========================================
Role Reversal
By Sefilin
========================================
Disclaimers: Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing copyright Sunrise,
Bandai, Sotsu Agency
Dedicated, as always, to Kellryn.
==========
Chapter Eight
==========
DUO'S HOME UNIVERSE:
----------
The office looked empty and felt empty when Zechs
stepped inside, ignoring the vaguely hostile gaze sent his way
by the protective and jealous Lady Une. But Treize was
expecting him so he was allowed to enter with impunity, though
the slight itch between his shoulder blades wasn't the most
pleasant sensation in the world.
His blue eyes flashed around the office again, noting
with a quirk of his lips, the usual bowl full of red roses
whose scent seemed to permeate the room, before settling on
the large leather-covered chair situated behind the desk. It
was facing the window, a rather large clue as to his friend's
whereabouts, since Treize was a neat freak and wouldn't leave
the room without straightening it. So he moved towards the
desk, turning slightly to lean against it casually while he
waited for Treize to acknowledge him.
It didn't take long and then he was looking at the
ginger-haired leader of OZ. The older man's pensive gaze ran
over him before a tiny smile touched his mouth.
"Milliard, thank you for coming."
Zechs inclined his head and tilted his head slightly to
one side as he continued to wait, knowing nothing of the
reason why Treize had asked him to come in.
"I have a job for you."
He blinked, knowing that was the only reason Treize
would have called him here, but still, for his friend to call
for him specifically...
Anticipation curled in his stomach and a breath drifted
from between his lips, "Of course."
==========
Relena watched as the jeep disappeared out of her line
of sight, falling beyond the slope of the world, carrying with
it the boy who had very quickly become her best friend.
Taking a deep breath, a bittersweet smile curving her lips,
she turned and moved back into the safe house the Gundam
pilots had been using. Pargan stood in the doorway that led
to the kitchen, his eyebrows drooping in sympathy, knowing how
much she would miss Julian.
She smiled at him reassuringly and made her way to the
couch, curling up in a corner to think and remember. She
would be happy if Duo returned from Julian's world, knowing
that Heero and the other pilots missed him. Wufei had missed
the chaotic American, though he'd never admit to it and so had
Relena. She hadn't realised that the American had had an
impact on her at all.
Missions had been harder without a fifth pilot and
winding down had also been harder without Duo around to break
the tension and the guilt. Relena and Julian had done what
they could, but neither was able to be as light-hearted as
Duo. Quatre had also tried, but though he helped a little, he
couldn't quite compare to the effect Duo had.
But Duo's return would leave Relena without her brother
and she would go back to being lonely. Even if she made an
effort to be the pilot's friend, stopping her pursuit of Heero
as she had said she would, she didn't think she could be as
close to any of them as she was to Julian.
"Relena-sama?" Pargan's voice broke in on her somewhat
depressed thoughts and she shook them off, turning to smile at
her chauffer.
"Yes?"
"There may be a problem," he murmured, spinning the
laptop on the table around, displaying it for Relena's eyes.
Relena stood, noting that it was Pargan's laptop, not Heero's
and then she got close enough to begin reading the message on
the screen.
A couple of seconds later she was staring, wide-eyed, at
Pargan, "What are we going to do? We need to warn them."
"Yes, Miss. But I don't think there is any way to
contact them. Heero-san left his laptop here and I am not
aware of the others having means of communication.
Relena blinked and chewed nervously on her bottom lip as
she pondered what they could do. There was no doubt the
information was correct, Pargan was one of the best hackers
she knew and he'd never steered her wrong before. So the
pilots needed to be warned about the message and the only way
that could happen was...
Relena straightened her shoulders, donning a determined
expression, "I guess we'll just have to go after them and let
them know in person."
Pargan's weathered face creased into a smile and he
nodded in pride, "Very good, Relena-sama. I'll bring the car
around."
Relena smiled again, "Thank you."
Pargan nodded and headed around the back of the safe
house where the limousine was parked while Relena waited
impatiently at the door.
Relena clambered into the limousine, sitting back
comfortably as Pargan took off down the road at a much higher
speed than normal. Relena grinned at her transparent
reflection in the window as she thanked heaven that she had
Pargan around. There were times when she didn't know what she
would do without him, and this was one of them.
