follow his rules, he'd have let me pack my shit up first." A pause. "And I probably could have talked him out of getting rid of me while I packed."

Mu frowned. "I was under the impression that the only reason you didn't get up close and personal with the local ICU was because Relena was there to separate you two."

"It's… more like she cleaned up after herself," David corrected. "God help him, but Relena Peacecraft is easily the best thing that's ever happened to that asshole and everyone near him, so I'm not going to blame her for being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

She snorted. Anyone with eyes – and lived with them, at least, they were very circumspect in public – could tell how deeply those two were intertwined with their bizarrely hands off love affair. She'd given up trying to sort out where the colonel ended and the princess began after her third week working with them, when she realized that neither of them seemed to know either.

And both were also doing their damndest to pretend that their little unrequited angst act wasn't what was really going on. It was simultaneously the makings of both every teenage romance story and had now been the cause of the first time in Mu's life that she had been tempted to actually bang her head on something.

She hadn't been able to help herself when Dorothy asked her if she wanted in on the pool for when those two would just get their act together and make out. Dorothy was optimistic enough to already be out of the running as of last week, but if they stopped being idiots inside the next three weeks or so, she should be closer to the mark than Olivia and be able to score money off both the nobles.

Then again, she might end up joining the ranks of the rest of the staff that had already lost out that 'wished to remain anonymous' and just wanted to be put out of their misery months ago.

Wrinkling her nose, she asked, "What did you do anyway?"

David groaned. "Called him Váli. Pretty sure neither Lin or Lena recognized it as a word let alone a name, but technically, I blew his cover in front of the woman he's gone native for right after he threatened me for even thinking about breathing a hint of it to her."

Mu stopped walking and closed her eyes for a moment, processing that, taking a few deep breaths…

"…Mu?"

"Were you ever intending to tell me that my boss was a supporter?" she demanded in a level voice. "That he was, you know, the guy you report to?"

"Seeing as he's refused to report to anybody, including Lena, since January? No, I really wasn't. I put you in there because you fit the criteria of what Lena needed short-term, you provided an out if Jake wised up and came out of his little ball of angst, and because there's enough testosterone in that damn house to set off a god damn bomb."

God, but there really was. And Mailin didn't exactly set the bar very high herself. "Seriously?"

"In my defense, I didn't know about the Major when I put your paperwork through. I really thought you'd get on great with Lena, and you'd get to be friends."

We are friends, she wanted to shout at him. She did like the princess, and she knew from the frequency of the times the girl sought her out specifically meant that Relena liked her too. Typhoon Marakesh just had literally no comprehension of boundaries, and as far as she could tell, the Princess loved the troublemaker like a big sister. Even if she'd had the energy to compete with the major, trying harder to be a part of the girl's life would be so outside of her personality that it would be obviously unnatural.

"Do you want to be reassigned?" he asked tiredly.

Mu sighed. "Maybe," she admitted. At the same time, though, it was a good position in a to die for posting. She agreed with Relena's ideals to a T, Jake was an amazing commander when he wasn't busy being the damn boogeyman, and she'd just barely settled in. The guys were all pretty cool, and even though Mai drove her up the wall periodically, damn her, even she liked the woman. Maybe she's spiking the coffee with something, because I've officially lost it. "I don't know," she temporized. "Ask me next month."

"Well, I can always use you over here, if nothing else," he offered. "And that won't change. It's much higher risk, though."

"I'll think about it," she promised. She wasn't a diplomat, after all, she'd earned her rank in the infantry; but she wasn't good enough to fight herself out of practically any corner either, the way Mitchell could. The way Mai could,she couldn't help but bemoan. The green-eyed yet still distinctly Asian minx was the sort of Amazon that birthed legends, or something.

Sometimes, it was really hard to not hate her on sheer principle.

"Alright, well… just let me know."

She recognized a dismissal when she heard it. "Stay safe," she returned.

"You got it."

oOo

---

oOo

September 16th 198 – Tuesday – Regime Fleet, L3 Sector

"Hello, Brother," Relena greeted happily as she stepped off the bridge, moving towards him with purpose with her arms outstretched, smile bright. She was in a white suit and modest blue blouse today, though of course, a skirt would have been terribly impractical in the low gravity of the ship. He was glad of it, logic or no; when she wore slacks, it was easier to remember that she wasn't their mother incarnate.

Milliardo offered her a tired smile before accepting a brief hug. "Relena," he greeted. "How was the trip?"

"Perfectly boring," she assured him as she stepped back but held onto his arms, considering him. "You look good," she decided. "I like it."

He resisted the urge to reach up and touch his hair. It had been almost two weeks now, and yet he still hadn't gotten used to how light his head felt. "I suppose," he conceded. "It was time for a change." He wondered, if he told himself that often enough, if it would become true.

His father had practically thrown a fit when his mother had had his hair cropped short, as a child. It was one of the few solid memories he had of the man, and he had spent what felt like forever berating his Katrina about appearances, and making decisions about his heir without consulting him. And when she had argued that it had been a ratty mess anyway, that he couldn't take care of it if they let it grow, he'd been overcome with guilt that he wasn't good enough for his father.

He knew, from an adult's perspective, that it was ridiculous to have held onto such an inconsequential detail and allowed it to define a large part of his self-identity. But he'd had so little from his parents before they died…

"Long past time," Relena declared. "I really do mean it Milliardo, it looks good – it frames your face better." Her smile turned mischievous. "You'll be beating off the ladies with a stick."

He knew what she meant, and he appreciated the sentiment, he really did, but it still rung hollow, and he couldn't help but grimace. "I'm not so sure; the Barton heiress certainly looks at me like she thinks I am going to beat her." His grimace twisted into a scowl. "She actually expected me to hurt her." The idea alone was enough to make him lose his appetite… As if he was some sort of monster.

"That's Dekim's fault, not yours," Jake argued as he came up from behind Relena; she released him so that his old friend could pull him into a brisk hug. "The man was a sadistic monster, and he left an impression; when she's upset, she automatically falls back on childhood expectations." Moving back, he shook his head. "It's sad, but it's just a knee-jerk reaction. I suppose it was too much to hope that she would have outgrown that. All the same…" He offered up a smile before adding in a conspiratorial tone, "I've come to rescue you."

