Quasi-relevant language note: For those of you familiar with the romance languages, no, this chapter's title does not mean "Beautiful Pain." It's Latin and translates to "The Grief of War." (And I actually got bellum successfully into the genitive case! This means nothing to most of you, but I'm happy. [::smirks:: Actually Kalen cheated and found a vocabulary list that had the genitive case for words on her upcoming test.)
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Winner Corporation Offices, March 27, late evening
Quatre reached over and switched on the comm, fully prepared to scold whichever of his workers had the sheer audacity to bother him when he'd all but banned communication into his office. The blonde-framed face in the unit tipped her head in amusement as the irritated look left his face.
"Dorothy. Good to see you."
"I'm certain." She dipped her head in a quick greeting. "How are you doing?"
He hadn't spoken to her in a good while, a reticent reminder he frequently neglected his "social life," or rather, lack thereof. In the past year or so Dorothy had become a good friend - a business partner after the Eve Wars, then a platonic companion. The peaceable yet sometimes flare-tempered Catalonia in front of him was a far cry from the nearly psychopathic fifteen-year-old he'd met long ago in Cinq.
"Well enough, I guess…" Quatre sighed, ran his hand through his hair. "I don't suppose there were any allegations against you?"
Dorothy laughed, the sound refreshing after the past few jaded days. "No, for all my early propensities Grandfather, Treize and Zechs kept me out of trouble."
"I see." Quatre smiled, although the pleased expression disappeared quickly. "Through my own making, my situation is quite different."
She gave him a puzzled look, then remembered. "You were on the ZERO system. Easily defensible."
"I'm not sure I want to."
"That's insane. You've already paid back the colonists many times over." Dorothy had helped with the charity ventures Quatre set up to assist L4 in general and the colonists he'd hurt in particular.
"No, I'm afraid you're incorrect in that. I can never pay back those several hundred colonists for their homes and livelihoods that I destroyed."
After all this time, Dorothy still believed in the ancient Hammurabi codes in most cases. She knew the war statutes and conventions had been there to protect people, and that was all well and good…except when they erroneously attacked the few she gave a damn about.
She nodded, slowly and reluctantly accepting. "I know I won't change your mind. But you can't exactly change mine either."
"Quatre chuckled, admiring her extreme obstinacy - no matter how many problems it caused. "As always. Goodnight, Dorothy."
"Good night."
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Lady Une's residence, March 28
Mariemaia sifted through her schoolwork, completing them with idle efficiency - all the while hiding the stack of military reports printed out from her computer. At eight she was extremely intelligent, and at the moment worried for the woman she called mother. Lady Une had expressly ordered her not to watch the news, had exempted her from anything too involved with it in school…she understood Une was only trying to protect her, but from what? She'd already seen so much, what was it that was so horrible about this…?
Her curiosity egged at her until she went against her adopted mother's wishes, digging out the charges against Lady Une, and herself. The latter were irrelevant, they wouldn't prosecute anyone below thirteen at the time of the crimes; that, at least, had already been established (it also left all OZ soldiers responsible for everything that occurred after their graduations). The former were absolutely horrifying.
Now she understood what Lady Une had unsuccessfully attempted to keep her from understanding. Should the trials go through, Mariemaia stood more than a decent chance of losing her mother for the second time. Both would be through illness - one a biological disease, the other something that had long plagued humanity. The grief of war.
A brief knock at her door alerted her to Lady Une's entrance.
"Mom," she said in a slightly anxious voice, quickly hiding the reports more thoroughly. "Why are you home this early?'
"I would think you'd be glad." Lady Une smirked slightly, ruffling Mariemaia's sleek cap of red hair. "I decided to take the rest of the day off…spontaneous, true, but work was beginning to irk me."