==========
JULIAN'S HOME UNIVERSE:
----------
Duo swung out of the jeep that sat high on a hill,
sheltered by a few trees, above the research station that
supposedly created whatever it was that bought him to this
world. He glanced down at the plain, grey building with it's
impersonal windows, harsh lighting breaking the heaviness of
the concrete. He wondered how the researchers could work in
such a forbidding place but assumed that either they were
oblivious to all but their research, or the inside was more
welcoming than the outside.
He guessed he'd be finding out fairly shortly, if things
went the way they were supposed to. Not that they were
expecting problems since it was only a research centre, and
had little if anything to do with the military.
Still...
"This is ridiculous," he murmured, his voice carrying to
Heero and Relena, who were standing next to him, also looking
over the research centre from their vantage point.
"What is?" Relena whispered.
Duo craned his head around to glance at Trowa, Quatre,
Meiran and Dorothy who were standing and watching over their
shoulders, "This is meant to be an infiltration, right? So
why do I get the feeling we're more of an assault force?"
Relena laughed softly, "No one wants to be left behind.
And we may need an assault force if anything goes wrong."
Duo shook his head in disgust but chose not to answer.
There wasn't really anything they could change at this point
in time, so they may as well make the most of it.
"Let's go," Heero murmured from beside him and set off
down the hill on foot, followed by the others. He kept to
what little cover there was, and did a very good job, but with
everyone else trailing behind him, Duo, close behind the Japanese
pilot, wasn't going to be surprised if they were caught.
Duo automatically fell into step with Relena, the bounce in
his step muted into something closer to a glide. He felt Dorothy
and the other pilots behind him notice the change when the air
began to fill with a tension that hadn't previously been there.
The fact that Relena had dropped into the same pattern didn't
escape him either and he turned his head to glance at her,
catching her blue eyes almost glowing in anticipation. They
smiled at each other, a tiny quirk of the lips and turned back to
the front.
It had been quite a while since he'd done anything quite
like this. Solo infiltrations and stealing was fairly common,
but a group infiltration was not. And to have a fellow-thief
along for the ride... his adrenaline was already up and he found
it hard to keep the grin off his face. But that was all right
since Relena seemed to be having the same problem. They glanced
at one another involuntarily, once more clashed with excited blue
eyes and the two of them covered their mouths as they burst into
muted giggles.
Heero glanced over his shoulder to glare at them and they
each took a deep breath, calming themselves before turning their
eyes to take in everything in front of them.
Various surveillance cameras were spotted, along with exits
in the form of doors, windows and ventilation shafts. A single
guard was stationed at the entrance. Nothing out of the ordinary
and nothing that couldn't be overcome. Except...
Duo frowned at the military-style jeep sitting in one of
the parking spaces at the front of the building, a tingle working
it's way down his spine. Duo nudged Relena, drawing her
attention to the vehicle and she nodded, also frowning.
"An assault force might be needed after all," he whispered.
Relena nodded again, "Maybe..."
"Split up?"
"Yeah. There's something..."
Understanding her feeling of unease, Duo nodded and the two
ducked behind the most comprehensive cover they could find,
waving their companions into hiding with them.
"Okay," Relena murmured, "Duo and I think we should split
up. There's something not quite right here."
"Like what?" Meiran whispered, taking her cues from the two
thieves present.
"There's a military vehicle in the parking lot. We don't
know if it means anything, but just in case, it might be better
if we change the plan a little."
The Chinese girl raised her eyebrows in surprise, not
having noticed the jeep, "One vehicle? Don't you think you're
being a little paranoid? For all we know, it could be one of the
scientist's cars."
Duo grinned, "Being paranoid is the only way to make sure
you don't get caught, trust me on this. One vehicle, one person,
is enough to call in backup, and it's possible that there are
others around the other side of the building."
Relena nodded quietly, "Yeah. Duo and me are going to head
off and find another way in, you guys stick to the original
plan."
Duo nodded, "One more thing, Trowa, you're in charge here."
Trowa blinked, surprised, as did the others.