"I hope you realize just how much this trip has stroked his ego," Relena noted in a dry conversational tone.

"Leia has always enjoyed keeping my ego happily fed," the other man returned cheerfully before Milliardo could begin thinking of a response. "She claimed it as a hobby years ago."

"It certainly makes you bounce enough to be worth considering," his sister sighed, a small smile gracing her lips. It… was the same sort of smile their mother had always had for him after he had made a mess – affectionately exasperated. Jake grinned broadly at her and stepped back, taking up what appeared to be a habitual stance just behind and to her right. Relena shook her head and turned back to him, adding, "I brought work with me, and a fair share of it is yours."

Milliardo hid a grimace and nodded. Jake had warned him of just how much the two of them were in the middle of that they would have to compensate for. Initially, he had tried to backpedal as Jake laid out their workload, but when the colonel made it clear that waiting would only make it worse… Well, he'd offered to sign a few clearances so she could at least delegate more without running into a brick wall. And while they were in the same place, he had offered to read everything through and force through the authorizations she needed to save time she would otherwise have needed to spend on red tape. Why, exactly, an empire he had only founded three years ago required so much paperwork simply to function was entirely beyond him. So far, he'd heard nothing but grudging admiration from his more opinionated staff on Earth, and apparently China was just as happy with her as they had promised to be when they demanded she be made Foreign Minister. Not only had she thus far been very competent, but there had been a few comments already about how fast she worked.

She was also only sleeping four or five hours a night, if Jake was to be believed. He'd given him a rather pointed, silent stare after getting that particular point across, until Milliardo had caved and told him to write up a list of things he needed to do to make Relena's job easier. Without letting Relena know they were doing it. If he'd learned anything from their last conversation turned scathing tongue-lashing, it was that she didn't want to be treated like she was delicate. But she needed help, and Jake had a talent for micromanaging a system into absurd levels of efficiency.

He… wanted to talk to Jake about that before Relena joined them, actually.

"How long are you here for?" he temporized.

She scrunched her nose – it was oddly adorable. "If we can get away with it, only a handful of hours." She sighed. "I am sorry Milliardo, but this was hard enough to arrange in the first place."

"I understand," he agreed, trying to sound calm without being soothing. "Was there anything you wanted to take care of before we got started?" Jake offered him and approving sort of nod from behind Relena even as she blinked in surprise – was he normally so short with her?

After that moment of confusion, however, her face blossomed into a stunning smile. "Thank-you for asking, Milliardo." Her shoulders lost a tension he hadn't even noticed before as her expression turned pensive. "If it's alright, I think I would like to meet my new guest first." Her lips twitched, eyes dancing. "Perhaps I can make a better first impression than you managed. I rather suspect it might be to my benefit."

He really did grimace this time. "Good luck."

Relena's laugh was both delighted and mischievous. "I should do fine." She winked at him. "I'm rescuing her, after all."

He rolled his eyes. If she thought she could swing that angle in her favor, he wasn't going to protest. He'd gotten to the point of just not caring; he'd known by the time he called his little sister for help that he had lost this battle, and in the past week, he had decided that the relief far outweighed the embarrassment. He fished a keycard out of his front pocket and offered it to her. "She's in E8." She beamed at him before starting off down the hall, closely tailed by a female major and a vaguely familiar dark-haired lieutenant, who offered him a grin and wave, and a quick salute as they passed him. He sighed, turning back to Jake to ask him if he needed to grab anything before they sequestered themselves to his office, when Relena stepped off of the ship, a leather messenger bag slung over one shoulder and a large tablet held tight to her chest.

…That couldn't be right. He blinked, and resisted the urge to check over his shoulder in the direction she had gone just moments ago. In different clothes.

"I'm sorry, I was right on your heels, Jake, but then I realized I'd left the Budapest reports in my other knapsack, and had to run back," she explained, swiping her sleeve across her forehead. She did look flushed.

Jake, meanwhile, looked distinctly amused. "Might want to go back for your manners too." She frowned, looking confused until he gestured towards Milliardo.

The girl's eyes went wide and she actually squeaked before going into an all too deep bow, hiding her face. Her hair is longer, Milliardo realized as the end of a short ponytail fell forward as well. Relena's didn't even reach her shoulders, now. "I'm sorry!" she cried out again, peeking up at him through her bangs. "I was running late and didn't think! My name is Daniella Fonne, and Princess Relena was kind enough to give my sister and I jobs. I'm her personal assistant, now."

"She's not giving herself enough credit," Jake cut in. "Adelia and Daniella are old friends of mine, and they more than earn their paychecks." He shook his head. "I think you saw Addie and her son in the kitchen, the last time you visited."

Milliardo blinked again. "An old friend?" he found himself asking incredulously.

Jake rolled his eyes. "The last time I saw them, Danny here was about eight."

The girl scowled raised her head back up to scowl at the colonel. "Nine. And you did it again."

Jake blinked, them grimaced. "Right, sorry. I hardly have room to lecture you about manners, huh?"

She rolled her eyes, then focused back on Milliardo. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Where would you like me to set up?"

"Now you're just going to ignore me?" Jake asked plaintively.

"Only so long as you forget my name," she returned in a chipper tone, not even glancing back at him.

At least her smile was different from Relena's.

"Daniella is too long," Jake argued.

"You're just lazy," she informed him in the same cheerful tone, even as she tipped her head to one side in question as she met Milliardo's gaze, shifting the strap of her bag.

Milliardo's lips twitched in spite of himself, and when he took a few steps backwards, her smile brightened and she began to follow. He turned around to walk properly, and she easily kept pace, as did Jake – continuing to protest, spouting increasingly random complaints. Daniella continually shot him down with a smile, escalating her own responses to match.