"Oh. Okay…I'm glad." Mariemaia, in truth, was glad, but wondered what could have possibly prompted such a "spontaneous" action. Could it be connected to the hearings…? There's only two days left…
She whirled as something crashed into her window, bouncing off the strengthened glass. In the movement her schoolwork was swept off the desk, along with some of the reports. Lady Une knelt to pick them up. Mariemaia helpless to stop her from reading what her "extracurricular research" had turned up.
"I see you found out…" Lady Une said it slowly, voice held carefully neutral.
"Yes, I did…" The crashing intensified, Mariemaia turned in surprise and near-fear.
"Ignore it, Mariemaia," Lady Une whispered, attention distracted from her daughter's disobedience.
"Mother, what is it?" Mariemaia was now worried. Those are rocks…
"Do you remember when I told you that many people still wanted me dead?"
"Yes."
"Now there are more."
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An L2 Colony, March 29
"Hilde! Oi, Hilde!" Duo yelled, looking through the apartment for his girlfriend, who had for some reason disappeared.
The silence was beginning to bother him. He went outside, looking through the scrap metal junkyard for the seventeen-year-old. Duo finally found her seated awkwardly on one of the piles of Neo-Titanium, a stack of papers in her hand.
"Hilde, why didn't you answer me?" he asked, climbing up next to her.
"Huh?" Hilde's head rose, curious. "What'd you say?"
"I was asking you where you were the past hour or so I couldn't find you," Duo replied. "C'mon, you couldn't've been out here all day…I'm not blind, y'know."
"I got a letter from my friend Stella today," she responded. "I told you about her, she left OZ about a month before I did. She's got some nasty charges, a lot worse than mine. Her unit did…differently."
"How much differently?" Duo was slightly alarmed. Stella and Hilde had had a falling out when the former left OZ, never knowing that Hilde would leave as well, a bare five weeks later. They had been in different units…the OZ units were being charged individually to make it easier to isolate the higher commands and the lower recruits that had never seen battle.
"Very. They had two…bad attacks. Civilian, she says they were told they were rebel bases. One of their commanders is dead, but the other…they're going to have a hard case of it."
"I spoke to Wufei just before I started looking for you…" Duo started hesitantly. "He said Sally's having a similar problem, her commander wasn't all that humane. They found a good lawyer who's familiar with this type of thing…maybe I can ask him to look at Stella and her unit's case too."
"That would be great, Duo." Hilde forced a smile, letting him help her climb down from the scrap heap. "I hope it can help…if the amnesty hearing fails, there won't be much time left."
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Preventers Headquarters, March 30, late afternoon
"Lady, are you sure you want to take Mariemaia to the hearing? There will be people who will do everything to stop this amnesty from occurring…" Noin watched Une stare blankly out the floor-to-ceiling window of her office, casting a worried look back at Zechs when she didn't answer. He blinked, hands shoved in his pockets.
"Lady Une?" he asked cautiously.
"Une?" Noin asked, louder than before. The woman in question snapped awake, startled as she was snapped out of her reverie.
"I'm sorry, I must have lost focus…" she looked apologetic, but still slightly confused. "You were saying?"
"I was asking if you were certain you wanted Mariemaia to accompany you to the hearing, seeing the type of people that would be there. I remember you said you were keeping her from watching the news." Noin answered her evenly, not missing a beat.
"Mariemaia of course disobeyed that order…" Lady Une shook her head, not the slightest bit amused. "She knows. I don't see the point in keeping her from being at the hearing."
Noin nodded, accepting. Zechs frowned. "It might be wiser to take extra security."
"What ever for." Une's voice was flat, the quasi-question sardonic. "Mariemaia and I wouldn't be attacked at a place so public."
Noin gave him a mild look to tell him to drop it. Lady Une's stubbornness could outlast time, and would most certainly outlast them.
"Are you two going to be at the hearing?" Lady Une queried, this time leaning against the window.
"We hope," Noin said gradually, "but we have-"
"Some other things to take care of," Zechs finished for her.
"We'll be there if we can."
Brief, true, but the next chapter's the hearing.