"Why Trowa?" Dorothy wanted to know. "Shouldn't Heero...?"
"'Cause he knows what to do better than the rest of you,
even Heero," Duo grinned at the silent pilot, "He's done this
sort of thing before, ne, Trowa?"
Green eyes blinked an affirmative.
"See?"
Relena grinned again and motioned for Duo to join her,
"Rendezvous at the jeep if we don't join you in there. Bye."
Duo waved goodbye and followed Relena into the low cover,
disappearing before any of the others could protest.
Meiran sighed, "Well then... Lead on, Trowa."
==========
Lieutenant Noin leaned against a desk, arms and ankles
crossed as she listened impassively to Professor Keller expound
upon the wonders of his machine. She couldn't remember what he
had called it - some long involved name that apparently explained
what it did. She'd nodded when he'd mentioned it, nodded again
when he explained that it would gather energy from dimensional
rifts and harness it, and continued nodding through the jargon-
filled nonsense that had followed.
She wasn't interested in the mechanics behind the machine
so she'd stopped listening after the first few paragraphs, and
began cataloguing Keller's person and lab instead. It was small,
his funding obviously being less than that of the other
scientists who worked here. According to Keller, people found
his idea laughable. Noin wasn't sure she didn't either, but
until she had finished hearing him out and watched a
demonstration, she was remaining where she was. Lady Une wanted
to know if it worked, and, beyond that, if it was cost effective,
and she was going to find out.
Once she had found out, she was either going to approve
funding for further research and development, or she was going to
leave. If only Keller would hurry and get to the money the
machine would require to make and the levels of energy it could
gather. But Keller was a male, this was his baby and Noin was
familiar with a man's ego, especially when it came to their
life's work. So she remained, relaxed and bored, waiting for the
man to wind down.
At least she had been prepared for this when Une had sent
her, and she had been promised something much more interesting to
do as soon as she had finished here.
Suppressing a yawn, she glanced incuriously out the window,
looking across the hillside, dotted with small trees and shrubs,
and admiring the bright blue of the sky. A flash of movement
from the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned
her face towards it. A tiny smile graced her features as she
recognised the movement as a relief from boredom.
Pushing herself away from the desk, she held a hand up to
halt Professor Keller, who stopped speaking, unpleasantly
surprised by the interruption, "One moment, please, Professor. I
believe we have visitors and perhaps a small welcome would be
appropriate."
Fishing a comm unit from her uniform pocket, she was put
through to the nearest base and began outlining her requirements
to its commander, finally signing out with a smile. She turned
back to the Professor, confident that her orders would be obeyed,
"Now where were we?"
==========
Duo and Relena made their way easily into the building
through a side door after sneaking past a couple of security
cameras and picking a lock.
"Piece of cake, so far. Security's pretty lousy." Relena
murmured into Duo's ear, flattening herself into the very shallow
bay that held the door.
"So far. Security office?"
"Yep, that's the best bet. At least we can keep an eye on
things and they should have records of who the visitor is and
details of what little security there is."
Duo brushed some bangs out of his eyes and glanced down the
corridor again. "We've got a camera in the hall, looks like it
gives full coverage. But, as in the blueprints, we have a lab
about three metres away that leads through to the main corridor,
which, in turn, will lead to the security office."
Relena glared a little, "I _have_ seen the blueprints, too,
y'know. Let's just go."
Duo sighed as the blonde moved past him, sauntering through
the corridor as if she belonged there and paused, eyeing the
basic keypad attached to the handle. Her hand went out, a flash
of light catching the switchblade she held as she quickly pried
open the face and cut the wires. Duo caught up to her, looking
equally at home and, laying a hand companionably on her shoulder
and waving a hand as though speaking for appearances sake, opened
the door and the two of them slipped through.
A painfully thin woman glanced up from where she sat at one
of the benches spread throughout the room, and blinked at them,
"Yes?"
Relena stepped forwards, taking note of the camera on the
wall but choosing to ignore it since she didn't have a choice,
"Sorry for the interruption, but we're looking for Professor
Keller. We were told to head this way, but I think we got lost."