Before long, he couldn't seem to help himself. "Why not Ella?'"

oOo

---

oOo

Jake hid a smile as Daniella bounced away to walk alongside Zechs. "I know, right?" she agreed happily. Danny still had that same 'good for the soul' vibe he usually only got from children – which, incidentally, was why he really was having a hard time adjusting to her renouncing the nickname she had insisted upon when they first met. In any case, whatever she wanted to be called, she was good for cheering people up, even when she didn't realize that that was why he was picking at her.

Then again, she might realize and just be playing along with it. Addie, after all, had always given him a knowing look when he started some sort of manipulation before going full throttle.

It didn't take them long to get to Zechs' suite, and little Daniella transitioned them into work nigh seamlessly. She couldn't have done a better job laying out exactly what they wanted the prince to see and deftly slipping in what they wanted him to sign but not pay much attention to if he had been coaching her. And then, just to put the cherry on the top? Zechs was signing off the last of it just as Relena walked in.

"I think that went well," she announced as she came in, Mai and Lin trailing after her, though Mai stayed by the door. "She seems happy enough with her room, and had started to draw a bath before I left. She's locked in, and Rome is camping just outside her door with a screen slate and controller, incase she tries to leave anyhow." She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Something about beating your time on Eden."

Jake grinned. "That'll take a while." All the extra time they had had to spend cooped up on the shuttle with only intermittent reports and digital paperwork exchanges had been rather amusingly spent crushing the household scores on all the games Hayden had loaded onto the house server. Some of them, he was sure Hayden, at least, would run right past before long; the kid had determination if nothing else, and arguably more time available to devote to gaming than the rest of Relena's staff. Some of the others, though, like Eden…

Well, none of his soldiers had reflexes even close to his own. Mai probably came close, but she apparently found spectating far more entertaining than games themselves.

The princess laughed as she sat next to him. Daniella quickly wiped her tablet's screen to bring it back to the home page before offering it to her. "Where are we, then?"

Jake glanced sidelong at Zechs, who, unsurprisingly, was scrutinizing the two teenagers for differences, and they were certainly there, for all that the resemblance was downright eerie. Daniella had flecks of green in her blue eyes, while Relena had grey. The line of their noses wasn't perfectly identical, though it was a close thing. The princess didn't have such full, pouty lips as the younger girl, though the overall shape of the mouth was still the same. Danny still hadn't lost the last of the baby fat from her face, but once she had, he was fairly sure the slight differences in their cheekbones would be more obvious. They styled their brows and make-up differently.

The primary differences, however, weren't in the face, and he resisted the urge to laugh as the prince seemed to suddenly realize that his little sister had… filled out. Danny looked like Relena had back in 195, but sitting side by side… one of them was very obviously on the cusp of adulthood, and the other fully blossomed.

Relena sighed and offered her brother a tight-lipped smile. "Milliardo, I'm aware that the similarities are uncanny, but I'm going to become upset with you if you don't start keeping your eyes above the collar."

Interesting. Jake smothered a smile. With the dictator's hair so short, you could see the man blush all the way across his scalp. He'd have to grow it out at least a little longer.

"My apologies," he murmured after a moment, looking at the floor, before raising his head up and keeping his eyes level.

Relena nodded graciously, perfectly composed. Daniella, meanwhile, was a handful of shades darker than Zechs, and murmured something that was obviously meant as an acceptance of the apology, but was really maybe seven syllables of nonsense. An awkward silence started to settle after that – not even he had actually expected Relena to go there – so he took it upon himself to get them back on task. "We actually were just wrapping up," he announced.

Relena blinked in surprise. "That was fast."

Jake just shrugged. "Things go pretty fast when everyone's on the same page."

Relena frowned. He knew that she really did want to leave as soon as possible… but it would be beyond rude to do so right now. "We can at least have some tea before going," she decided after a moment. She looked to Zechs for approval. "We've both been so busy we haven't had a chance to catch up in a long time."

"We really haven't," he murmured by way of agreement, skin fading back to its usual pallor.

"I'll go get it!" Danny squeaked, bolting out the door.

Zechs flushed again, and Relena stared in the direction the girl had run for a moment before looking back to Jake. "Has she ever been on a cruiser like this?"

"Nope," Jake noted, popping the p.

She sighed. "She's going to get lost."

"So lost," Jake agreed.

"Scaring the crap out of everyone because they'll think the princess is doing a spot inspection," Lin noted dryly.

"That hysteria won't help matters much either," Mai added helpfully, peering out in the hall. "I'm not actually sure which way she went, for the record."

Relena pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before relaxing again. "Well, I suppose she'll be having an adventure this afternoon." Her eyes flicked over to Lin. "Try to keep it from becoming terribly epic?"

"On it," the lieutenant agreed gamely, jogging back out.

"Did any of you actually want that tea?" Mai asked curiously. "'Cause, you know, I'm really busy holding up this wall here."

Zechs covered his eyes with one hand. "I have a good box of oolong over there in the kitchenette," he admitted, gesturing towards the bar.

"Sounds like a plan," the major decided happily, locking the door and walking confidently over to rifle through the cabinets.

Aaaaand that awkward silence descended again.

"The amplifier survey finished on a good note?" Zechs asked after a moment.

"It did," Relena agreed, not mentioning that that had been nearly a month ago. "We've made a few tentative plans for repeating it next year, with a smaller team, but nothing definite yet."

Zechs nodded. "I'm glad that you were able to smooth that over," he admitted.

Relena shrugged. "Truthfully, they wanted the commerce more than a fight," she admitted. "In the end, it was a simple matter of reputation." She met his eyes pointedly. "You broke their trust, while I have a strong history of maintaining it."

He sighed before offering her a tight smile. "I suppose I will just have to accept that loss as your gain, and we can come at our enemies from either side."

Relena smiled in a wickedly sharp way that was almost alarming; Jake actually wasn't sure he'd ever seen that particular variation before. "Are you starting to consider a partnership with me, then, Brother?" She shifted into the innocent persona she liked to terrorize Romefeller with. "You scare them, and I'll come save the day?"

