"It's her. Take her."
Julia took an unconscious step backwards at the open malice on his face. She heard one of the heartbeats behind her grow closer, and suddenly one of them reached around in front of her, hooking his arm around her neck and bracing it with his other arm. He wasn't choking her, not yet, but he could very easily.
Suddenly she caught a whiff of something very sweet, and saw the man who'd spoken before pulling something out of his pocket. It was a small plastic bag with a bit of white cloth in it. Grinning openly now, he looked at her and started walking over. As he reached her, he raised the cloth towards her face, and the smell got much stronger.
"No..." Julia didn't know what was going on, but she knew she didn't want that thing pressed against her face. She had the strong suspicion that it was something that would knock her out or worse.
She raised a hand, intending to just push her hand away, but her body hadn't forgotten the years of training, even if her mind wasn't functioning properly right now. Instead of just pushing his hand away, she grabbed the palm of his hand and pushed, forcing his wrist back to a ninety-degree angle, then even farther. The man instantly dropped to his knees in an attempt to keep her from breaking his wrist, and let out a low exclamation of pain. It was more from surprise than pain, she guessed, but he didn't sound happy.
The arm across her throat tensed, and suddenly she found herself choking, gasping for breath. Acting entirely on instinct, she drove her left elbow into the gut of her attacker. The arm around her neck immediately loosened slightly as the guy bent over slightly, and she drew in a welcome breath of air. Before he could recover and tighten his hold again, Julia dropped to her knees, pulling him down with her, and then threw all of her energy forward, projecting outward. She ended up curled in a ball on the ground while the man flew over her head, landing heavily on the ground in front of her.
:Well, he doesn't know how to fall,: the nonsensical thought passed through her mind as she saw him scrape his hands open on the concrete. Then she wondered if it was just her, or if everyone made inane observations when they were tense.
Then she noticed that she was kneeling on the ground next to the guy who'd attempted to drug her.
"You bitch!" he exclaimed, grabbing her right arm and hauling her towards him.
Refusing to let him control her center, Julia pushed her hand to the ground, putting all of her weight on it, then using it as a pivot as she swung her body around and kicked him in the stomach as hard as she could. His eyes bulged and he attempted to curl his entire body around his stomach.
Julia scrambled to her feet. The guy who'd grabbed her was already back on his feet, looking rather less than amused, and the other five were eyeing each other and her, as if they were trying to figure out who should attack her first. :I can't fight all of them.: Julia took a deep breath and then yelled, "Help!" at the top of her lungs. They wouldn't try to kidnap her with witnesses around, would they?
Then she had a horrible thought: what if someone came, and they hurt them? Was she just drawing others into danger? A kidnapping on a public street in the middle of the day was pretty risky, maybe the kidnappers were willing to deal with some witnesses.
One of the men suddenly rushed at her, and she realized that she'd automatically taken up a defensive position when she regained her feet. He grabbed at her right arm, which was leading, and she automatically did a tenkan, pivoting on her right foot and moving towards him until she was standing beside him, where he couldn't easily strike at her. Then she grabbed his wrist and stepped back away from him, her body automatically moving to do a kotegaeshi. She kicked him in the groin as he stretched out slightly to relieve the pressure on his wrist, and her foot encountered something entirely too solid to just be flesh. He didn't go down, so she continued twisting his wrist, trying to force him to fall, the way she had with the first man.
In her dojo, everyone was part of a group that worked together to learn. They were not and would never be enemies, and had no desire to hurt each other. Julia had been training most of her life, and was one of the most advanced students in the class. When practicing, she was always very careful not to throw them too hard, because it was possible to seriously injure a person without meaning to. She only threw a person hard if she knew they could take the fall, if she had seen them practicing and was satisfied that she wouldn't hurt them.
For the first time in her life, Julia threw a person without knowing if they could take the fall.
He couldn't. He didn't know how to fall properly. She knew that the instant she applied pressure, and he just stood there, instead of using the force she was applying to throw himself, to relieve the pressure on his wrist. As the pressure increased, his body responded to it the only way it could - by breaking.
Julia actually felt the bones in his wrist snap, and reacting instantly, released his hand before she could do any more damage. Then he started screaming. :Oh god, he's screaming because of me... why won't he shut up... he's screaming... I hurt him... he's screaming...: Thoughts tumbled over and over in her mind, mingling together. And he wouldn't stop screaming.
"Julia!" She turned automatically when someone called her name, and saw Hidaka Sensei and most of her aikido class streaming out onto the street, still with bare feet. They must have come right from the mat when they heard her call.
There were still two thugs between herself and the class. She immediately threw herself at the right-hand man, who took a step back when she moved towards him, flinching slightly. She felt a deep stab of guilt and pushed it back, then threw her bag as hard as she could at the man. It hit him and he stumbled backwards several feet. That was enough of an opening for her, she immediately darted through it, running for the relative safety of her friends. They immediately closed ranks around her as she joined them, and Sensei, John, and the rest of the senior students placed themselves between her and the thugs.
The one she'd kicked was still curled up in a ball on the ground, and the one whose wrist she'd broken was crouched on the ground too, clutching his arm to his chest, teeth gritted in an attempt to keep from screaming. For a second it looked like the five remaining thugs were going to charge them. :No, please, not that...: Julia would almost prefer to go with them then be responsible for any of her classmates getting hurt.
"Go. Now." Julia blinked at the quietly uttered words, then glanced at Sensei, who was staring evenly at them, his brows narrowed slightly. He sounded entirely immovable, and very threatening. She suddenly remembered that he'd fought in the war, too. She didn't even know what side he'd been on.
The look on his face and his soft words must have convinced them, because they suddenly decided that it wasn't worth trying to get through him to get at her, especially after she'd proved so difficult to grab on her own. Instead, one of them helped the man with the broken wrist to his feet, while two more lifted the first man into a vertical position, throwing his arms over their shoulders. Then they quietly retreated, disappearing around the corner. Julia stared at the corner for a long time after they left, not trusting that they weren't going to come back, maybe with more men, but after a minute, she decided that maybe they really were gone.
Suddenly someone grabbed her shoulders, spinning her around, and Julia raised her hands defensively before she realized that it was John. He was staring at her with wide eyes, his face more than a little pale. "Julia? Are you all right?"
"Yes. They didn't touch me..." Julia cut herself off when she realized that she was never going to get away with such an obvious lie. "I mean, they didn't hurt me. I'm all right," she finished with a quick nod of her head, as if to underscore her words. Maybe then she could relax a little, and her muscles would unclench. She could feel the tension in her entire body. Strangely enough, her heart was not racing, and her breathing was steady.
He embraced her, and Julia stiffened. She wasn't used to being hugged by anyone other than Daddy. Tousan didn't hug much - it wasn't that he didn't care, he just didn't do it very much. The only other people who ever hugged her were the members of her extended family, who she saw only three or four times a year. John hugging her didn't feel anything like Daddy hugging her. Not bad, but it was a surprise.
John felt her stiffen and immediately pulled back. "I'm sorry," he immediately apologized.
"No, it's all right, you just surprised me," Julia said, shaking her head and feeling like a complete asshole for making him feel guilty when he'd just been trying to reassure her.
That seemed to break the tension, and suddenly there were what seemed like a thousand voices tumbling over each other, trying to figure out what was going on and asking *her*, as if *she* had any of the answers. Julia slapped her hands to her ears in an automatic protective gesture, trying to blot out some of the sound. She heard Sensei's voice rising above the din, ordering everyone to be quiet, and mercifully, the sound died down. He ordered everyone to go inside, and she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, guiding her inside the dojo.
The hand guided her through the front entryway and then onto the mat, heading for the small room at the back of the dojo where Sensei kept his things. She had a brief, irrational flash of worry that she was on the mat in her shoes, and she was getting it all dirty. They did have to practice on this mat, and it was never pleasant to have your face pressed against something covered in dirt...
That thought led her back to the fight, the sight of the man flying over her head and scraping his palms open on the street when he didn't roll with the fall. He'd actually left a few small spots of blood on the street, she realized now. She could see them quite clearly in her mind. Not for the first time, she cursed her practically perfect memory.
By then she was in Sensei's office, and the hand on her shoulder guided her to a seat, pressing her firmly into it. The door closed, and Julia cautiously removed her hands from her ears, relieved that her hearing hadn't gone nuts. She looked around the small room, noting the neat desk, the rack that held various bokkens of different sizes and lengths, along with a couple of jos. There was a large picture of O Sensei hanging on the wall, along with smaller pictures of his descendants, from his son back in the late twentieth century (prior to AC reckoning), all the way to the latest. Julia knew that the latest descendant was an old man, and that his only son had been killed during the war. There was a lot of quiet worry about who would become the new leader of the discipline when he died.
"John, please call the police," Sensei said quietly.
John looked startled for a moment, then nodded. "Hai, Sensei," he said with a slight bow, before turning to the phone on the desk and dialing a number. She saw him staring intently at the tiny screen in the unit, and after a moment heard a soft conversation between them. He was trying to talk quietly enough so that she couldn't hear him; he couldn't know that it was impossible to do with her this close. She determinedly blocked him out of her mind, not wanting to hear the conversation, and was grateful when Sensei began talking to her, giving her something else to focus on.
