A/N: Thanks for the review, Black-Phinoex. I'm beginning to think school ate everyone else...
CHAPTER 52-Filling in the Holes
"I've had just about enough of this, Winner." Duo was standing in the doorway the next morning, a look that could kill on his features.
Riley and Quatre were wrapped in each other's arms on the bed, still dressed except for their shoes. Quatre's hand was playing with the hair at the nape of Riley's neck. Duo had come to get Riley up to begin battle preparations. He'd promised Zach he wouldn't tease them about kissing, but that didn't mean he couldn't give them a hard time about sleeping on the same bed.
"Duo, quit picking on my fiancé," Riley said her face still snuggled into the warmth of Quatre's chest.
"I mean it, I…" Riley's words finally sank in. Duo chuckled. "Well it's about damn time."
Riley and Quatre lifted their heads and watched as he walked out the door. Looking at each other in surprise, they smiled and kissed again, snuggling in for a little while longer.
When Quatre emerged from Riley's room, Duo was waiting for him. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, his face serious. Quatre looked at him, expecting a tirade about how the eve of battle was not the time to ask Riley to marry him. Suddenly, Duo's expression changed and a grin erupted. "Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you'd never ask her."
"What makes you think this is the first time I've asked her?"
Duo was surprised. "She's turned you down before?"
"Yeah."
"Wait…was that what she broke up with you over? You asked her to marry you that night?"
"Yes. She took it much better this time."
"So how'd you change her mind?"
"Finally convinced her that I was serious about going after her if she gets sent back."
Duo gave Quatre an appraising look. "If that does happen, I'll help you."
"Thanks, Duo. I'll hold you to that."
Riley joined them in the hall, ready for the day. She wondered what Duo had said but since they didn't look like they'd had a fight, she didn't ask. Quatre kissed her and slipped off to his room to change as well. Riley and Duo continued towards the kitchen.
"Um…I'm sorry, about getting mad at you yesterday. I shouldn't have."
"It's okay, Duo. I get why you were mad."
Duo stopped and faced her. "Riley, I want you to know that I don't think you're incapable of taking care of yourself. I just…I just want you to be careful and not take any unnecessary risks. As much as I hate to admit it, I need you in my life. I don't think I could handle losing you and it makes me a tad overprotective."
"A tad?" She raised an eyebrow at him, her eyes teasing.
"Okay, a LOT overprotective." He grinned at her. "Just, promise me that you'll be careful and you won't let Dr. Okon make you do anything stupid."
"I promise. I'll be careful. But you have to promise to be careful, too. I don't want to lose you, either. That's why I went after you."
"Yeah, well I already chewed Trowa's butt for that."
"You shouldn't have. I told him he could either go with me or I'd go by myself."
Duo shook his head. "What am I going to do with you? Now I owe Trowa an apology."
She shrugged. "I guess I should be the one to apologize to him for making you mad enough to yell at him."
"Apologies accepted."
Duo whirled around. Trowa had snuck up behind him while they were talking. Riley had seen him from where she was. Trowa grinned at Duo and Riley and walked down to the kitchen.
Duo turned back to Riley. "You just love doing stuff like that to me, don't you?"
She smirked. "Of course."
He shook his head and plopped an arm over her shoulder as they went to breakfast.
Breakfast had an air of tension. The boys knew something was going on, even though they'd been in bed before Riley discussed her father's research. Heero waited until everyone was at the table before he made his announcement.
"It's time."
The younger boys looked up at him, surprised. Zach shot a look at Riley. She hadn't really touched her breakfast, but he supposed he should have expected that.
"This morning we will begin preparations to strike back. Dr. Okon has put a bounty on Riley and we intend to stop her before anyone comes to collect."
"How would anyone be able to find her here?" Alex asked.
"Anyone who wants to find her badly enough will. That's just the nature of mercenaries," Trowa supplied. He knew firsthand what mercenaries would and could do to find their prey. He'd been raised by them after all.
"So what exactly is the price on her head?" Angelo wanted to know.