…And this was exactly why he was wary of coming clean with her. If the two siblings chose to actually team up, it was entirely possible that they would be unstoppable. From the very beginning, Relena had been fighting for her brother to consider her an equal, and as far as he could tell, that particular goal had never faltered, despite her constantly growing frustration with the man. Every little thing she did, even her insistence on learning to shoot and defend herself, had carried a note of yearning for approval… And her bleak disappointment every time Zechs either failed to notice or appeared to disapprove had strengthened his resolve to wait until Treize, him and all of his loyalists, were in a stable and strong position before that particular cat made it out of the bag.

In all reality, an actual partnership between the Peacecraft siblings would make for a far more stable state and than the results of any coup. If Relena could buffer Zechs edges, and he could take on any of the bad publicity that came from either of their actions … They would likely make a frighteningly effective team.

And Treize had made it clear from the beginning that if Relena was willing to negotiate, he would make considerable concessions. Something about her having panache and future glory that Jake had done his best to scrub out of his brain before it started to make sense. He'd never quite been able to decide if Treize believed everything he spouted, or knew how to sling words together well enough to make even the worst cynic go starry-eyed. In any case, he had enough issues without actually buying into his friend's hot/cold sense of noble morality and responsibility. He really liked the man, he was the supportive older brother that he had needed after being forced to abandon his family and Jack… But he had never been able to make up his mind over whether the nobleman was a jaw dropping actor or had moods as changeable as the weather.

Probably because he was pretty sure both were true.

All the same… Once Treize had a stronger foothold in space, it would be okay, if Zechs were to learn of his survival at Libra. He'd probably suffer a few losses and they'd lose a good amount of current intelligence as anyone under suspicion had to abandon their posts, but it would be doable.

And on the off chance that Relena didn't tell him to get out – though technically, Sarracenia was his house, but she didn't know that – he could probably manage to convince Zechs that he'd been in the dark about their old commander not being dead.

There were a really frustrating number of 'probablys' in his life, lately…

"Not just yet," Zechs temporized as Jake's brain continued to fly in circles. "You're still gaining valuable experience as you are… But perhaps we'll talk when I come back to Earth."

Relena seemed genuinely demure as she nodded and smiled… far more than he knew she was on the subject… but he supposed she hadn't really gotten her hopes up, considering their history. "Of course," she agreed.

Hell if all that wasn't a good sign that she could be turned against her brother… and yet, he could never manage to clearly read her on the subject… and asking leading questions would cause the same set of reactions in her as if he straight up told her he was all for bringing her brother, his supposed dear friend, to his knees.

To admit that he regretted not following through on the assassination he had been on Libra to perform, almost three years ago.

Because really, he'd realized at a young age, that when he did fuck something up, he did it just as thoroughly as anything else he tried. There was a reason he'd torn David a new one over his hopes about Relena just solving their problems; far too much had gone fantastically in his life for the past few years for this to end in anything but unmitigated disaster, and as successful as these years had been, the aftermath was going to burn worse than anything other than Junior's death… maybe more, because this time, it was going to be all his own damn fault.

"Here we go," Mai announced cheerfully as she came back over with the tea and cookies – where the hell did she find mint chocolate cookies, Zechs despises chocolate – on a tray. He watched as she carefully set it all down on the table between the prince and princess and took her time handing them each a cup and saucer, before holding out the plate of cookies to each of them – Relena took two – and moved away again. Winking at him, she took a cookie herself before handing him the plate and sauntering back to the door to stand guard.

He narrowed his eyes at her, before considering the six or so left for him and deciding he really didn't need to know how she'd known these were his favorite… brand and all, they had the right imprint pattern. He supposed they did come in a stack wrapped in plastic… it wasn't too far fetched that she had pocketed half a stack to placate him with at some point… At least, it wasn't entirely absurd…

He rolled his eyes as he realized he was seriously debating why Mailin had done something sweet and random for him like she did everyone else, and ate a damn cookie. He'd need the endorphins for the conversation he needed to have with Leia anyway… And the major would seriously pout at him if he spurned her attempt to cheer him up, and that was a level of ridiculous he didn't feel like going through right now. Sticking one in his mouth, he gave her a thankful sort of wave, which had her grinning and giving him a proud nod of acknowledgement… and well, just that made him feel better. Grinning a little, he bit into the chocolate and that added another layer of happiness that he wanted to refuse to admit to, just out of spite… which really was pretty damn funny, come to think of it. Resisting the urge to snicker, he caught the edge of the treat with his lips before it could fall and flicked his tongue out to push the rest of it into his mouth without using his hands… And Mai absolutely beamed.

Maybe he was damned, but simple pleasures were still creature comforts, and a little bit of brightness to his day certainly wasn't going to hurt anything.

"I'm a little concerned about what I've been hearing about the Netherlands," Zechs announced after taking a sip of his drink.

"I don't see why," Relena dismissed. "I looked into it rather closely, myself. The news glossed over the details, but the spin was accurate."

"A crime boss turned hostage negotiator," Zechs deadpanned. "Out of the goodness of his heart."

Jake almost choked on his crumbs. He wouldn't exactly call what the Dutchman had done negotiation. Fucking appropriate, maybe, but… He resisted the urge to start laughing uproariously.

Relena chuckled softly. "Please, brother, you're exaggerating. The Devils hardly qualify as gangsters; if anything, they're overenthusiastic militia men and women, who never consider themselves off the clock." She sipped at her own drink, though Jake noticed that if she'd swallowed any, it had been minimal; Relena wasn't overly fond of oolong. "They worked like militia in their quarter of the city long before I sanctioned an official one." She raised a brow. "Surely you know that Amsterdam has had a high population of ex-soldier immigrants since OZ took over the Alliance."

Her brother eyed her steadily, though he inclined his head slightly in agreement. "It has."