Distracted blue eyes flickered downwards towards the sheaf
of papers on the bench in front of her before she turned back to
them, calmly blinking again before she shrugged, "I would guess
so. He's on the west side of the building, this is the north.
Take the corridor that way," she pointed in the direction they'd
come from, turn left at the end of the hall and follow the
corridor until you come to the door with Keller's name on it."
"Thanks very much, we were starting to think we'd be late."
The woman shrugged and turned back to her work. Relena
turned to Duo in resignation, she may not have realised that they
had walked through a security door to get in, but she'd likely
notice if they ignored her instructions and walked past her to
get to the other door. She found Duo straightening the collar of
a lab coat and slipping his hands into the pockets.
Noticing Relena looking at him, he shrugged and turned to
leave, "Let's go, then."
Relena sighed and walked past the now-empty coat-rack next
to the door and swung back into the corridor, following Duo in
the opposite direction from where they had been pointed.
"Lucky she was one of those absent-minded types, huh?"
Relena shrugged, "Doesn't really matter, she would've been
easy to neutralise anyway."
"Neutralise? You've been spending _way_ too much time
'round Heero."
Relena laughed and followed Duo the rest of the way to the
security office where Duo slipped out of the coat, tossing it a
few metres down the corridor. Then he lifted his hand and
knocked quietly. Relena positioned herself to one side of the
door as it opened and the other pilot smiled disarmingly at the
guard.
"Hi, we're here at the request of the centre's head to do a
security check. Apparently one of the scientist-types is being
all paranoid about his research."
The guard frowned, "I didn't hear anything about a security
check."
Duo shrugged again, "You got problems, man, talk to the
boss. We're just here to do a job."
The guard nodded and, casting a quick appreciative glance
over Relena, turned back into the room, "I'll just call to make
sure."
They took the opening, of course, and soon the guard was
sprawled out in front of them. Duo retrieved the lab coat,
closed and locked the door behind him and went to join Relena at
the bank of monitors that made up an entire wall of the dark
room.
"Anything?"
"Give me a sec, Duo. This system's pretty old and slow.
Keep an eye on the screens."
A window popped up on the monitor sitting on the desk and
Relena scrolled through the file options, looking for the system
specs, while Duo took the chance to watch the monitors, keeping
an eye out for anything slightly out of place.
"Wonder how the others are doing," Relena murmured quietly
as she brought up the appropriate file and glanced through it.
"Systems about as bad as we thought. The cameras and keypads are
about it, along with the guard at the gate...'
"Who the others have taken out, by the looks of things. If
they're that careless, I hate to think what's going to happen."
Relena glanced up, following Duo's finger towards the image
of the small empty office that would normally have been occupied,
"Given the quality of guards and security, it doesn't matter."
Sighing, Duo waved a hand briefly, "Yeah, but they didn't
know that."
"Doesn't matter now. Anyway, apart from that there's only
a one man night patrol that wanders around after everyone goes
home."
"Right. The visitor?"
Relena pressed a few keys and read the next window that
popped up. She frowned, "That's not good."
Her companion glanced down, reading the names on the
screen, "Lieutenant Noin? Sounds familiar..."
"She's Lady Une's second-in-command."
"Lady Une?"
Relena turned to look at him in amazement, "You don't know?
Lady Une's the commander of OZ, idiot." It was then that she
recalled that on Duo's world, Treize had been the leader of OZ,
so it was probable that he wouldn't know "...sorry."
Duo glared for a short while anyway, then went back to his
watching, "So, if she gets the chance to contact someone when she
finds out about the others, we could be in trouble."
"I think that about sums it up."
"So we let them know, then hang around here as backup."
"Sounds like a plan."
Relena pulled out her comm unit and began keying in a
familiar number, until Duo grabbed her wrist. She glanced up to
see him shaking his head and lifted an eyebrow.
"I think they already know," he muttered, directing her
towards another monitor where their colleagues were facing off
against a woman with short dark hair and a dark green OZ uniform.
Her hand, holding a familiar dark object, was extended towards
the pilots.
Relena drew in a sharp breath and hoped that the gun wasn't
going to be used on her friends.