"Julia..." he began slowly, carefully, as if not certain if she was entirely there. Well, now that she thought about it, she wasn't so sure, either. "How can I contact your parents? Are they at work..." he trailed off uncertainly.
"Tousan will be at work," she said matter-of-factly. "Daddy could either be at the shop or at home, working."
"What are their numbers? I'm going to call them and have them come here," Sensei explained slowly.
Julia blinked, then gave him the numbers. He nodded slightly as John hung up the phone.
"Uh, they're sending someone down here now," John told them.
Sensei nodded. "I'm going to call her fathers now," he said to John like she wasn't there, listening to them. Then Sensei gave John a significant look before flicking his eyes towards Julia. She fought down a hint of irritation. She wasn't an idiot, she was just a little... um... off, right now. Yes, that was a good word for it. But she didn't need them treating her like a child.
As Sensei moved towards the phone, John sat down in the seat next to her. "Do you have any idea who they were?" he asked after a second. "The policeman's going to want to know," he added, as if trying to justify his curiosity. "Were they just trying to mug you, or..." he trailed off with a wince, as if he was just realizing what other options might have been. A lone girl with seven men was not a pretty picture.
"They were trying to kidnap me," Julia declared, amazed at how calm her own voice sounded.
"What? How do you... I mean, are you sure?"
"They knew me by name," Julia replied. "And they were following me. I think they've been following me for weeks," she added, doing a quick mental search for the faces that were now permanently burned into her eyeballs. She quickly realized she was right, now that she looked for them, she could see their faces jumping out of the crowds around her, almost every time she'd been outside in the last three weeks, ever since she returned from vacation.
"They did?! But... why?" John asked, voicing the question that was at the top of her mind.
"I don't know."
---------
Her fathers arrived at almost the same time, about ten minutes after a rather unsympathetic detective arrived. It wasn't so much that he was cold, as though he didn't quite know what to make of her. Here she was, one teenage girl, who'd apparently managed to fight off seven (admittedly unskilled) attackers, who was outwardly calm and insisting that not only had they been trying to kidnap her now, but that they'd been following her for weeks. If she'd been him, she would have been confused and doubtful as well. But from where she was standing, it was just irritating, frustrating, and she was about to start crying. She hated that, it made her feel like a baby.
"Julia!" her head snapped up as she heard her Daddy's voice. As he entered the office she threw herself into his arms, clinging to his shirt. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you? Where are they? Are you all right?" the questions tumbled from his mouth, one after another, not giving her a chance to answer any of them.
Right on his heels was Tousan. His face could have been carved from ice, it was so cold and unchanging. But Julia knew the expression was not directed at her when he placed a hand uncertainly on her shoulder. His other hand he placed on Daddy's shoulder, stopping the flow of words. "Are you all right?"
Julia nodded. She was fine, now that they were here.
"Are you her parents?" the detective asked, disapproval in his voice as he looked at the two men. Julia felt a bit of hysterical laughter bubble up in her throat. :Great. All the detectives in the world, and we have to get the skeptic homophobe.:
"Yes, we are," Daddy said coldly, his arms tightening around her slightly. "And who are you?"
"Detective Mark Peters," he said, flashing his credentials. "I've been sent to find out the facts of this... incident."
"Incident? Is that what they're calling attempted kidnapping nowadays?" John muttered bitterly. Sensei had left him with her while the older man went to deal with the questions of the class, giving them as vague an explanation as possible and sending them home as quickly as he was able. That meant the John had been with her when the detective had started asking questions, and his dislike of the officer was becoming more and more pronounced as time passed. Julia wouldn't have cared except that the detective did not seem amused by his comments, and she didn't want him getting in trouble.
"Kidnapping?!" Duo screeched, his voice rising about five octaves.
"We're not certain what, exactly, happened..." the detective started, but Tousan had already dismissed him from consideration.
He turned to Julia, eyes worried even though his face was expressionless as always. "What happened?" he asked flatly.
"They were after me," she said, shooting the detective an angry glance. "They knew my name, and they've been following me for weeks." Unlike the detective, her fathers accepted this statement at face value. They knew what she could do, unlike the detective or John. Even John had been a little uncertain about her claim that she'd seen them before. "The one in the lead asked me if I was Julia Maxwell-Yuy, and then he told the rest to take me. They had some cloth that smelled very sweet, and the tried to press it to my face."
Daddy glared at the detective. "And what the hell are you doing about this?" he demanded angrily.
"It will take some time to verify..." the detective started, then trailed off at the expressions on her parents' faces. Julia glanced at them, and even though she knew that they were doing this because they were concerned about her, she shivered at the stone-cold expressions on both their faces. Was this what some unlucky Oz pilots had seen just before they died? Julia hugged Daddy, then reached out and touched Tousan. Daddy made a visible effort to calm down, smiling at her, and Tousan blinked once. His expression didn't change, but at least he stopped staring at the poor detective.
She regretted her action a few seconds later when the detective seemed to gather himself, now that they weren't staring at him anymore, and continued, "In any case, this is now a police investigation. I understand that you're concern, but we will handle the issue..."
"No you won't," said a familiar voice. Julia turned towards the door and saw... Wufei?
He was dressed in his Preventers uniform, and the look he threw at the detective was openly scornful. "This is no longer a civil issue, we will be taking over. You may go."
*That* got a reaction. "What? Who the hell do you think you are?" the detective demanded, eyes bulging.
Wufei frowned slightly, then removed some identification from his pocket. "Chang Wufei, Class A Preventer Agent," he informed the man shortly. "I am taking over this investigation."
"What gives you jurisdiction? And why the hell are the Preventers interested in some kid?" he demanded.
"Any criminal activity involving Preventers or their families may fall under the jurisdiction of the Preventers," Wufei stated, sounding as if he was quoting something. "Especially if said criminal activity is thought to have any bearing on a current investigation," he finished with a smirk.
"Preventers or their families? You trying to tell me that she's related to a Preventer?" the detective asked skeptically.
"Duo Maxwell-Yuy and Heero Maxwell-Yuy are both reserve members of the Preventers, inactive agents who can be called upon in times of need. As such they qualify. Do you have any other objections?"
The detective looked as though he would like to object - a lot - but both Daddy and Tousan turned on those threatening stares again, and the detective decided it wasn't worth the trouble. "Fine. Fucking government officials," he muttered as he left.
Wufei watched him go without comment, then turned to John, who was watching the proceedings with open-faced confusion. "Who are you?" he asked.
"John Ellis," he replied promptly, apparently deciding that he didn't want Wufei irritated with him (or maybe it was her parents he didn't want to irritate).
"He's a friend of mine," Julia said quickly. "He's just been keeping me company."
Wufei didn't outwardly react to her statement, although his eyes flicked to her quickly and she thought she saw a hint of understanding there. Her observation was confirmed when the next thing he said was, "I'm sorry, but this is official business. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Not much, but his face was clear of scorn and he hadn't insulted John once yet. It was a rather large concession for him.
John nodded. "I understand." He turned to Julia. "If you need anything, just call me. Oh, and Margaret got your bag for you, it's just outside the door," he added as he got up and left, casting a curious look at all of the men as he left.
"Thanks, Wu-man," Daddy muttered under his breath as soon as the door closed. "How'd you get here so fast, anyway?"
"We got lucky," Wufei informed him. "I was in the area collecting some information, and I'd just finished when you called me." He turned to look at Julia. "Are you all right?"
Julia was getting tired of people asking her that. "Yes. I was just a little... shaken, before. I'm fine now."
"You're sure it was a kidnapping attempt?" Wufei asked. She wasn't sure if the question was directed at her or her parents, but she answered.
"They knew me by name," she repeated. Again. "And they've been following me for weeks."
"How do you know?" he asked, instead of immediately disbelieving her.
"I got a good look at them today," Julia explained. "And I've been going through my memories of the last few weeks. Every time I was outside, I can place at least one of them somewhere nearby, watching me. I spotted one of them watching me three weeks ago, too." It was rather unpleasant, now that she had time to think about it, knowing that they'd been watching her all this time.
"Mmm." Wufei probably didn't know the full extent of her abilities, but he was her uncle, so he did know that she was a genius. And he knew that she wouldn't lie or exaggerate her abilities. "You got a good look at them?"
"Yes," she replied cautiously.
"If I get an artist down here, could you give him a description of them?"
Julia swallowed. She really didn't like talking about her abilities, but she could do a better job than any artist could, and she wanted those men caught. She didn't want them free, watching her again. "I... there's no need. I can draw their faces myself. Just get me a pad and some pencils."
Wufei raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Instead, he walked over to Sensei's desk and pulled a large pad off of the top of it, along with a couple of pencils. He silently offered them to her, and she started drawing. Drafting images from memory wasn't so hard - she'd never tried doing faces before, but if she thought about them as a series of lines, instead of trying to picture the whole face at once, it came as easily to her as regular drawing had.
It didn't require all of her attention, once she got started, so she started talking. "You called him on the way over?" she asked her parents.
"I did," Tousan affirmed.
"There was no way we were going to leave this in the hands of idiots like that guy," Daddy agreed.
"Are you really reserve members of the Preventers?" she asked as she put the final touches on the first picture. It was a fairly accurate representation, even if it was still a rough sketch. "Here," she handed the picture of the man whose wrist she'd broken to Wufei. For some reason his face was sticking in her mind worst of all. "Can you use this?"