"After Libra, that caused a great deal of instability in the area," she continued. "The police force was overwhelmed rather easily, and most of the low-income bracket in the city came to rely on the gangs for protection." She shook her head. "I have a few good sources, but I made sure to take an outsiders perspective as well, along with the local police reports. The Devils are very tight-knit, settled in a rather large part of the city that falls below the poverty line, and have a reputation for helping the eastern immigrants settle in, as well as a strict non-tolerance policy when it comes to violence towards women and children. They have a community program for sharing resources for the people who are barely making ends meet, so no one goes cold or hungry." She shrugged slightly. "It's obviously not the best solution, but it's far from the worst. They're certainly doing more than I was able to apply elsewhere with my projects, just because there's a trust there that an outsider wouldn't be able to gain."

Jake smiled to himself and ate another cookie as Relena laid out the basics of what had actually happened; a rather touching story of a community pulling together to stop a group known for maiming children, and returning two little girls to their very distraught parents. Relena had had a lot of questions for Katrien after they learned that her gang had played a strong role in the recovery of those children, and frankly, he'd been impressed; she was able to give them too many precise details to have made much of it up.

Then again, he was also biased. Katrien Ruttenburg of the Devils Get had helped save his life last December, and that was a debt he would never forget, and likely could never repay.

"Even if all that is completely true," Zechs noted skeptically – he clearly didn't think that was the case – "the rumors of just how brutally the kidnappers were dealt with has caused ripples. The country is making them out to be heroes and taking pride in people who openly flout the law, and it sets a dangerous precedent. Even if you are right about this gang, it makes other city officials across Europe and Africa consider what they might gain from cooperating with their own underbellies, and we have a new angle of corruption to watch for." He reached up with one hand to rub his temples. "And their leader, von Koll, has gained a hardline reputation in the criminal community as well. I have officials as far east as Sanc reporting murmurs of how they should 'do things like the Dutchman' and it will only be a matter of time before more vigilantes get out of hand."

"Well, you can't change the past," Relena returned practically. "It's done, and in this case, it was for the good of everyone involved. We will simply have to spin it as best we can. It does help, however, that the Devils are an intensely private group; we could certainly have worse examples to work with."

Jake tuned them out as they started getting into the details of possible propaganda schemes, though he kept an ear out for a change in topic. He had the sinking feeling that Leia was going to cry when he told her the truth about Treize. And maybe slap him when he refused to put her in contact, for all that he'd be sure to paint a damn near fluorescent sign on Mu as a viable option for that. David would do the right thing and slip Treize the American woman's number, and have her pass off the phone…

"Time, however, is a harsh taskmistress," Relena announced when they had come to something of a deadlock on the subject, standing up and brushing nonexistent crumbs from her lap. "Thank-you again for meeting us partway, but I imagine you need to get your troops on schedule as much as I need to return to my own post."

He more or less ignored Zechs and Relena's overly polite farewells in favor of finishing his plate and continuing to try to choose his words for Leia. She must have thought her lover dead since Libra… He had a few tentative approaches mapped out by the time they were leaving Zechs' suite. Mai murmured softly as she joined them by the door that Lin had texted and everyone but them was back on their ship… And in short order, they were undocking from the larger cruiser, and heading back home. He smiled a little to himself when Relena turned to Mai and asked if she could please set up another tea service with both green and the orange blossom rooibos that Jake knew the older noblewoman preferred – the princess had, after all, only used her teacup in Zechs' rooms as a device to control the flow of the conversation. Oddly, though, she seemed put out when he made to follow her ten minutes later, when she headed for Leia's suite.

He frowned. "What?"

Her expression was mildly irritated, but quickly shifted into a pout. "I like her; I wanted to take Mai and have some girl time."

Jake offered her an incredulous look. "Lena, I haven't seen her in years. Not since 192." Early 192 at that…

She sighed and offered him a grin. "Don't be all logical at me," she complained happily.

He grinned back, feeling an extra bounce in her step. "We should bring food, too."

"I asked Mai," she pointed out dismissively. "And it's lunch time. Mai always brings food appropriate to the time."

Come to think of it… she always did, didn't she? He couldn't help but widen his smile as they came around the corner to find the major bracing a tray of sandwiches against one hip with one arm, and the requested tea service against her ribcage with the other.

"Aw," she crooned, eyes sparkling. "He wants to sit and listen to us talk fashion, does he?"

"Apparently," Relena agreed breezily, stepping forward to press her palm to the scanner to open the door.

"At least for a little while," Jake decided. He had been hoping that they would leave before him so he could talk to his old friend alone, but if that didn't happen, he supposed he could come back later when he knew Relena was busy with something. Leia was, after all, now in his custody – he had time. It just seemed wrong to keep the truth from her any longer than was absolutely necessary.

In all the lies and half truths that made up his life, he didn't need to have yet more hanging over his head. He loved Leia like the older sister she was, as Treize's beloved. And the deaths of his blood family only made his chosen kin all the more important.

He needed to man up and call David…

"We come bearing lunch!" Mai announced cheerfully as she strut into the room, half dashing to be in the door before Relena. "And a pretty boy who says he knows you." She snickered. "Should I send him away?"

Jake rolled his eyes as he followed Lena into the room, tapping the control to shut and lock the door again. He couldn't see Leia yet… but then she came out from around a corner as Mai set down her trays on the table, her hair damp. "Jake," she murmured happily, blinking for a moment as though in confusion before giving him a bright smile and moving towards him with her arms outstretched. He was more than happy to pull her into an embrace, noting absently that she had changed her perfume, and was wearing her hair longer than he had ever seen it, down to her elbows. After a moment she pulled back to really look at him, and her eyes sparkled. "You've grown."

He couldn't help but laugh. "I should hope – I was a pipsqueak at fourteen."

Her smile deepened. "You're still short."

He rolled his eyes. "You're just from tall stock," he argued. Sometimes he wished he'd gotten at least a little more height from the Lowe side of the family, but generally speaking, he had no complaints about his body. In all too many ways, being under 5'7 had actually came in handy; and in any case, he had a strong enough presence that most people didn't even notice he wasn't a damn giant anymore.

She just smiled at him, eyes still evaluating. "Your voice suits you better too."