==Owari, Chapter Eight==
http://www.geocities.com/sefilin/
sefilin@yahoo.com
Role Reversal
By Sefilin
========================================
Disclaimers: Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing copyright Sunrise,
Bandai, Sotsu Agency
Dedicated, as always, to Kellryn.
==========
Chapter Eight
==========
DUO'S HOME UNIVERSE:
----------
The office looked empty and felt empty when Zechs
stepped inside, ignoring the vaguely hostile gaze sent his way
by the protective and jealous Lady Une. But Treize was
expecting him so he was allowed to enter with impunity, though
the slight itch between his shoulder blades wasn't the most
pleasant sensation in the world.
His blue eyes flashed around the office again, noting
with a quirk of his lips, the usual bowl full of red roses
whose scent seemed to permeate the room, before settling on
the large leather-covered chair situated behind the desk. It
was facing the window, a rather large clue as to his friend's
whereabouts, since Treize was a neat freak and wouldn't leave
the room without straightening it. So he moved towards the
desk, turning slightly to lean against it casually while he
waited for Treize to acknowledge him.
It didn't take long and then he was looking at the
ginger-haired leader of OZ. The older man's pensive gaze ran
over him before a tiny smile touched his mouth.
"Milliard, thank you for coming."
Zechs inclined his head and tilted his head slightly to
one side as he continued to wait, knowing nothing of the
reason why Treize had asked him to come in.
"I have a job for you."
He blinked, knowing that was the only reason Treize
would have called him here, but still, for his friend to call
for him specifically...
Anticipation curled in his stomach and a breath drifted
from between his lips, "Of course."
==========
Relena watched as the jeep disappeared out of her line
of sight, falling beyond the slope of the world, carrying with
it the boy who had very quickly become her best friend.
Taking a deep breath, a bittersweet smile curving her lips,
she turned and moved back into the safe house the Gundam
pilots had been using. Pargan stood in the doorway that led
to the kitchen, his eyebrows drooping in sympathy, knowing how
much she would miss Julian.
She smiled at him reassuringly and made her way to the
couch, curling up in a corner to think and remember. She
would be happy if Duo returned from Julian's world, knowing
that Heero and the other pilots missed him. Wufei had missed
the chaotic American, though he'd never admit to it and so had
Relena. She hadn't realised that the American had had an
impact on her at all.
Missions had been harder without a fifth pilot and
winding down had also been harder without Duo around to break
the tension and the guilt. Relena and Julian had done what
they could, but neither was able to be as light-hearted as
Duo. Quatre had also tried, but though he helped a little, he
couldn't quite compare to the effect Duo had.
But Duo's return would leave Relena without her brother
and she would go back to being lonely. Even if she made an
effort to be the pilot's friend, stopping her pursuit of Heero
as she had said she would, she didn't think she could be as
close to any of them as she was to Julian.
"Relena-sama?" Pargan's voice broke in on her somewhat
depressed thoughts and she shook them off, turning to smile at
her chauffer.
"Yes?"
"There may be a problem," he murmured, spinning the
laptop on the table around, displaying it for Relena's eyes.
Relena stood, noting that it was Pargan's laptop, not Heero's
and then she got close enough to begin reading the message on
the screen.
A couple of seconds later she was staring, wide-eyed, at
Pargan, "What are we going to do? We need to warn them."
"Yes, Miss. But I don't think there is any way to
contact them. Heero-san left his laptop here and I am not
aware of the others having means of communication.
Relena blinked and chewed nervously on her bottom lip as
she pondered what they could do. There was no doubt the
information was correct, Pargan was one of the best hackers
she knew and he'd never steered her wrong before. So the
pilots needed to be warned about the message and the only way
that could happen was...
Relena straightened her shoulders, donning a determined
expression, "I guess we'll just have to go after them and let
them know in person."
Pargan's weathered face creased into a smile and he
nodded in pride, "Very good, Relena-sama. I'll bring the car
around."
Relena smiled again, "Thank you."
Pargan nodded and headed around the back of the safe
house where the limousine was parked while Relena waited
impatiently at the door.