"Yes," he answered, studying it critically as she started on the second picture, this one of the leader.
"I'm not sure what our official status is," Daddy confessed. "We haven't taken an active mission since you were born, though."
"Why not? And what's an active mission?"
"Active mission is us in the field, fighting, making sure people don't try to bring back mobile suit wars or something equally stupid," Daddy told her. "And we don't do them because they're dangerous. Both of us grew up without parents, and we're not letting that happen to you," he said fiercely.
"Oh," Julia said softly, humbled by the attention.
"You are both reserves, although Une knows what would happen if she ever tried to put you on active duty," Wufei informed them. "That detective can lodge all the protests he wants, but we're covered there."
"Um... Why, exactly, are they still reserves?" Julia asked, feeling as if she was asking a very stupid question but not seeing the answer herself.
"So that we could have jurisdiction if anything ever happened," Wufei answered simply. "Technically, Quatre and Trowa are reserves, too."
"Have you ever had to... take over an investigation involving one of them?"
"Most of the legal difficulties Winner runs into involve that company of his," Wufei replied. "Those aren't any concern of ours."
:That doesn't really answer the question,: Julia thought, then dismissed the question from her mind. It wasn't really any of her business.
"Here." She handed him the second picture, of the leader. He glanced at it once, then took a second, longer look. His skin turned slightly pale under the darker tones - that wasn't a good sign. "What?"
"Julia... are you sure this is what one of them looked like?" he asked, holding her own picture in front of her.
"Yes."
"Do you remember anything else about him?"
"What's going on, Wu?" Daddy asked suspiciously.
Wufei ignored him, all of his attention focused on Julia. It wasn't entirely a pleasant feeling. She closed her eyes so she could review the image in her mind without any distractions. "Um... he had a scar on his right forearm," she said, tracing a line along the outside of her own arm. "About 6' 4'', pretty ratty clothes. That's it."
She opened his eyes and saw that now he had his eyes closed. "Do you know who he is?" she asked nervously, not liking the implications. If he knew him, it meant that the Preventers had to be investigating him, and that meant that he wasn't a common thug. She'd known that they weren't just muggers, but if the Preventers were involved...
Wufei didn't answer her, and Daddy tightened his grip on her slightly. "Wu?" he asked, his voice slightly warning.
"His name is Brandon Stevens," Wufei said with a sigh. "We know of him because we've frequently seen him in the company of Miles Harris."
Julia didn't recognize either of the names, but her parents did, she guessed as the tension in the room suddenly intensified by several notches. "Who is he?" she asked into the silence that followed.
"Julia, I don't know if you remember this, but right around the time you found out about us, the Preventers made an announcement that they'd managed to find the people who'd been trying to build mobile suits?" Daddy asked.
Resisting the urge to tell him that she remembered everything, she nodded. "Tousan traced the electronic trail, right?"
Daddy nodded, not looking particularly surprised that she'd made that connection. Wufei, on the other hand, frowned slightly and glanced at Tousan, as if accusing him of telling her. "Yeah, well the guy in charge of that particular idiocy was Miles Harris."
Oh. That explained why they were so tense. "And this guy... spent a lot of time with him?"
"Apparently," Daddy muttered. "I thought you had all of them in custody," he said accusingly.
"We have most of them," Wufei admitted. "Including Harris. There are only a dozen or so unaccounted for in an organization of hundreds."
"Let me guess, this Stevens guy is one of them," Daddy said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
Wufei nodded, but he suddenly seemed to be avoiding their eyes. Julia watched him carefully, noticing the way his eyes slid over them like they weren't even there. "Wu..." Daddy repeated in exactly the same tone as before. "What is it?"
"It's official business," he said suddenly, moving towards the door.
Tousan was suddenly standing between him and the door, a hand on Wufei's arm, and he wasn't even trying to hide how angry he was. "What. Do. You. Know," he ground out, biting off every word.
Wufei looked down at the hand clutching his arm, and Julia didn't need to be told that if Wufei hadn't also been a Gundam pilot, the grip Tousan had on his arm would probably have been enough to break the bones. His lips flattened into a thin line, and he lowered his head for several seconds. Finally he raised it, and, still not looking at them, said, "We heard rumors that they were looking for you."
"What?!" Daddy said, unconsciously (probably) turning his body so that it was between Julia and Wufei. "You knew? You knew about this and didn't tell us?!" he was shouting now, and Julia winced away from the sound. She wanted to stay where she was, with him hugging her, but his yelling hurt her ears.
"Daddy..." she said in a voice that sounded far too much like a whimper. She was *not* going to break down now!
Daddy glanced at her, and immediately lowered his voice, although the anger didn't leave his face. "Sorry, Julie," he said in a voice hardly above a whisper, before turning back to Wufei and continuing in an almost-normal voice that was just as frightening as his yelling. "You knew that this guy was... after our family, and you didn't tell us?"
"No!" Wufei loudly denied. "We didn't know that! All we had were rumors of rumors... We'd heard that they were looking for you, only you. There was no indication that they'd found you, or that they were going to do anything about it." Julia could feel some - but only some - of the anger draining out of her father. Wufei took a deep breath, then continued, his voice an odd combination of pleading and firm. "If there'd been any indication, any at all, that Julia was in danger, I would have told you, regulations be damned!"
Daddy's head drooped for a second, and when it came up, he had a faint smile on his face. "Sorry, Wu," he apologized. "It's just when Julia's involved..." he gave her a little squeeze.
"I understand," Wufei said stiffly. He was almost as bad about showing emotion as Tousan was. Almost.
"I want to see what you have," Tousan demanded quietly.
Wufei seemed relieved at the shift to the less emotional topic, and nodded sharply. "I'll see to it that you're assigned officially to this case. Then you'll have full access to everything we have, and you can have whatever resources you need."
"What... what about now?" Julia asked, trying not to sound as if she was whimpering or whining. "They ran off... are they going to... come back?" She couldn't quite bring herself to say the words, 'for me.'
Even as Daddy's arms tightened around her again, Wufei was shaking his head. "We'll protect you. I'll have someone assigned to you twenty-four hours a day, to escort you wherever you need to go, and keep an eye out while you're there."
"You're going to have someone following me around?"
"If you want, I'll stay with you," Daddy immediately told her.
Julia swallowed, then shook her head. "No. I... I'm not letting them run my life. Or yours. You're not going to spend all of your time following me around. I'll be fine." Maybe if she said it enough times she'd convince herself.
----------
Julia swore to herself as, once again, she managed to poke herself in the head with one of the bobby-pins. She pulled the offending pin out of her hair, somehow managing *not* to tangle it or rip several strands out by the roots, the way she had several times already. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. OK, she was nervous, she could admit that, but this was absolutely ridiculous. It was just a bunch of teachers. She'd had half of them at one point or another. She took a deep breath and once again attempted to place the pin. This time it slid smoothly into her hair and stayed there, holding her hair in place without attempting to gouge large bits of skin out of her head. Cautiously turning her head back and forth, she breathed a sigh of relief when her hair stayed pretty much in place. At least that chore was out of the way...
Today was the day she was presenting her project to a small panel of teachers, who would question her work and determine a good part of her grade on it. She was excited beyond belief, and not a little bit nervous.
There was a soft knock on the door, and she automatically called, "Come in!"
The door opened, revealing Daddy. "I just wanted to..." he started, then trailed off, staring at her.
Julia glanced to either side of her to make sure that he actually was staring at her, then smiled self-consciously. "What are you looking at?"
"You," he said simply. "You look beautiful."
Julia glanced at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a pair of nice pants, instead of jeans, and an embroidered blouse. Her hair was presentable, and she'd actually taken the time to put on a little makeup. She guessed that she looked all right. "Did I ever mention how much I hate makeup?" she asked, trying to hide the blush of pleasure at his words.
"Just over and over and over and over and over..."
"All right, I get it!" she exclaimed, throwing a book at him.
He easily caught it, and tossed it on her bed. "You nervous?"
"Just a little," she confessed.
"Don't be, you're going to do great."
"Easy for you to say, you never went to school!" Julia glanced at her father, wondering if she'd gone too far, but he just grinned.
"Technically, I've been to dozens of schools," he told her. "I just only stayed in them for a few days."
"That doesn't count!" she told him, scooping up her backpack and glancing at the clock. "And if I don't leave soon, I'm going to be late!"
"I just came up to tell you that Scott's here."
"Thanks! I love you Daddy, see you later!" she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and bolted down the stairs.
Scott Ido, one of the three Preventers who took turns guarding her, was waiting on the front step. "Today's the day?" he asked with a grin, observing her outfit. She felt a little sorry for him, she'd been a little excited about finally getting to present her project, so she'd been talking about it non-stop to anyone who would stand still. Unfortunately for her guards, they *had* to be around her, so she imagined that they had to be pretty tired of hearing about it.
She nodded as they started walking towards her school.
It was really amazing what you could get used to. A month ago, the idea of her having a guard would have been absolutely ridiculous. Now...