"3 billion cedits."
Riley winced as Wufei gave the price.
"Where would she get that kind of money?" Zach asked.
"The Dr. Okon we are dealing with is the daughter of Dr. Drake Okon. He made a fortune in the diet racket selling pills that literally ate the fat off your body. However, one of the side effects was that it eventually ate your muscle and bone, too, literally leaving you as a sack of blood and skin," Heero explained.
"EEeeeew! Nasty!" Angelo pulled a face.
"Yes, but that didn't stop him from selling them. He claimed that people should learn to read the fine print. Some people were so desperate to be thin that they just didn't care. However the worst thing about Dr. Okon is that he used the money to support a group that was picking kids off the street and selling them as slaves or worse. He tried to hide his activities, but the Preventers managed to stop him and he was found guilty and executed."
"So you think his daughter is really just seeking revenge?"
"Yeah, Zach, that's probably a part of her desire for world domination. However it is possible that she just inherited his crazy," Duo said. He'd been part of the Preventers group that had brought Okon down and he was not looking forward to dealing with his daughter.
Riley's brow was furrowed in thought. 3 Billion credits? Why so much? It would be cheaper for Dr. Okon to keep doing research. She was struck with the feeling of Déjà vu. She couldn't place why, but it was there, on the edge of her mind, just out of reach. She knew there was a connection here, but…it wasn't connecting. It was infuriatingly annoying. She pulled herself back into the conversation, unsure of what she'd missed.
"So even if someone wanted to find her, they'd have to have a lead first, right?" Angelo was asking.
"Yes, and given her restricted activities, it will make it harder for someone to have seen her. But Okon's operatives know she was at the Preventer's Ball at Christmas, so they probably have some idea that she's on L4," Wufei said.
"And they know that Quatre knows who I am…and Duo…and probably Wufei and Trowa." Riley got up and walked over to the sliding glass doors and looked out. She hated the little bits of information floating in her head that should add up but didn't. She wanted it to make sense.
"Too bad we can't afford to pay off people to leave her alone," Braxton said.
Duo chuckled. "No one has that kind of money, kid, not even Quatre."
Riley whirled around. "What did you just say?"
"Huh? I just said no one's got more than 3 billion credits lying around to pay people off."
Riley grinned. In an odd way, it had all just clicked. "Loose change," she mused to herself.
"What?" Wufei was frowning at her.
Everyone else was staring at her.
"Loose change."
"I don't follow."
"When I interrogated Taylor, he said that the reward from Okon would make the Winner fortune look like a pile of loose change."
"Yes, I remember. So what?"
"So when Quatre took me to the coin dealer, Mr. Williams told me that one of the coins I had was worth about 3 billion credits and he might have a seller lined up for the bills that Zach and I had, which were worth even more. I'd be willing to bet that she's the buyer."
"Where are you going with this?" Heero asked.
"If she is, she's monitoring the coin shop."
"I still don't follow." Wufei eyebrows were furrowed.
"She knows I came from Before Colonization. What easier way to get money than to sell a few coins? Especially when I can't get a job because it would mean coming out of hiding and it would make me way too vulnerable."
"I don't think Mr. Williams would turn you in," Quatre said.
"I don't think so, either, Quatre. I believed him when he said that our identities would be kept confidential. I think that either Mr. Williams doesn't know about Dr. Okon's agenda or else she's dealing with him under an alias."
"Why would that make a difference?" Braxton asked.
"If people know she's behind any sort of terrorist activities they won't pay for the serum in the first place, regardless of how well it's marketed. If she can't sell the serum, there's no point in any of her activities. So if she can get Riley without anyone finding out it's her, it's better for business," Quatre pointed out. "And what better way to get her than to offer an amount of money that no sane person would refuse?"
"Yeah, but it also seems a little too good to be true," Angelo said, frowning.
"Which means anyone going after Riley will most likely be desperate for easy money." Duo was drumming his fingers on the table as he thought. "I wish we could lure them out and take care of them before they have a chance to get to her."
"Why don't we?"