He laughed. He'd actually managed to forget that he'd barely been an alto when he knew Leia; David had stopped teasing him about finally 'getting a man's voice' after he turned seventeen. "It's harder to be intimidating when you still sound like you belong in the church choir," he admitted. He took a moment to return her appraising look; she really wasn't too different from what he remembered. A touch taller, a little more filled out… even more grace to her movements than when she was a teenager, which was really saying something, considering that she had been mesmerizing just to watch walk before… Her hair had darkened a few shades, but the deep waves it had always had looked better long, almost like she'd just walked in off a beach.

She was even more enchanting than ever… He wished he could be in the room when Treize finally saw her again.

Treize… And there was the guilt again. Only another hour more, he reminded himself. A few at most… You can keep the charade for that much longer, can't you?

"How do you like your tea?" Relena asked from behind Leia. "Jake said this at least used to be your favorite blend, but things do change."

Leia laughed slightly, looking over her shoulder. "I've gotten less picky, really," she reassured the princess. "Thank-you, but I'll do it myself in a moment, all the same."

Relena's tone was content. "As you will," she agreed easily.

He caught the tail end of a smile she directed at the younger woman before turning back to him and hugging him once more. "It really is good to see you," she murmured into his hair, crushing him to her chest, he he returned the strength for a moment before loosening up enough that she could pull away if she wanted. He was honestly content to just breathe in her scent, changed, yet still the same.

"I'd started to wonder if we'd ever meet again," he admitted quietly.

She clicked her tongue at him. "You brood too much."

He grimaced. "Can't really argue with that," he agreed. "Still, your dad-"

"Is dead," she interrupted, relaxing her grip enough that she could lean back and meet his eyes. "And don't think that I don't believe you had a hand in that plan for even a moment," she informed him sternly.

He just smirked a little. "I wasn't going to." It hadn't been too difficult to arrange for Zechs' raid on Dekim to show up just after Treize's… just in time to clean up his old friend's tracks. Nice and convenient.

He just wished that Marie hadn't gotten herself lost in the chaos; no one had anticipated that complication. Just like Junior… Odin had arranged it so that he should find the boy almost immediately after his death, and yet…

He shook himself free of the thought before it could drag him back into the perpetual downward spiral. He'd been down that rabbit hole enough times, and knew he would follow it again… but not right now.

Leia finally released him fully, taking a step back and letting out a deep breath. "Okay," she decided.

He tilted his head, curious. "Okay?"

She offered him a skeptical look. "Well, now that that's out of the way… Are you in contact?"

He frowned, trying to make sense of what she meant. "Contact?"

She raised her brows expectantly. "Relena told me that Treize is alive. You are in direct contact with him, aren't you?"

…The world stopped.

oOo

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oOo

Amsterdam, Netherlands – New Renew Loft

Duo smiled as he ran his hand down Melissa's spine, making her squeak and glare at him – though the effect was ruined by the sparkle in her eyes. Grinning broadly, he tugged her closer to him on the mattress and started to play with her hair instead. The light of the candles he'd set all around the room earlier shone in the brown curls like they were more fluid than solid… oddly mesmerizing. "I didn't overdo it, did I?" he asked absently, shifting his hand to try and see if that would alter the refractions of light or not.

"Mm, I don't know if it's possible to overdo romance," she purred into his chest, tilting her head to nibble at his neck. "I will say that surprising me made it all the better, though," she decided.

"I got Will in on the scheme of distracting you," he admitted. He honestly doubted he would have been able to pull off getting this place clean enough and everything set up in time for his wife to come looking for him, if he hadn't recruited both his father-in-law and sister for the details, let alone the rest of it. Getting the nice new – well, new to them, and nice enough – mattress here alone had gotten kinda hilarious at one point, between Mik and Laura's squabbling about what being married meant of all things, especially when the woman suggested something raunchy enough that Ruben actually fell and twisted his ankle. Then with her little speech about women always talking about these things without problems had kept him beet red the rest of the way to the shop… which had evidently been hilarious… and indicated that he might need advice on how to keep his wife pleased… While they walked down the middle of the street with a bigass mattress over their heads…

He chuckled a little to himself. At least Melissa's reaction upon coming into a candlelit shop had made the psychosis of the afternoon worth it. Although he was still a bit annoyed about the fact that Rina had thought it was a great idea to sprinkle gold glitter all over the place as a finishing touch.

He was making her sweep that crap up tomorrow, and maybe she'd see if it still seemed like a good idea the next time he asked for her help with something.

Melissa had started to giggle. "You got my Dad to help you seduce me?" she demanded incredulously.

"No, he was only on the distraction part of the plan," Duo pointed out happily. "He was very clear about that before he agreed to anything."

She started laughing harder and he took the opportunity to catch her mouth in another kiss and roll them so he was on top instead of beside her. It really was pleasantly warm in here now, with the quiet little space heater he'd rigged together. They wouldn't have to go home until tomorrow afternoon, if they wanted… or probably even longer, but he was pretty sure Nolan would get all weird with him for a while if they pushed it further than tomorrow.

Melissa made a happy noise in the back of her throat even as she pushed up to her elbows then hands, though she started to giggle again when he didn't end the kiss though the process. After a moment he let her pull away, meeting her eyes… in time to see her eyes sparkle with mischief as she snapped the tie on his ponytail. She giggled hard as his hair suddenly flowed around them almost like a privacy screen before grabbing the back of his neck and dropping her weight so he lost his balance and they both fell back to the bed.

He snickered too, pulling the mass of it over to his left side so it wouldn't end up in her face as he moved his attention back to her neck… and collarbone… and gasped just short of growling when she tugged a fistful of the stuff to keep him from going any further, chuckling as she bit his lower lip and let her hands wander.

Yeah… he was going to have to pull off evenings like this more often.

oOo

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oOo

L3 Sector, Space – Relena's Shuttle

Relena met eyes with Mai briefly, somewhat relieved that the other woman's expression was just as stunned as she imagined her own was. When they had told Leia the truth upon getting her aboard, it actually hadn't occurred to them that she might naturally assume that her source of information was Jake.

In retrospect, it really should have.