She didn't know how long it was going to last. This had to end at some point, but after over three weeks, the Preventers (and her fathers) had been unable to find Stevens or his men. They'd found out that Stevens wasn't particularly high in the organization, which made their job a lot more difficult, since he wasn't really connected to anything. That was how he'd managed to avoid being picked up in the first sweep, apparently. As far as they could tell, he'd been a bodyguard of some sort, but it was hard to find more information. And the captured members of the group weren't talking.
Julia knew all of this because her fathers had explained it to her, in an attempt to waylay her fears. It hadn't exactly worked, but she tried her best to set her own fears aside. The nightmares that had tormented her in the nights immediately after the attack came rarely now, only once every couple of days instead of multiple times in one night. She didn't think that she'd woken either of her parents in a couple of nights, either.
Despite the fact that they hadn't caught the people who'd attacked her, Julia found herself unable to maintain the level of anxiety she'd had for the first few days after the attack. She'd been jumpy, moody, and altogether unhappy; spinning around to defend herself whenever she heard the slightest unusual noise. But after she'd spun around, only to find the noise that had disturbed her was a dog dragging a large stick across the pavement, she'd made a conscious effort to relax. After a few more days, it had actually begun to work. It was impossible to remain on-edge all the time.
"Are you nervous?" Scott asked, drawing her out of her thoughts.
"Why does everyone ask me that?" she demanded.
"Because you've been talking about nothing else for weeks, and today's finally the day," he responded with a smile. She was glad that Scott was the one guarding her today - he was her favorite of the three guards, and the closest to her own age, even if he was over ten years older than her. The other two looked on her as nothing more than a job, only Scott had taken the time to try to get to know her.
"Yeah, a little," she confessed. "But I'm sure everything will be fine."
"Well, good luck!" he said as they approached the school grounds. As usual, he'd be waiting in a car just off the grounds until school ended, then he'd walk her home, or anywhere else she needed to go. Julia had had several lectures on not wandering off without her guard while she was at school.
"Thanks!" she called, sprinting towards the door as she heard the late bell ringing.
----------
"So how'd it go?" Scott asked as soon as she exited the school.
"Great!" Julia exclaimed, practically bouncing as she walked down the street. "I mean, Mrs. Kinley wasn't happy... but I don't think that she's going to try to screw me over. The teachers on the panel were great! They were actually listening to what I was saying, and not just judging me because of what my topic was," she told him in a rush. "I don't think Mr. O'Donnel was *happy* with the conclusions I came to, but he said that all of the research was solid. And Mrs. Danahy... she was amazing! She asked all the right questions, and I think that she loved the interview at the end!"
Scott grinned at her. "So I guess it went well?"
Julia restrained the urge to smack him and grinned back instead. "At least I won't have to worry about it anymore. And... oh, this was just so great!" she exclaimed.
"Hey, if you don't mind, sometime I'd..." he suddenly stiffened and stopped walking.
Julia immediately turned. "What?"
His face was very white as his legs seemed to collapse out from under him, and he bonelessly slumped to the ground beside her. "Scott!" she exclaimed, dropping to one knee beside him.
Suddenly there was a sharp stinging pain in her shoulder. "Ow!" she exclaimed, reflexively slapping a hand against her shoulder. Her hand encountered some fuzz and something metallic. She looked down and saw a small dart sticking out of her shoulder. :Oh God.: She froze, trapped by indecision, as a white van suddenly pulled up next to her. Every instinct for self-preservation that she had was screaming at her to run, but Scott was still lying there on the concrete. She couldn't just leave him...
The side door of the van opened and she involuntarily stumbled back several steps, despite her concern for Scott, as several of the thugs who'd attacked her before climbed out of the van. "You!" she cried.
"Damn it, you must have missed," one of them muttered. "Shoot her!"
Another one raised a small gun and fired. Julia gasped in pain, tears coming to her eyes, as another dart imbedded itself in her chest. She leaned over, clutching at her chest as a wave of dizziness overtook her, and the world tilted. Suddenly a flash of light appeared before her eyes as they tilted upwards slightly, and she threw up her arms to protect her eyes. There was a thunderous sound in front of her, like a gun being fired, and it wasn't for a full second after the sound faded that she realized that her control over her hearing was gone, and the noise she'd heard had been someone's feet landing on the ground as they jumped out of the van. "No..." she moaned, then fell silent as her own voice grated in her ears.
She clapped both hands to her ears, trying to stifle some of the thousands of sounds that were now battering at her ears from all directions. Her eyes were tightly closed, but lights dazzled her eyes, and she couldn't have seen anything even if she did open her eyes.
A third dart hit her, and that was when she discovered that her skin was highly sensitized as well. She swore she could feel every millimeter of the needle penetrating her skin, could feel it wiggling around as she moved, disturbing the delicate tissues...
It was almost a relief when the blackness rose up to swallow her, except for her overwhelming terror of what they were going to do to her...
---------
Duo was sitting on his bed, a laptop computer in front of him, checking over the latest data that Wufei had sent them. :Look at me, hunched over this thing like an ape. Betcha I look just like Heero.: He snorted and then pushed the laptop away from himself and got up off the bed. There was nothing new here. There was something that just didn't add up here. He was too high in the organization for there to be as little information on him as there was, and (if he really was some sort of bodyguard, which Duo doubted) too low to have the kind of resources he needed to hide from three determined Gundam pilots.
Stretching his arms above his head, Duo glanced at the clock. Julia should be home from school soon, assuming that she didn't decide to go somewhere after school again. He grimaced; she was having a lot of trouble adjusting to not being able to go wherever she wanted without letting anyone know. All the more reason to get back to work, to find the bastard so that they could dispense with the bodyguards. With a sigh, he turned back to the bed. Even during the war, research had never been his strength.
The phone rang, and he immediately turned to answer it, feeling more than a little guilty at how eager he was to avoid the work. Heero did this all day long, every day...
:Yeah, but he likes it,: he reminded himself, then hit the button to pick up the phone. "Hiya!"
The smile on his face immediately died as he observed the look on Trowa's face. His lips were pressed together, their were faint stress lines around his eyes, and he looked even paler than normal. The last time Duo had seen him look like that was when Katie's powers were going crazy and Quatre had to move out of the house or risk driving Katie insane. The last time before that had been when Trowa lost his memories during the war. "What's wrong?"
"It's Katie. And Quatre. They just collapsed. Quatre's still unconscious. Katie insisted that I call you..."
"Let me talk to him," said a harsh voice. Trowa started to protest, but the voice continued, "Help Quatre. He's going to need sugar, and a lot of it, when he wakes up. He threw everything he had into protecting me. I'll be fine."
Trowa looked as though he would very much like to protest, but for some reason, he did not, standing up and moving out of range of the screen. A second later Katie took his place. Duo's jaw dropped. She looked absolutely horrible - her skin was so pale it was practically translucent, and it looked like it was hanging off her bones. Add to that the huge black circles under her eyes... "Katie! What's been happening?"
"I haven't been sleeping well lately," she replied with massive understatement, and he was shocked to realize that the harsh voice he'd heard earlier was hers. :Since when does she refer to her father by his first name?:
"What happened? Is Quat OK?" he asked worriedly.
"Quatre will be fine. It's Julia, they've got her."
Duo felt his stomach clench in on itself. "What?!"
"They have her. They just grabbed her, a half hour ago. I'm sorry, I would have called..."
"Wait a second, what are you talking about? How did you know..."
"I'm a psychic, Duo," Katie said harshly, cutting him off. "And Julia's my sister. There's no way I couldn't be aware of her. And she just screamed loudly enough that I heard her here. And now she's gone. They've got her."
Duo was moving towards the closet before he was even consciously aware of a decision. After the first kidnapping attempt, Heero had moved the lockbox with their guns downstairs, to this closet. It took only a few seconds and his gun was out of the box, loaded and tucked into the back of his pants. It was horrible, how easily it seemed to fit there, how familiar and reassuring the weight of the metal was...
"You said it was a half-hour ago?" he asked, turning his head back towards the screen as he pocketed Heero's gun.
Katie glanced off-screen for a second. "Yes. Maybe a little less. And Duo..."
"What?" he growled, pausing on his way out the door.
"I think she lost control of her powers right before they knocked her out."
Duo became very still. He could hear his own pounding heart. "They knocked her out?"
Katie nodded, looking miserable. "It's the only thing that could account for what I heard. But if she did lose control... she may need a lot of help, and soon."
Duo tried to swallow past the lump in his throat, and settled for a curt nod. "Thanks."
He raced out the door, already reaching into the pocket of his jacket for a cell phone, so that he could call Heero and let him know what had happened. And then he was going to find his daughter. :I can't lose her, I just can't. Not again.:
OK. Before the death threats begin, I am sorry, and I already have my mother yelling at me for ending things here. It just really had to end here, simple as that. Things are going to get better... eventually.
Anyway, notes on the chapter. I hope that the fight scene came out all right. I had it mapped out in my head, and I think it would work, but I can't be sure without getting a couple of people to enact it for me, and that wasn't going to happen. I was trying to use some of the right language with enough description so that people who don't recognize it will be able to follow along.
After rereading this, I sort of feel like it was an even meaner thing to do, sticking that light section in between the two kidnapping sections. Oh well. There's a lot of action in the next chapter, and some things that I planted earlier in the story (much earlier) will finally start to come together. Hope you're enjoying the trip so far!