"And just how do you propose we do that, Riley?" Wufei asked.
"Use me as bait."
Duo looked at Riley. "Are you crazy?"
She shrugged. "Sometimes crazy works."
"And just how would you suggest we do that without you getting caught?" Trowa asked.
"I go back to the coin shop and sell some more coins. You guys watch for anything suspicious and try to take Okon's bounty hunters captive."
"Why not just kill them?" Angelo asked.
"We just got broken out of the Lunar Base, so she's liable to move. We need to know where she is if we're going to stop her. Of course, if we're lucky, she'll believe the time jump ruse and stay put," Heero said.
Duo frowned at Riley. "Just how did you make them think we used time travel anyway?"
"Flash bombs. Right before the game brought me here I saw a flash of light, Zach confirmed that he did, too, so I wasn't hallucinating. Since we haven't seen anyone use time travel, we just had to guess and hope they bought it."
"So that was why they were looking for a time device when they searched me."
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"And while we're on the subject, just why did you find it necessary to dress up like a younger version of me?"
"Well I was kind of hoping they'd think it was the younger you."
"Why?"
"Because I needed a disguise that was the complete opposite of the other one I used and besides, I thought it was something the younger you would've found funny."
He had to grin at that. He probably would have found it hilarious to break into the Lunar Base and play around in the barracks, leaving chaos in his wake when he was younger. "Yeah, okay, I'll give you that. You're just lucky they didn't try any of that truth serum on us."
"They probably figured that Gundam Pilots are trained to withstand the stuff," Heero noted.
"Yeah, well, just because you were doesn't mean the rest of us were," Duo retorted.
Heero shrugged. He couldn't deny it, he'd been subjected to some pretty strenuous conditioning by Dr. J as a child and, though the five of them had never discussed it, he knew that the others had had their share of unethical conditioning in any number of areas.
"They have stuff that can make you tell the truth?" Braxton asked, his eyes widening.
"It usually makes you relax to the point where they can ask anything they want and you'll just blurt it out," Trowa explained. "It can actually be lethal if used incorrectly or on anyone too young."
"How young?"
"Twenty is a safe age."
Riley swore and they looked at her. "I told them I was 17 after they injected me. D'you think they would have figured it out?"
"Hmmm…well, you did disappear rather quickly after their little interrogation, so we can hope that they'll just ignore it," Heero said. "It usually takes around twelve hours before death occurs."
"Even if they ignore Riley's disappearance and she buys the time jump to explain ours, Okon knows that her position has been compromised," Wufei said, bringing the conversation back on track. "Heero's right that she'll probably relocate."
"But even if we caught anyone watching the coin shop, how do we know that they'll know where she is?" Trowa asked.
"We don't. It is possible that we could trace the transaction, but that might only lead us to a bank account that might not have any of Okon's pertinent data attached," Quatre said. "I don't think Mr. Williams would reveal his buyer, even if we asked."
"Hai. And asking might bring up questions best left unasked," Heero pointed out.
"So can we set up a way to hack the computer while the transaction is going through?" Angelo asked.
"It might be possible, but if she's using an alias it may be pointless."
"Unless the alias gives us another lead," Braxton pointed out.
"True," Heero said. "However, this plan leaves a lot of loose ends and is entirely dependent on indefinite outcomes. It's too risky."
Duo's cell phone rang. "Hey, babe!" Duo's expression darkened. "Okay, Hil, stay calm and act like nothing's wrong. Find a busy shop and stay in the line of sight of one of the cashiers at all times. I'll be there in ten minutes."
He hung up and started for the door. "Hilde's in trouble. I'll be back."
Riley got up to follow him and he rounded on her. "YOU STAY PUT!"
She glared at him. "You're not going alone."
Wufei stepped in. "I'll go with you. Riley, he's right. Stay put."
They left as she rolled her eyes.
"Why would they target Hilde?" Jocelyn asked.
"Because they're trying to lure me out," Riley said quietly. She turned back to the group, annoyed. "So what are we going to do about Okon?"