Relena clambered into the limousine, sitting back
comfortably as Pargan took off down the road at a much higher
speed than normal. Relena grinned at her transparent
reflection in the window as she thanked heaven that she had
Pargan around. There were times when she didn't know what she
would do without him, and this was one of them.
==========
JULIAN'S HOME UNIVERSE:
----------
Duo swung out of the jeep that sat high on a hill,
sheltered by a few trees, above the research station that
supposedly created whatever it was that bought him to this
world. He glanced down at the plain, grey building with it's
impersonal windows, harsh lighting breaking the heaviness of
the concrete. He wondered how the researchers could work in
such a forbidding place but assumed that either they were
oblivious to all but their research, or the inside was more
welcoming than the outside.
He guessed he'd be finding out fairly shortly, if things
went the way they were supposed to. Not that they were
expecting problems since it was only a research centre, and
had little if anything to do with the military.
Still...
"This is ridiculous," he murmured, his voice carrying to
Heero and Relena, who were standing next to him, also looking
over the research centre from their vantage point.
"What is?" Relena whispered.
Duo craned his head around to glance at Trowa, Quatre,
Meiran and Dorothy who were standing and watching over their
shoulders, "This is meant to be an infiltration, right? So
why do I get the feeling we're more of an assault force?"
Relena laughed softly, "No one wants to be left behind.
And we may need an assault force if anything goes wrong."
Duo shook his head in disgust but chose not to answer.
There wasn't really anything they could change at this point
in time, so they may as well make the most of it.
"Let's go," Heero murmured from beside him and set off
down the hill on foot, followed by the others. He kept to
what little cover there was, and did a very good job, but with
everyone else trailing behind him, Duo, close behind the Japanese
pilot, wasn't going to be surprised if they were caught.
Duo automatically fell into step with Relena, the bounce in
his step muted into something closer to a glide. He felt Dorothy
and the other pilots behind him notice the change when the air
began to fill with a tension that hadn't previously been there.
The fact that Relena had dropped into the same pattern didn't
escape him either and he turned his head to glance at her,
catching her blue eyes almost glowing in anticipation. They
smiled at each other, a tiny quirk of the lips and turned back to
the front.
It had been quite a while since he'd done anything quite
like this. Solo infiltrations and stealing was fairly common,
but a group infiltration was not. And to have a fellow-thief
along for the ride... his adrenaline was already up and he found
it hard to keep the grin off his face. But that was all right
since Relena seemed to be having the same problem. They glanced
at one another involuntarily, once more clashed with excited blue
eyes and the two of them covered their mouths as they burst into
muted giggles.
Heero glanced over his shoulder to glare at them and they
each took a deep breath, calming themselves before turning their
eyes to take in everything in front of them.
Various surveillance cameras were spotted, along with exits
in the form of doors, windows and ventilation shafts. A single
guard was stationed at the entrance. Nothing out of the ordinary
and nothing that couldn't be overcome. Except...
Duo frowned at the military-style jeep sitting in one of
the parking spaces at the front of the building, a tingle working
it's way down his spine. Duo nudged Relena, drawing her
attention to the vehicle and she nodded, also frowning.
"An assault force might be needed after all," he whispered.
Relena nodded again, "Maybe..."
"Split up?"
"Yeah. There's something..."
Understanding her feeling of unease, Duo nodded and the two
ducked behind the most comprehensive cover they could find,
waving their companions into hiding with them.
"Okay," Relena murmured, "Duo and I think we should split
up. There's something not quite right here."
"Like what?" Meiran whispered, taking her cues from the two
thieves present.
"There's a military vehicle in the parking lot. We don't
know if it means anything, but just in case, it might be better
if we change the plan a little."
The Chinese girl raised her eyebrows in surprise, not
having noticed the jeep, "One vehicle? Don't you think you're
being a little paranoid? For all we know, it could be one of the
scientist's cars."
Duo grinned, "Being paranoid is the only way to make sure
you don't get caught, trust me on this. One vehicle, one person,
is enough to call in backup, and it's possible that there are
others around the other side of the building."
Relena nodded quietly, "Yeah. Duo and me are going to head
off and find another way in, you guys stick to the original
plan."
Duo nodded, "One more thing, Trowa, you're in charge here."