Marika 2/1/02
Julia took an unconscious step backwards at the open malice on his face. She heard one of the heartbeats behind her grow closer, and suddenly one of them reached around in front of her, hooking his arm around her neck and bracing it with his other arm. He wasn't choking her, not yet, but he could very easily.
Suddenly she caught a whiff of something very sweet, and saw the man who'd spoken before pulling something out of his pocket. It was a small plastic bag with a bit of white cloth in it. Grinning openly now, he looked at her and started walking over. As he reached her, he raised the cloth towards her face, and the smell got much stronger.
"No..." Julia didn't know what was going on, but she knew she didn't want that thing pressed against her face. She had the strong suspicion that it was something that would knock her out or worse.
She raised a hand, intending to just push her hand away, but her body hadn't forgotten the years of training, even if her mind wasn't functioning properly right now. Instead of just pushing his hand away, she grabbed the palm of his hand and pushed, forcing his wrist back to a ninety-degree angle, then even farther. The man instantly dropped to his knees in an attempt to keep her from breaking his wrist, and let out a low exclamation of pain. It was more from surprise than pain, she guessed, but he didn't sound happy.
The arm across her throat tensed, and suddenly she found herself choking, gasping for breath. Acting entirely on instinct, she drove her left elbow into the gut of her attacker. The arm around her neck immediately loosened slightly as the guy bent over slightly, and she drew in a welcome breath of air. Before he could recover and tighten his hold again, Julia dropped to her knees, pulling him down with her, and then threw all of her energy forward, projecting outward. She ended up curled in a ball on the ground while the man flew over her head, landing heavily on the ground in front of her.
:Well, he doesn't know how to fall,: the nonsensical thought passed through her mind as she saw him scrape his hands open on the concrete. Then she wondered if it was just her, or if everyone made inane observations when they were tense.
Then she noticed that she was kneeling on the ground next to the guy who'd attempted to drug her.
"You bitch!" he exclaimed, grabbing her right arm and hauling her towards him.
Refusing to let him control her center, Julia pushed her hand to the ground, putting all of her weight on it, then using it as a pivot as she swung her body around and kicked him in the stomach as hard as she could. His eyes bulged and he attempted to curl his entire body around his stomach.
Julia scrambled to her feet. The guy who'd grabbed her was already back on his feet, looking rather less than amused, and the other five were eyeing each other and her, as if they were trying to figure out who should attack her first. :I can't fight all of them.: Julia took a deep breath and then yelled, "Help!" at the top of her lungs. They wouldn't try to kidnap her with witnesses around, would they?
Then she had a horrible thought: what if someone came, and they hurt them? Was she just drawing others into danger? A kidnapping on a public street in the middle of the day was pretty risky, maybe the kidnappers were willing to deal with some witnesses.
One of the men suddenly rushed at her, and she realized that she'd automatically taken up a defensive position when she regained her feet. He grabbed at her right arm, which was leading, and she automatically did a tenkan, pivoting on her right foot and moving towards him until she was standing beside him, where he couldn't easily strike at her. Then she grabbed his wrist and stepped back away from him, her body automatically moving to do a kotegaeshi. She kicked him in the groin as he stretched out slightly to relieve the pressure on his wrist, and her foot encountered something entirely too solid to just be flesh. He didn't go down, so she continued twisting his wrist, trying to force him to fall, the way she had with the first man.
In her dojo, everyone was part of a group that worked together to learn. They were not and would never be enemies, and had no desire to hurt each other. Julia had been training most of her life, and was one of the most advanced students in the class. When practicing, she was always very careful not to throw them too hard, because it was possible to seriously injure a person without meaning to. She only threw a person hard if she knew they could take the fall, if she had seen them practicing and was satisfied that she wouldn't hurt them.
For the first time in her life, Julia threw a person without knowing if they could take the fall.
He couldn't. He didn't know how to fall properly. She knew that the instant she applied pressure, and he just stood there, instead of using the force she was applying to throw himself, to relieve the pressure on his wrist. As the pressure increased, his body responded to it the only way it could - by breaking.
Julia actually felt the bones in his wrist snap, and reacting instantly, released his hand before she could do any more damage. Then he started screaming. :Oh god, he's screaming because of me... why won't he shut up... he's screaming... I hurt him... he's screaming...: Thoughts tumbled over and over in her mind, mingling together. And he wouldn't stop screaming.
"Julia!" She turned automatically when someone called her name, and saw Hidaka Sensei and most of her aikido class streaming out onto the street, still with bare feet. They must have come right from the mat when they heard her call.
There were still two thugs between herself and the class. She immediately threw herself at the right-hand man, who took a step back when she moved towards him, flinching slightly. She felt a deep stab of guilt and pushed it back, then threw her bag as hard as she could at the man. It hit him and he stumbled backwards several feet. That was enough of an opening for her, she immediately darted through it, running for the relative safety of her friends. They immediately closed ranks around her as she joined them, and Sensei, John, and the rest of the senior students placed themselves between her and the thugs.
The one she'd kicked was still curled up in a ball on the ground, and the one whose wrist she'd broken was crouched on the ground too, clutching his arm to his chest, teeth gritted in an attempt to keep from screaming. For a second it looked like the five remaining thugs were going to charge them. :No, please, not that...: Julia would almost prefer to go with them then be responsible for any of her classmates getting hurt.
"Go. Now." Julia blinked at the quietly uttered words, then glanced at Sensei, who was staring evenly at them, his brows narrowed slightly. He sounded entirely immovable, and very threatening. She suddenly remembered that he'd fought in the war, too. She didn't even know what side he'd been on.
The look on his face and his soft words must have convinced them, because they suddenly decided that it wasn't worth trying to get through him to get at her, especially after she'd proved so difficult to grab on her own. Instead, one of them helped the man with the broken wrist to his feet, while two more lifted the first man into a vertical position, throwing his arms over their shoulders. Then they quietly retreated, disappearing around the corner. Julia stared at the corner for a long time after they left, not trusting that they weren't going to come back, maybe with more men, but after a minute, she decided that maybe they really were gone.
Suddenly someone grabbed her shoulders, spinning her around, and Julia raised her hands defensively before she realized that it was John. He was staring at her with wide eyes, his face more than a little pale. "Julia? Are you all right?"
"Yes. They didn't touch me..." Julia cut herself off when she realized that she was never going to get away with such an obvious lie. "I mean, they didn't hurt me. I'm all right," she finished with a quick nod of her head, as if to underscore her words. Maybe then she could relax a little, and her muscles would unclench. She could feel the tension in her entire body. Strangely enough, her heart was not racing, and her breathing was steady.
He embraced her, and Julia stiffened. She wasn't used to being hugged by anyone other than Daddy. Tousan didn't hug much - it wasn't that he didn't care, he just didn't do it very much. The only other people who ever hugged her were the members of her extended family, who she saw only three or four times a year. John hugging her didn't feel anything like Daddy hugging her. Not bad, but it was a surprise.
John felt her stiffen and immediately pulled back. "I'm sorry," he immediately apologized.
"No, it's all right, you just surprised me," Julia said, shaking her head and feeling like a complete asshole for making him feel guilty when he'd just been trying to reassure her.
That seemed to break the tension, and suddenly there were what seemed like a thousand voices tumbling over each other, trying to figure out what was going on and asking *her*, as if *she* had any of the answers. Julia slapped her hands to her ears in an automatic protective gesture, trying to blot out some of the sound. She heard Sensei's voice rising above the din, ordering everyone to be quiet, and mercifully, the sound died down. He ordered everyone to go inside, and she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, guiding her inside the dojo.
The hand guided her through the front entryway and then onto the mat, heading for the small room at the back of the dojo where Sensei kept his things. She had a brief, irrational flash of worry that she was on the mat in her shoes, and she was getting it all dirty. They did have to practice on this mat, and it was never pleasant to have your face pressed against something covered in dirt...
That thought led her back to the fight, the sight of the man flying over her head and scraping his palms open on the street when he didn't roll with the fall. He'd actually left a few small spots of blood on the street, she realized now. She could see them quite clearly in her mind. Not for the first time, she cursed her practically perfect memory.
By then she was in Sensei's office, and the hand on her shoulder guided her to a seat, pressing her firmly into it. The door closed, and Julia cautiously removed her hands from her ears, relieved that her hearing hadn't gone nuts. She looked around the small room, noting the neat desk, the rack that held various bokkens of different sizes and lengths, along with a couple of jos. There was a large picture of O Sensei hanging on the wall, along with smaller pictures of his descendants, from his son back in the late twentieth century (prior to AC reckoning), all the way to the latest. Julia knew that the latest descendant was an old man, and that his only son had been killed during the war. There was a lot of quiet worry about who would become the new leader of the discipline when he died.
"John, please call the police," Sensei said quietly.
John looked startled for a moment, then nodded. "Hai, Sensei," he said with a slight bow, before turning to the phone on the desk and dialing a number. She saw him staring intently at the tiny screen in the unit, and after a moment heard a soft conversation between them. He was trying to talk quietly enough so that she couldn't hear him; he couldn't know that it was impossible to do with her this close. She determinedly blocked him out of her mind, not wanting to hear the conversation, and was grateful when Sensei began talking to her, giving her something else to focus on.