She let out a gusty sigh before taking a few steps toward the two. "You just broke a promise I made to my bodyguard, Leia," she admonished gently. Perhaps starting this off with a bout of dry humor would be helpful.

Leia turned around to face her and Mai properly, frowning. "What?"

She smiled slightly. "I promised Lin he could be at least eight hours away when Jake realized we were onto him." Now that Leia had moved a bit, she could actually see her colonel… and he was bone white.

She'd never seen him this upset, a distant part of her realized. Not even close to this upset…

Leia's eyes widened, and she glanced back to Jake for confirmation; and apparently decided that his pallor was confirmation enough. "You didn't…" She trailed off, narrowing her eyes at Relena. "I only believed you because…" Despair filled her eyes, then fury flooded across her face as well. "If you're wrong, I swear to God-" Her voice cracked.

"I'm not wrong," Relena swore solemnly, though she was sure to maintain some distance from the noblewoman. "I told you it was from a reliable source; I just never stated who." She paused, swallowing. "I have other evidence as well, including a plant of his in my staff that I left home in Germany." She looked around the woman to Jake, meeting his eyes solidly. "But now that it's been brought up," she continued calmly, "perhaps you should question a source you trust."

He wasn't stoic and cold, the way he had been when Brussels was under attack… but he didn't have a hint of rage in him either. That was good, she hoped; she had been worried about his temper, at least a little. But… It was everything she could do to stand where she was and watch him, instead of running over and throwing her arms about his neck, whispering calming words in his ear. For all that seeing the pain on Leia's face at the very idea that she had gotten her hopes up for nothing hurt like a wound, the despair on the face of the man she loved was nearly crippling. She couldn't have ever imagined seeing this much despair in him… and yet here it was… directed at her.

Oh Jake… "Jake?" she prompted aloud, barely more than a whisper.

He swallowed hard, and finally moved, his eyes flicking to Leia, back to herself, then back to Leia again. "I…"

"Jake, please," Leia whispered, taking a small step closer to him. "Is he…?"

He stared at her for a long moment before focusing his gaze back on Relena. "I'm not in contact with him," he announced, his gaze pleading. "I'm not…" He focused back on Leia, and licked his lips. "I'm not, but I can be."

So they really had been right… He had discarded his loyalty for his childhood friend for her.

Somehow, that knowledge burned as much as it soothed her doubts.

His eyes grew sharper as he focused back on her again, and she could see he had begun to faintly tremor. Leia looked at them both, tears in her eyes, before quickly stepping to the side so she wasn't between them anymore. Relena saw movement in her peripheral vision that she assumed was Mai, but refused to break eye contact while it seemed so important for him to maintain it.

"How long have you known?" he whispered after an eternity.

She considered asking him if that really mattered, now, but shook off the urge as petulant. "Since the day we met Olivia."

He blinked and his face screwed up with confusion, but thankfully, he didn't look so pale now. "Olivia told you?" he demanded incredulously.

She glared then, because really? She liked the redhead well enough now, but seriously? "No," she announced, unable to help the fact that her voice was dripping with scorn. It was truly a moronic question. "Wufei did."

Both he and Leia visibly recoiled at her response, though she imagined it was for different reasons. "Wufei?" Jake repeated, still incredulous, like he thought she was having him on. "Chang Wufei came up to you the day we met Olivia, and told you that Treize was alive?" His face was reddening now, anger and frustration beginning to color his expression as well.

"Long Wu, these days," she corrected in a steely tone. "If I remember correctly, he's the one you once said was by far the most talented of the engineers the Chinese had?"

The blood drained from his face yet again, and Mai took advantage of the tableau to take Leia by the arm and lead her back towards the bedroom of the suite. She appreciated the attempt to give the two of them a little privacy, though right now, she could hardly see the point.

There was another long pause before he said anything else, and she did her best to wait patiently, watching him process the information, make his own conclusions. "So you've told Lin, and Mai," he decided.

"Dorothy first," she corrected. "Before even twenty-four hours had passed."

"Dorothy," he repeated in a dry tone.

She glared at him. "I tell Dorothy everything," she snapped. "She has been perfectly loyal to me since long before you started to try earning my trust."

Jake winced at that as though she had slapped him, then scowled. "You used to trust so easily, Lena, I-"

"Like hell I did!" she snarled, just so entirely done with his bullshit. "I wanted to see what you could do. Then ever since I've wanted to trust you, but you were my brother's friend, what was I supposed to think?!"

He stared at her wide-eyed, like she was a stranger, suddenly, and it made her all the angry, somehow.

"You conceited ass!" she snarled. "Do you really think I'm so oblivious? I had been waiting for you to find a reason to turn my brother on me since I met you! I only realized that Milliardo wasn't the one I should worry about when I looped in Lincoln last month! And even then, it only took us five minutes to realize you wouldn't give us to Treize either! Not after you used David to clean the loyalists out of my house, after you were so upset about Mu!" She felt a sneer twist her lips, and hated it even as she practically screamed, "I've had Lin keeping her under surveillance since the start of July, when you could have just fired her and told me the truth!"

Jake's eyes were rounded now, hurt, but his expression looked nearly as upset as she felt. "Well at least I'm in good company," he growled. "Are there any other old friends you've been talking to that I don't know about?"

"Duo, for one," she snapped back. "Not that he gave me any details about what he was up to. And before you ask, I wish Heero or Noin would try, but they can't be bothered to even let me know if they're alive!"

He had that stricken look again, and looked down for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "Des had a proof of life from Lu," he admitted, his temper fading away to nothing. "He gets one from her once a year, if not more."

"Why thank-you for telling me that!" she practically screeched. "It's not like she was my friend or anything! Like maybe I wouldn't have cared to know!"

He scowled. "She didn't send me anything either," he argued.

"Good!" she snapped. "That means you've only been hiding that for two months! Anything else you want to tell me?"

"Not while you're screaming at me, no!" he snapped, crossing his arms. "How about you?"

"Just ask!"

His eyes narrowed. "Seeing as you know about Treize, what do you want to do about it?"