Trowa blinked, surprised, as did the others.
"Why Trowa?" Dorothy wanted to know. "Shouldn't Heero...?"
"'Cause he knows what to do better than the rest of you,
even Heero," Duo grinned at the silent pilot, "He's done this
sort of thing before, ne, Trowa?"
Green eyes blinked an affirmative.
"See?"
Relena grinned again and motioned for Duo to join her,
"Rendezvous at the jeep if we don't join you in there. Bye."
Duo waved goodbye and followed Relena into the low cover,
disappearing before any of the others could protest.
Meiran sighed, "Well then... Lead on, Trowa."
==========
Lieutenant Noin leaned against a desk, arms and ankles
crossed as she listened impassively to Professor Keller expound
upon the wonders of his machine. She couldn't remember what he
had called it - some long involved name that apparently explained
what it did. She'd nodded when he'd mentioned it, nodded again
when he explained that it would gather energy from dimensional
rifts and harness it, and continued nodding through the jargon-
filled nonsense that had followed.
She wasn't interested in the mechanics behind the machine
so she'd stopped listening after the first few paragraphs, and
began cataloguing Keller's person and lab instead. It was small,
his funding obviously being less than that of the other
scientists who worked here. According to Keller, people found
his idea laughable. Noin wasn't sure she didn't either, but
until she had finished hearing him out and watched a
demonstration, she was remaining where she was. Lady Une wanted
to know if it worked, and, beyond that, if it was cost effective,
and she was going to find out.
Once she had found out, she was either going to approve
funding for further research and development, or she was going to
leave. If only Keller would hurry and get to the money the
machine would require to make and the levels of energy it could
gather. But Keller was a male, this was his baby and Noin was
familiar with a man's ego, especially when it came to their
life's work. So she remained, relaxed and bored, waiting for the
man to wind down.
At least she had been prepared for this when Une had sent
her, and she had been promised something much more interesting to
do as soon as she had finished here.
Suppressing a yawn, she glanced incuriously out the window,
looking across the hillside, dotted with small trees and shrubs,
and admiring the bright blue of the sky. A flash of movement
from the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned
her face towards it. A tiny smile graced her features as she
recognised the movement as a relief from boredom.
Pushing herself away from the desk, she held a hand up to
halt Professor Keller, who stopped speaking, unpleasantly
surprised by the interruption, "One moment, please, Professor. I
believe we have visitors and perhaps a small welcome would be
appropriate."
Fishing a comm unit from her uniform pocket, she was put
through to the nearest base and began outlining her requirements
to its commander, finally signing out with a smile. She turned
back to the Professor, confident that her orders would be obeyed,
"Now where were we?"
==========
Duo and Relena made their way easily into the building
through a side door after sneaking past a couple of security
cameras and picking a lock.
"Piece of cake, so far. Security's pretty lousy." Relena
murmured into Duo's ear, flattening herself into the very shallow
bay that held the door.
"So far. Security office?"
"Yep, that's the best bet. At least we can keep an eye on
things and they should have records of who the visitor is and
details of what little security there is."
Duo brushed some bangs out of his eyes and glanced down the
corridor again. "We've got a camera in the hall, looks like it
gives full coverage. But, as in the blueprints, we have a lab
about three metres away that leads through to the main corridor,
which, in turn, will lead to the security office."
Relena glared a little, "I _have_ seen the blueprints, too,
y'know. Let's just go."
Duo sighed as the blonde moved past him, sauntering through
the corridor as if she belonged there and paused, eyeing the
basic keypad attached to the handle. Her hand went out, a flash
of light catching the switchblade she held as she quickly pried
open the face and cut the wires. Duo caught up to her, looking
equally at home and, laying a hand companionably on her shoulder
and waving a hand as though speaking for appearances sake, opened
the door and the two of them slipped through.
A painfully thin woman glanced up from where she sat at one
of the benches spread throughout the room, and blinked at them,
"Yes?"
Relena stepped forwards, taking note of the camera on the
wall but choosing to ignore it since she didn't have a choice,
"Sorry for the interruption, but we're looking for Professor
Keller. We were told to head this way, but I think we got lost."