"Julia..." he began slowly, carefully, as if not certain if she was entirely there. Well, now that she thought about it, she wasn't so sure, either. "How can I contact your parents? Are they at work..." he trailed off uncertainly.
"Tousan will be at work," she said matter-of-factly. "Daddy could either be at the shop or at home, working."
"What are their numbers? I'm going to call them and have them come here," Sensei explained slowly.
Julia blinked, then gave him the numbers. He nodded slightly as John hung up the phone.
"Uh, they're sending someone down here now," John told them.
Sensei nodded. "I'm going to call her fathers now," he said to John like she wasn't there, listening to them. Then Sensei gave John a significant look before flicking his eyes towards Julia. She fought down a hint of irritation. She wasn't an idiot, she was just a little... um... off, right now. Yes, that was a good word for it. But she didn't need them treating her like a child.
As Sensei moved towards the phone, John sat down in the seat next to her. "Do you have any idea who they were?" he asked after a second. "The policeman's going to want to know," he added, as if trying to justify his curiosity. "Were they just trying to mug you, or..." he trailed off with a wince, as if he was just realizing what other options might have been. A lone girl with seven men was not a pretty picture.
"They were trying to kidnap me," Julia declared, amazed at how calm her own voice sounded.
"What? How do you... I mean, are you sure?"
"They knew me by name," Julia replied. "And they were following me. I think they've been following me for weeks," she added, doing a quick mental search for the faces that were now permanently burned into her eyeballs. She quickly realized she was right, now that she looked for them, she could see their faces jumping out of the crowds around her, almost every time she'd been outside in the last three weeks, ever since she returned from vacation.
"They did?! But... why?" John asked, voicing the question that was at the top of her mind.
"I don't know."
---------
Her fathers arrived at almost the same time, about ten minutes after a rather unsympathetic detective arrived. It wasn't so much that he was cold, as though he didn't quite know what to make of her. Here she was, one teenage girl, who'd apparently managed to fight off seven (admittedly unskilled) attackers, who was outwardly calm and insisting that not only had they been trying to kidnap her now, but that they'd been following her for weeks. If she'd been him, she would have been confused and doubtful as well. But from where she was standing, it was just irritating, frustrating, and she was about to start crying. She hated that, it made her feel like a baby.
"Julia!" her head snapped up as she heard her Daddy's voice. As he entered the office she threw herself into his arms, clinging to his shirt. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you? Where are they? Are you all right?" the questions tumbled from his mouth, one after another, not giving her a chance to answer any of them.
Right on his heels was Tousan. His face could have been carved from ice, it was so cold and unchanging. But Julia knew the expression was not directed at her when he placed a hand uncertainly on her shoulder. His other hand he placed on Daddy's shoulder, stopping the flow of words. "Are you all right?"
Julia nodded. She was fine, now that they were here.
"Are you her parents?" the detective asked, disapproval in his voice as he looked at the two men. Julia felt a bit of hysterical laughter bubble up in her throat. :Great. All the detectives in the world, and we have to get the skeptic homophobe.:
"Yes, we are," Daddy said coldly, his arms tightening around her slightly. "And who are you?"
"Detective Mark Peters," he said, flashing his credentials. "I've been sent to find out the facts of this... incident."
"Incident? Is that what they're calling attempted kidnapping nowadays?" John muttered bitterly. Sensei had left him with her while the older man went to deal with the questions of the class, giving them as vague an explanation as possible and sending them home as quickly as he was able. That meant the John had been with her when the detective had started asking questions, and his dislike of the officer was becoming more and more pronounced as time passed. Julia wouldn't have cared except that the detective did not seem amused by his comments, and she didn't want him getting in trouble.
"Kidnapping?!" Duo screeched, his voice rising about five octaves.
"We're not certain what, exactly, happened..." the detective started, but Tousan had already dismissed him from consideration.
He turned to Julia, eyes worried even though his face was expressionless as always. "What happened?" he asked flatly.
"They were after me," she said, shooting the detective an angry glance. "They knew my name, and they've been following me for weeks." Unlike the detective, her fathers accepted this statement at face value. They knew what she could do, unlike the detective or John. Even John had been a little uncertain about her claim that she'd seen them before. "The one in the lead asked me if I was Julia Maxwell-Yuy, and then he told the rest to take me. They had some cloth that smelled very sweet, and the tried to press it to my face."
Daddy glared at the detective. "And what the hell are you doing about this?" he demanded angrily.
"It will take some time to verify..." the detective started, then trailed off at the expressions on her parents' faces. Julia glanced at them, and even though she knew that they were doing this because they were concerned about her, she shivered at the stone-cold expressions on both their faces. Was this what some unlucky Oz pilots had seen just before they died? Julia hugged Daddy, then reached out and touched Tousan. Daddy made a visible effort to calm down, smiling at her, and Tousan blinked once. His expression didn't change, but at least he stopped staring at the poor detective.
She regretted her action a few seconds later when the detective seemed to gather himself, now that they weren't staring at him anymore, and continued, "In any case, this is now a police investigation. I understand that you're concern, but we will handle the issue..."
"No you won't," said a familiar voice. Julia turned towards the door and saw... Wufei?
He was dressed in his Preventers uniform, and the look he threw at the detective was openly scornful. "This is no longer a civil issue, we will be taking over. You may go."
*That* got a reaction. "What? Who the hell do you think you are?" the detective demanded, eyes bulging.
Wufei frowned slightly, then removed some identification from his pocket. "Chang Wufei, Class A Preventer Agent," he informed the man shortly. "I am taking over this investigation."
"What gives you jurisdiction? And why the hell are the Preventers interested in some kid?" he demanded.
"Any criminal activity involving Preventers or their families may fall under the jurisdiction of the Preventers," Wufei stated, sounding as if he was quoting something. "Especially if said criminal activity is thought to have any bearing on a current investigation," he finished with a smirk.
"Preventers or their families? You trying to tell me that she's related to a Preventer?" the detective asked skeptically.
"Duo Maxwell-Yuy and Heero Maxwell-Yuy are both reserve members of the Preventers, inactive agents who can be called upon in times of need. As such they qualify. Do you have any other objections?"
The detective looked as though he would like to object - a lot - but both Daddy and Tousan turned on those threatening stares again, and the detective decided it wasn't worth the trouble. "Fine. Fucking government officials," he muttered as he left.
Wufei watched him go without comment, then turned to John, who was watching the proceedings with open-faced confusion. "Who are you?" he asked.
"John Ellis," he replied promptly, apparently deciding that he didn't want Wufei irritated with him (or maybe it was her parents he didn't want to irritate).
"He's a friend of mine," Julia said quickly. "He's just been keeping me company."
Wufei didn't outwardly react to her statement, although his eyes flicked to her quickly and she thought she saw a hint of understanding there. Her observation was confirmed when the next thing he said was, "I'm sorry, but this is official business. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Not much, but his face was clear of scorn and he hadn't insulted John once yet. It was a rather large concession for him.
John nodded. "I understand." He turned to Julia. "If you need anything, just call me. Oh, and Margaret got your bag for you, it's just outside the door," he added as he got up and left, casting a curious look at all of the men as he left.
"Thanks, Wu-man," Daddy muttered under his breath as soon as the door closed. "How'd you get here so fast, anyway?"
"We got lucky," Wufei informed him. "I was in the area collecting some information, and I'd just finished when you called me." He turned to look at Julia. "Are you all right?"
Julia was getting tired of people asking her that. "Yes. I was just a little... shaken, before. I'm fine now."
"You're sure it was a kidnapping attempt?" Wufei asked. She wasn't sure if the question was directed at her or her parents, but she answered.
"They knew me by name," she repeated. Again. "And they've been following me for weeks."
"How do you know?" he asked, instead of immediately disbelieving her.
"I got a good look at them today," Julia explained. "And I've been going through my memories of the last few weeks. Every time I was outside, I can place at least one of them somewhere nearby, watching me. I spotted one of them watching me three weeks ago, too." It was rather unpleasant, now that she had time to think about it, knowing that they'd been watching her all this time.
"Mmm." Wufei probably didn't know the full extent of her abilities, but he was her uncle, so he did know that she was a genius. And he knew that she wouldn't lie or exaggerate her abilities. "You got a good look at them?"
"Yes," she replied cautiously.
"If I get an artist down here, could you give him a description of them?"
Julia swallowed. She really didn't like talking about her abilities, but she could do a better job than any artist could, and she wanted those men caught. She didn't want them free, watching her again. "I... there's no need. I can draw their faces myself. Just get me a pad and some pencils."
Wufei raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Instead, he walked over to Sensei's desk and pulled a large pad off of the top of it, along with a couple of pencils. He silently offered them to her, and she started drawing. Drafting images from memory wasn't so hard - she'd never tried doing faces before, but if she thought about them as a series of lines, instead of trying to picture the whole face at once, it came as easily to her as regular drawing had.
It didn't require all of her attention, once she got started, so she started talking. "You called him on the way over?" she asked her parents.
"I did," Tousan affirmed.
"There was no way we were going to leave this in the hands of idiots like that guy," Daddy agreed.
"Are you really reserve members of the Preventers?" she asked as she put the final touches on the first picture. It was a fairly accurate representation, even if it was still a rough sketch. "Here," she handed the picture of the man whose wrist she'd broken to Wufei. For some reason his face was sticking in her mind worst of all. "Can you use this?"