"I don't know," she sneered, trying to bring her volume back down. She wasn't sure how well she succeeded. "It depends on what he thinks about all this, but I was hoping he might have a plan for how to handle my brother."

"Handle?" Jake asked in a terse tone. "Need something a little clearer than that, Lena."

"Really?" she demanded.

"Considering the fact that I'm really regretting not slitting his throat back on Libra, yeah, I kinda need a little more fucking clarification!"

That little piece of information should have startled her, or at least upset her, she knew. Maybe it was just the fact that her temper had gotten the better of her for the first time in practically forever that she laughed at him instead. "You have no idea how close I came to shooting him on that damn ship!"

The shocked look that she had never seen before the start of this argument was back again, his arms falling limp. "What?" he demanded.

"Dorothy tried to talk me into it," she spat. "She said she thought it might be the only way out of that mess, but she thought I was the only one he wouldn't suspect enough to be able to actually do it." She looked away from him, finally. "But I was still naïve enough to believe my ideals might work, back then." And for all that she thought she had left those tattered dreams behind a long time ago, her birth father's fairytale vision for the future, it still hurt to admit their foolishness, her crushed hopes, out loud.

"Well I was stupid enough to believe he was only bluffing about genocide, so we're in the same damn boat for that one," he admitted in a cold tone – weary, too, but still cold.

Her legs felt weak, suddenly, and she allowed them to collapse as she started to cry. "Damn it, Jake…" She was staring at her lap when her vision started to blur, and she brought her hands up to cover her face. "How the hell did we get to this?"

He let out a long sigh before padding over on the plush carpet and crouching down in front of her. "I don't know," he muttered. "That's a little too complicated of a question for my brain right now, ask me later."

She started laughing hysterically even as the waterworks really started, unable to even think of a response to that… and started to sob at the same time when he shifted to kneel instead so he could pull her tight to his chest, so tight it almost hurt, but she wanted the contact more than anything, needed it like she did air, right now. Her breath hitched hard enough she almost hiccupped when he pressed his face to her hair, taking in her scent without any sign of shame or feigned indifference…

She heard the bedroom door pointedly click shut as Mai evidently decided she didn't have to worry about the two of them trying to rip each other's throats out.

She couldn't give a damn that anyone had witnessed the entire meltdown, though. She just clung to Jake, some part of her terrified that now that his secrets were in the open, he was going to just disappear… Had that been why she hadn't wanted to confront him on this sooner? Had she been scared that he would either run off, or that he would chase her away, the way he had David?

She just couldn't care anymore, though… It was done. The air had been cleared… and whatever came because of it would come.

With that in mind, she just held onto him and tried to focus on calming her body down, even though she felt more and more exhausted as the anger and anxiety drained away, until she started to think that it was only her death grip on the man that was keeping her awake at all…

"…There's going to be a 'later', right?" he asked in a hoarse tone, after she had finally managed to fall silent, and she had begun to wonder if it wasn't she that was still shaking, but him. "You… you don't want me gone?" He started to pull away slightly as he stuttered, breaking her grip, probably trying to look her in the eyes as he asked, but his tone alone was heartbreaking.

She launched herself at him as he tried to retreat, catching the surprise in his eyes as he fell flat on his back before she buried her head in his chest and curled in a ball in the center of his mass, weighing him down. "Don't you dare," she half cried. "Don't be stupid, why are you acting so stupid when you're normally so smart about these things, don't you dare try to leave you stupid man… Why would you even think I would want you to go?!" She lifted her head enough to glower up at him, and froze when she realized he was staring down at her as though she was the most amazing thing he had ever seen, instead of a spoiled princess laying on top of him like a child in the middle of a guest suite with blotchy skin and streaks of eyeliner surely running down her cheeks.

That or Dorothy had followed through on her threat of replacing all of her make-up to be waterproof… Maybe she looked good enough to deserve that adoration after all.

His little chuckle when she pursed her lips and glared at him again was verging on hysterical. "I don't know," he whispered after another long moment, lifting one hand to run through her hair… and laughing again, still disbelievingly, when she closed her eyes and leaned into the touch. "Maybe I really am just stupid," he decided.

"Well, stop it," she ordered without opening her eyes. "I don't appreciate it."

He let out a slightly less hysterical giggle and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. "I'll try to keep that in mind," he announced a little breathlessly.

She started to giggle a bit herself. "Please do."

"Whatever you want," he agreed. "God, Lena…"

"I'm still mad at you," she groused, trying to settle her head into a more comfortable spot on his chest. "I'm going to be mad at you for at least another week."

"Of course you are… I'm okay with that," he decided. "Totally, completely, okay with that…"

"Good." She sniffed. "I'm not letting you move for another fifteen minutes either, you jackass."

"Can't think of any reason Leia might need this room before then," he agreed in the same happy, breathless tone.

She felt her lips start to twitch in a smile. "I also might fall asleep on you."

"Also just fine, I can work with that." A more genuine laugh trying to escape made his chest rumble. "I'll just carry you to bed."

"You'd better be there when I wake up," she ordered.

He really did laugh in a genuine way, then. "Well, my bed's in there too, so that works."

She yawned. "Good."

Anything else could wait… and so long as he was there when she next went to sleep and woke, and the day after that, and the next, and the next? She didn't really see what else could go wrong.

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oOo

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oOo

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Veracity

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oOo

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If you can manage it, please review. I know I'm really slow to post sometimes, but life kinda happens… and I've been working overtime just about every week, sometimes getting up to over 70 hours a week. Making some changes in my life overall now… But as noted before: 52 page chapter, equating to about 29,000 words. Hopefully that makes up for it at least a bit. We're getting down to the end of Sedition, and Succession will be coming along soon.

Reviews really mean a damn lot, especially when covering this many points, and finally getting through story arcs that it feels like we've all been waiting for. This chapter was really a treat, mixing a lot of humor with some very serious shit. Now that Lena and Jake are over their psychosis, things can really start to move along.

Any theories about what's going to come next? Favorite parts? I think my favorite was Odin and Marlé's scene, personally, but Mailin has turned into such an amusing plot device…