Distracted blue eyes flickered downwards towards the sheaf
of papers on the bench in front of her before she turned back to
them, calmly blinking again before she shrugged, "I would guess
so. He's on the west side of the building, this is the north.
Take the corridor that way," she pointed in the direction they'd
come from, turn left at the end of the hall and follow the
corridor until you come to the door with Keller's name on it."
"Thanks very much, we were starting to think we'd be late."
The woman shrugged and turned back to her work. Relena
turned to Duo in resignation, she may not have realised that they
had walked through a security door to get in, but she'd likely
notice if they ignored her instructions and walked past her to
get to the other door. She found Duo straightening the collar of
a lab coat and slipping his hands into the pockets.
Noticing Relena looking at him, he shrugged and turned to
leave, "Let's go, then."
Relena sighed and walked past the now-empty coat-rack next
to the door and swung back into the corridor, following Duo in
the opposite direction from where they had been pointed.
"Lucky she was one of those absent-minded types, huh?"
Relena shrugged, "Doesn't really matter, she would've been
easy to neutralise anyway."
"Neutralise? You've been spending _way_ too much time
'round Heero."
Relena laughed and followed Duo the rest of the way to the
security office where Duo slipped out of the coat, tossing it a
few metres down the corridor. Then he lifted his hand and
knocked quietly. Relena positioned herself to one side of the
door as it opened and the other pilot smiled disarmingly at the
guard.
"Hi, we're here at the request of the centre's head to do a
security check. Apparently one of the scientist-types is being
all paranoid about his research."
The guard frowned, "I didn't hear anything about a security
check."
Duo shrugged again, "You got problems, man, talk to the
boss. We're just here to do a job."
The guard nodded and, casting a quick appreciative glance
over Relena, turned back into the room, "I'll just call to make
sure."
They took the opening, of course, and soon the guard was
sprawled out in front of them. Duo retrieved the lab coat,
closed and locked the door behind him and went to join Relena at
the bank of monitors that made up an entire wall of the dark
room.
"Anything?"
"Give me a sec, Duo. This system's pretty old and slow.
Keep an eye on the screens."
A window popped up on the monitor sitting on the desk and
Relena scrolled through the file options, looking for the system
specs, while Duo took the chance to watch the monitors, keeping
an eye out for anything slightly out of place.
"Wonder how the others are doing," Relena murmured quietly
as she brought up the appropriate file and glanced through it.
"Systems about as bad as we thought. The cameras and keypads are
about it, along with the guard at the gate...'
"Who the others have taken out, by the looks of things. If
they're that careless, I hate to think what's going to happen."
Relena glanced up, following Duo's finger towards the image
of the small empty office that would normally have been occupied,
"Given the quality of guards and security, it doesn't matter."
Sighing, Duo waved a hand briefly, "Yeah, but they didn't
know that."
"Doesn't matter now. Anyway, apart from that there's only
a one man night patrol that wanders around after everyone goes
home."
"Right. The visitor?"
Relena pressed a few keys and read the next window that
popped up. She frowned, "That's not good."
Her companion glanced down, reading the names on the
screen, "Lieutenant Noin? Sounds familiar..."
"She's Lady Une's second-in-command."
"Lady Une?"
Relena turned to look at him in amazement, "You don't know?
Lady Une's the commander of OZ, idiot." It was then that she
recalled that on Duo's world, Treize had been the leader of OZ,
so it was probable that he wouldn't know "...sorry."
Duo glared for a short while anyway, then went back to his
watching, "So, if she gets the chance to contact someone when she
finds out about the others, we could be in trouble."
"I think that about sums it up."
"So we let them know, then hang around here as backup."
"Sounds like a plan."
Relena pulled out her comm unit and began keying in a
familiar number, until Duo grabbed her wrist. She glanced up to
see him shaking his head and lifted an eyebrow.
"I think they already know," he muttered, directing her
towards another monitor where their colleagues were facing off
against a woman with short dark hair and a dark green OZ uniform.
Her hand, holding a familiar dark object, was extended towards
the pilots.
Relena drew in a sharp breath and hoped that the gun wasn't
going to be used on her friends.
==Owari, Chapter Eight==
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