"Yes," he answered, studying it critically as she started on the second picture, this one of the leader.
"I'm not sure what our official status is," Daddy confessed. "We haven't taken an active mission since you were born, though."
"Why not? And what's an active mission?"
"Active mission is us in the field, fighting, making sure people don't try to bring back mobile suit wars or something equally stupid," Daddy told her. "And we don't do them because they're dangerous. Both of us grew up without parents, and we're not letting that happen to you," he said fiercely.
"Oh," Julia said softly, humbled by the attention.
"You are both reserves, although Une knows what would happen if she ever tried to put you on active duty," Wufei informed them. "That detective can lodge all the protests he wants, but we're covered there."
"Um... Why, exactly, are they still reserves?" Julia asked, feeling as if she was asking a very stupid question but not seeing the answer herself.
"So that we could have jurisdiction if anything ever happened," Wufei answered simply. "Technically, Quatre and Trowa are reserves, too."
"Have you ever had to... take over an investigation involving one of them?"
"Most of the legal difficulties Winner runs into involve that company of his," Wufei replied. "Those aren't any concern of ours."
:That doesn't really answer the question,: Julia thought, then dismissed the question from her mind. It wasn't really any of her business.
"Here." She handed him the second picture, of the leader. He glanced at it once, then took a second, longer look. His skin turned slightly pale under the darker tones - that wasn't a good sign. "What?"
"Julia... are you sure this is what one of them looked like?" he asked, holding her own picture in front of her.
"Yes."
"Do you remember anything else about him?"
"What's going on, Wu?" Daddy asked suspiciously.
Wufei ignored him, all of his attention focused on Julia. It wasn't entirely a pleasant feeling. She closed her eyes so she could review the image in her mind without any distractions. "Um... he had a scar on his right forearm," she said, tracing a line along the outside of her own arm. "About 6' 4'', pretty ratty clothes. That's it."
She opened his eyes and saw that now he had his eyes closed. "Do you know who he is?" she asked nervously, not liking the implications. If he knew him, it meant that the Preventers had to be investigating him, and that meant that he wasn't a common thug. She'd known that they weren't just muggers, but if the Preventers were involved...
Wufei didn't answer her, and Daddy tightened his grip on her slightly. "Wu?" he asked, his voice slightly warning.
"His name is Brandon Stevens," Wufei said with a sigh. "We know of him because we've frequently seen him in the company of Miles Harris."
Julia didn't recognize either of the names, but her parents did, she guessed as the tension in the room suddenly intensified by several notches. "Who is he?" she asked into the silence that followed.
"Julia, I don't know if you remember this, but right around the time you found out about us, the Preventers made an announcement that they'd managed to find the people who'd been trying to build mobile suits?" Daddy asked.
Resisting the urge to tell him that she remembered everything, she nodded. "Tousan traced the electronic trail, right?"
Daddy nodded, not looking particularly surprised that she'd made that connection. Wufei, on the other hand, frowned slightly and glanced at Tousan, as if accusing him of telling her. "Yeah, well the guy in charge of that particular idiocy was Miles Harris."
Oh. That explained why they were so tense. "And this guy... spent a lot of time with him?"
"Apparently," Daddy muttered. "I thought you had all of them in custody," he said accusingly.
"We have most of them," Wufei admitted. "Including Harris. There are only a dozen or so unaccounted for in an organization of hundreds."
"Let me guess, this Stevens guy is one of them," Daddy said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
Wufei nodded, but he suddenly seemed to be avoiding their eyes. Julia watched him carefully, noticing the way his eyes slid over them like they weren't even there. "Wu..." Daddy repeated in exactly the same tone as before. "What is it?"
"It's official business," he said suddenly, moving towards the door.
Tousan was suddenly standing between him and the door, a hand on Wufei's arm, and he wasn't even trying to hide how angry he was. "What. Do. You. Know," he ground out, biting off every word.
Wufei looked down at the hand clutching his arm, and Julia didn't need to be told that if Wufei hadn't also been a Gundam pilot, the grip Tousan had on his arm would probably have been enough to break the bones. His lips flattened into a thin line, and he lowered his head for several seconds. Finally he raised it, and, still not looking at them, said, "We heard rumors that they were looking for you."
"What?!" Daddy said, unconsciously (probably) turning his body so that it was between Julia and Wufei. "You knew? You knew about this and didn't tell us?!" he was shouting now, and Julia winced away from the sound. She wanted to stay where she was, with him hugging her, but his yelling hurt her ears.
"Daddy..." she said in a voice that sounded far too much like a whimper. She was *not* going to break down now!
Daddy glanced at her, and immediately lowered his voice, although the anger didn't leave his face. "Sorry, Julie," he said in a voice hardly above a whisper, before turning back to Wufei and continuing in an almost-normal voice that was just as frightening as his yelling. "You knew that this guy was... after our family, and you didn't tell us?"
"No!" Wufei loudly denied. "We didn't know that! All we had were rumors of rumors... We'd heard that they were looking for you, only you. There was no indication that they'd found you, or that they were going to do anything about it." Julia could feel some - but only some - of the anger draining out of her father. Wufei took a deep breath, then continued, his voice an odd combination of pleading and firm. "If there'd been any indication, any at all, that Julia was in danger, I would have told you, regulations be damned!"
Daddy's head drooped for a second, and when it came up, he had a faint smile on his face. "Sorry, Wu," he apologized. "It's just when Julia's involved..." he gave her a little squeeze.
"I understand," Wufei said stiffly. He was almost as bad about showing emotion as Tousan was. Almost.
"I want to see what you have," Tousan demanded quietly.
Wufei seemed relieved at the shift to the less emotional topic, and nodded sharply. "I'll see to it that you're assigned officially to this case. Then you'll have full access to everything we have, and you can have whatever resources you need."
"What... what about now?" Julia asked, trying not to sound as if she was whimpering or whining. "They ran off... are they going to... come back?" She couldn't quite bring herself to say the words, 'for me.'
Even as Daddy's arms tightened around her again, Wufei was shaking his head. "We'll protect you. I'll have someone assigned to you twenty-four hours a day, to escort you wherever you need to go, and keep an eye out while you're there."
"You're going to have someone following me around?"
"If you want, I'll stay with you," Daddy immediately told her.
Julia swallowed, then shook her head. "No. I... I'm not letting them run my life. Or yours. You're not going to spend all of your time following me around. I'll be fine." Maybe if she said it enough times she'd convince herself.
----------
Julia swore to herself as, once again, she managed to poke herself in the head with one of the bobby-pins. She pulled the offending pin out of her hair, somehow managing *not* to tangle it or rip several strands out by the roots, the way she had several times already. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. OK, she was nervous, she could admit that, but this was absolutely ridiculous. It was just a bunch of teachers. She'd had half of them at one point or another. She took a deep breath and once again attempted to place the pin. This time it slid smoothly into her hair and stayed there, holding her hair in place without attempting to gouge large bits of skin out of her head. Cautiously turning her head back and forth, she breathed a sigh of relief when her hair stayed pretty much in place. At least that chore was out of the way...
Today was the day she was presenting her project to a small panel of teachers, who would question her work and determine a good part of her grade on it. She was excited beyond belief, and not a little bit nervous.
There was a soft knock on the door, and she automatically called, "Come in!"
The door opened, revealing Daddy. "I just wanted to..." he started, then trailed off, staring at her.
Julia glanced to either side of her to make sure that he actually was staring at her, then smiled self-consciously. "What are you looking at?"
"You," he said simply. "You look beautiful."
Julia glanced at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a pair of nice pants, instead of jeans, and an embroidered blouse. Her hair was presentable, and she'd actually taken the time to put on a little makeup. She guessed that she looked all right. "Did I ever mention how much I hate makeup?" she asked, trying to hide the blush of pleasure at his words.
"Just over and over and over and over and over..."
"All right, I get it!" she exclaimed, throwing a book at him.
He easily caught it, and tossed it on her bed. "You nervous?"
"Just a little," she confessed.
"Don't be, you're going to do great."
"Easy for you to say, you never went to school!" Julia glanced at her father, wondering if she'd gone too far, but he just grinned.
"Technically, I've been to dozens of schools," he told her. "I just only stayed in them for a few days."
"That doesn't count!" she told him, scooping up her backpack and glancing at the clock. "And if I don't leave soon, I'm going to be late!"
"I just came up to tell you that Scott's here."
"Thanks! I love you Daddy, see you later!" she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and bolted down the stairs.
Scott Ido, one of the three Preventers who took turns guarding her, was waiting on the front step. "Today's the day?" he asked with a grin, observing her outfit. She felt a little sorry for him, she'd been a little excited about finally getting to present her project, so she'd been talking about it non-stop to anyone who would stand still. Unfortunately for her guards, they *had* to be around her, so she imagined that they had to be pretty tired of hearing about it.
She nodded as they started walking towards her school.
It was really amazing what you could get used to. A month ago, the idea of her having a guard would have been absolutely ridiculous. Now...
She didn't know how long it was going to last. This had to end at some point, but after over three weeks, the Preventers (and her fathers) had been unable to find Stevens or his men. They'd found out that Stevens wasn't particularly high in the organization, which made their job a lot more difficult, since he wasn't really connected to anything. That was how he'd managed to avoid being picked up in the first sweep, apparently. As far as they could tell, he'd been a bodyguard of some sort, but it was hard to find more information. And the captured members of the group weren't talking.
Julia knew all of this because her fathers had explained it to her, in an attempt to waylay her fears. It hadn't exactly worked, but she tried her best to set her own fears aside. The nightmares that had tormented her in the nights immediately after the attack came rarely now, only once every couple of days instead of multiple times in one night. She didn't think that she'd woken either of her parents in a couple of nights, either.
Despite the fact that they hadn't caught the people who'd attacked her, Julia found herself unable to maintain the level of anxiety she'd had for the first few days after the attack. She'd been jumpy, moody, and altogether unhappy; spinning around to defend herself whenever she heard the slightest unusual noise. But after she'd spun around, only to find the noise that had disturbed her was a dog dragging a large stick across the pavement, she'd made a conscious effort to relax. After a few more days, it had actually begun to work. It was impossible to remain on-edge all the time.
"Are you nervous?" Scott asked, drawing her out of her thoughts.
"Why does everyone ask me that?" she demanded.
"Because you've been talking about nothing else for weeks, and today's finally the day," he responded with a smile. She was glad that Scott was the one guarding her today - he was her favorite of the three guards, and the closest to her own age, even if he was over ten years older than her. The other two looked on her as nothing more than a job, only Scott had taken the time to try to get to know her.
"Yeah, a little," she confessed. "But I'm sure everything will be fine."
"Well, good luck!" he said as they approached the school grounds. As usual, he'd be waiting in a car just off the grounds until school ended, then he'd walk her home, or anywhere else she needed to go. Julia had had several lectures on not wandering off without her guard while she was at school.
"Thanks!" she called, sprinting towards the door as she heard the late bell ringing.
----------
"So how'd it go?" Scott asked as soon as she exited the school.
"Great!" Julia exclaimed, practically bouncing as she walked down the street. "I mean, Mrs. Kinley wasn't happy... but I don't think that she's going to try to screw me over. The teachers on the panel were great! They were actually listening to what I was saying, and not just judging me because of what my topic was," she told him in a rush. "I don't think Mr. O'Donnel was *happy* with the conclusions I came to, but he said that all of the research was solid. And Mrs. Danahy... she was amazing! She asked all the right questions, and I think that she loved the interview at the end!"
Scott grinned at her. "So I guess it went well?"
Julia restrained the urge to smack him and grinned back instead. "At least I won't have to worry about it anymore. And... oh, this was just so great!" she exclaimed.
"Hey, if you don't mind, sometime I'd..." he suddenly stiffened and stopped walking.
Julia immediately turned. "What?"
His face was very white as his legs seemed to collapse out from under him, and he bonelessly slumped to the ground beside her. "Scott!" she exclaimed, dropping to one knee beside him.
Suddenly there was a sharp stinging pain in her shoulder. "Ow!" she exclaimed, reflexively slapping a hand against her shoulder. Her hand encountered some fuzz and something metallic. She looked down and saw a small dart sticking out of her shoulder. :Oh God.: She froze, trapped by indecision, as a white van suddenly pulled up next to her. Every instinct for self-preservation that she had was screaming at her to run, but Scott was still lying there on the concrete. She couldn't just leave him...
The side door of the van opened and she involuntarily stumbled back several steps, despite her concern for Scott, as several of the thugs who'd attacked her before climbed out of the van. "You!" she cried.
"Damn it, you must have missed," one of them muttered. "Shoot her!"
Another one raised a small gun and fired. Julia gasped in pain, tears coming to her eyes, as another dart imbedded itself in her chest. She leaned over, clutching at her chest as a wave of dizziness overtook her, and the world tilted. Suddenly a flash of light appeared before her eyes as they tilted upwards slightly, and she threw up her arms to protect her eyes. There was a thunderous sound in front of her, like a gun being fired, and it wasn't for a full second after the sound faded that she realized that her control over her hearing was gone, and the noise she'd heard had been someone's feet landing on the ground as they jumped out of the van. "No..." she moaned, then fell silent as her own voice grated in her ears.
She clapped both hands to her ears, trying to stifle some of the thousands of sounds that were now battering at her ears from all directions. Her eyes were tightly closed, but lights dazzled her eyes, and she couldn't have seen anything even if she did open her eyes.
A third dart hit her, and that was when she discovered that her skin was highly sensitized as well. She swore she could feel every millimeter of the needle penetrating her skin, could feel it wiggling around as she moved, disturbing the delicate tissues...
It was almost a relief when the blackness rose up to swallow her, except for her overwhelming terror of what they were going to do to her...
---------
Duo was sitting on his bed, a laptop computer in front of him, checking over the latest data that Wufei had sent them. :Look at me, hunched over this thing like an ape. Betcha I look just like Heero.: He snorted and then pushed the laptop away from himself and got up off the bed. There was nothing new here. There was something that just didn't add up here. He was too high in the organization for there to be as little information on him as there was, and (if he really was some sort of bodyguard, which Duo doubted) too low to have the kind of resources he needed to hide from three determined Gundam pilots.
Stretching his arms above his head, Duo glanced at the clock. Julia should be home from school soon, assuming that she didn't decide to go somewhere after school again. He grimaced; she was having a lot of trouble adjusting to not being able to go wherever she wanted without letting anyone know. All the more reason to get back to work, to find the bastard so that they could dispense with the bodyguards. With a sigh, he turned back to the bed. Even during the war, research had never been his strength.
The phone rang, and he immediately turned to answer it, feeling more than a little guilty at how eager he was to avoid the work. Heero did this all day long, every day...
:Yeah, but he likes it,: he reminded himself, then hit the button to pick up the phone. "Hiya!"
The smile on his face immediately died as he observed the look on Trowa's face. His lips were pressed together, their were faint stress lines around his eyes, and he looked even paler than normal. The last time Duo had seen him look like that was when Katie's powers were going crazy and Quatre had to move out of the house or risk driving Katie insane. The last time before that had been when Trowa lost his memories during the war. "What's wrong?"
"It's Katie. And Quatre. They just collapsed. Quatre's still unconscious. Katie insisted that I call you..."
"Let me talk to him," said a harsh voice. Trowa started to protest, but the voice continued, "Help Quatre. He's going to need sugar, and a lot of it, when he wakes up. He threw everything he had into protecting me. I'll be fine."
Trowa looked as though he would very much like to protest, but for some reason, he did not, standing up and moving out of range of the screen. A second later Katie took his place. Duo's jaw dropped. She looked absolutely horrible - her skin was so pale it was practically translucent, and it looked like it was hanging off her bones. Add to that the huge black circles under her eyes... "Katie! What's been happening?"
"I haven't been sleeping well lately," she replied with massive understatement, and he was shocked to realize that the harsh voice he'd heard earlier was hers. :Since when does she refer to her father by his first name?:
"What happened? Is Quat OK?" he asked worriedly.
"Quatre will be fine. It's Julia, they've got her."
Duo felt his stomach clench in on itself. "What?!"
"They have her. They just grabbed her, a half hour ago. I'm sorry, I would have called..."
"Wait a second, what are you talking about? How did you know..."
"I'm a psychic, Duo," Katie said harshly, cutting him off. "And Julia's my sister. There's no way I couldn't be aware of her. And she just screamed loudly enough that I heard her here. And now she's gone. They've got her."
Duo was moving towards the closet before he was even consciously aware of a decision. After the first kidnapping attempt, Heero had moved the lockbox with their guns downstairs, to this closet. It took only a few seconds and his gun was out of the box, loaded and tucked into the back of his pants. It was horrible, how easily it seemed to fit there, how familiar and reassuring the weight of the metal was...
"You said it was a half-hour ago?" he asked, turning his head back towards the screen as he pocketed Heero's gun.
Katie glanced off-screen for a second. "Yes. Maybe a little less. And Duo..."
"What?" he growled, pausing on his way out the door.
"I think she lost control of her powers right before they knocked her out."
Duo became very still. He could hear his own pounding heart. "They knocked her out?"
Katie nodded, looking miserable. "It's the only thing that could account for what I heard. But if she did lose control... she may need a lot of help, and soon."
Duo tried to swallow past the lump in his throat, and settled for a curt nod. "Thanks."
He raced out the door, already reaching into the pocket of his jacket for a cell phone, so that he could call Heero and let him know what had happened. And then he was going to find his daughter. :I can't lose her, I just can't. Not again.:
OK. Before the death threats begin, I am sorry, and I already have my mother yelling at me for ending things here. It just really had to end here, simple as that. Things are going to get better... eventually.
Anyway, notes on the chapter. I hope that the fight scene came out all right. I had it mapped out in my head, and I think it would work, but I can't be sure without getting a couple of people to enact it for me, and that wasn't going to happen. I was trying to use some of the right language with enough description so that people who don't recognize it will be able to follow along.
After rereading this, I sort of feel like it was an even meaner thing to do, sticking that light section in between the two kidnapping sections. Oh well. There's a lot of action in the next chapter, and some things that I planted earlier in the story (much earlier) will finally start to come together. Hope you're enjoying the trip so far!
Marika 2/1/02