Julia hurt. A lot. Her entire body ached, with intense concentrations of pain in her shoulder, chest, and head. :Ah yes, the head, mustn't forget the head.: She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this bad. The closest she could remember was the time that she'd taken a bad fall, wrenched her knee, and right after that, fallen down a short flight of stairs because of the bad knee. And even that pain had faded after a few minutes. Julia lay quietly, waiting for the pain to fade, trying to get control of her senses so that she didn't feel the pain quite so intensely. And in the back of her mind was the thought that maybe if she just lay here long enough, everything that she remembered would all turn out to be some sort of awful nightmare.
No such luck. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, the pain did fade, even the throbbing in her head stopped. And that, of course, left her with nothing else to do but open her eyes and look around.
It hadn't been a nightmare, at least not one in her sleep. Looking around, Julia felt very much like she was in some kind of living nightmare. She was lying on the floor of a featureless room with a single halogen light on the ceiling and a metal door in the wall opposite her. Julia sat up, and discovered one other feature of her situation - there was a handcuff around her left wrist, and the other end of it was attached to a radiator she was lying next to. Julia felt a hysterical giggle bubbling up as the thought crossed her mind that this situation couldn't possibly get more cliché, but she forced it back down. Now was not a good time to give in to hysterics. She was going to wait until she was safe at home, and then she was going to have a nice little mental breakdown. That was appropriate after you were kidnapped, right?
There was a sudden click coming from the door, and Julia tried to press herself into the wall as it swung open. The man opening the door was muttering to himself as he pushed open the door with his right hand. "Just got a few minutes, but it ought to be enough..." He stopped short when he saw her staring at him. "What the hell... How are you awake?!" he demanded.
Julia didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but that might have been because her brain shut down as soon as she saw his face. He was the one she'd fought before on the streets. If her memory of his face wasn't enough proof, his left arm was encased in a cast from palm to elbow. She swallowed hard and tried to forget the feel of bones breaking under her hands. "I... I'm sorry," she whispered.
That was probably the absolute dumbest thing she could have said, but it was the only thing she could think of right now, how horrible it had felt to hurt him like that.
"You're what?!" he demanded, taking several steps towards her.
Julia shrank a little farther in on herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," she said in a whisper that was hardly more than a breath.
"Sorry, are you?" he snarled. "You're going to be more than sorry when I'm done with you." He took several more steps, covering the distance between, and raised his foot to kick her.
Julia automatically raised her right arm to deflect the blow and protect herself, but she forgot about the handcuff on her left arm. The kick, even though she managed to deflect most of its force, was enough to knock her forward. Normally she would have just rolled, but she couldn't move forward that far, so she just fell forward until the handcuff jerked her back, stopping her short. She ended up sprawled out on the floor with a badly scraped chin and palm. Then he stepped forward and kicked her in the stomach.
She would have cried out in pain, but he'd managed to knock all of the wind out of her, so for a few seconds she could think about nothing but getting air back into her lungs. He was beating her!
:I... I can't just lay here...:
"How you feeling now, you little bitch!"
The words echoed in her mind as she struggled to her knees, once again putting her back to the wall. This time she stayed in a crouch, keeping her left arm loose at her side and her right arm in front of her. He'd backed up a few steps to watch her struggling to get her breath back, but now he frowned. "Want some more?"
:I can't believe this. This isn't happening to me... This isn't real...:
He took a step towards her, drawing back his foot to kick her again. "Stay away from me!" she shrieked. But she didn't wait for the blow this time. Once again she planted her left hand and pivoted on it, slamming her right leg into the thug's as hard as she could. Maybe it was because of adrenaline, or maybe because she kicked him in just the wrong place, but she heard the 'snap!' of bone breaking when her leg impacted, and *she* didn't feel any pain.
The thug stared at her in shock for just a second, then dropped to the floor, screaming and clutching at his leg. Julia stared at him in horror, and the part of her mind that wasn't screaming along with him wondered whether she was going to throw up or burst into tears first.
Then she heard footsteps in the hall, and her head snapped up as three men bearing guns raced into the room, aiming their weapons at her and the man on the floor. Julia immediately forgot any other concerns as she flattened herself against the wall, trying to put as much distance between herself and the guns as possible. :Oh God, they have guns... they're going to kill me... I pissed them off, and now they're going to kill me...:
"What happened here?!" the leader... Stevens... demanded. Julia just stared up at him, too terrified to speak.
"Lester..." the man said threateningly, turning on his own subordinate.
"That bitch attacked me!" he yelled.
"And just what the hell were you doing in here, anyway?" Stevens demanded coldly. "I gave orders to stay away from her."
Lester, if that was really his name, didn't answer. Stevens turned back towards Julia, and took a few steps, bringing himself within reach of her. Julia froze as he casually aimed the gun at her, starting with her hand, and slowly training it up towards her face. He actually placed the gun under her chin and used it to tilt her head upwards, giving him a clear view of the scrapes on her chin.
"You fucking idiot," Stevens said in a low voice, finally moving away from her. Julia started breathing again. "You were beating on her, weren't you?" Lester didn't answer and averted his eyes. "Idiot! I should shoot you now... do you have any idea who her parents are?"
Lester continued to stare sullenly at the floor as he shook his head.
"They're Gundam pilots! Both of them! You wanna piss them off more by hurting their daughter?"
Lester's eyes were open wide with fear now, and he stared at Julia as if he was terrified of her.
That provoked a reaction from one of the other men. "Gundam pilots?! I thought we were just going after some programmer... You never said nothing about any Gundam pilots..."
"I didn't find the information until recently," Stevens dismissed the man's objections with a wave of his gun. "It changes nothing. We can still use them, just like we planned." He regarded Lester silently for a moment, then said, "Get him out of here. And if I hear anything about anyone else molesting her, I'll shoot them myself. Got it?"
The men muttered their agreement, then lifted Lester off the ground, doing their best not to jostle his broken leg. They carried him out the door, but Stevens stayed behind, looking at her curiously. "You're a tough little thing, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically. Julia still didn't answer. "Ah well, I guess it's to be expected. You know, I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop hurting my men. It's bad for morale, and if you keep it up, I might not be able to keep them away from you. You don't want that, do you?"
Julia somehow managed to shake her head negatively.
"Good. Glad we understand each other. You just sit tight. This will be over one way or another soon."
Julia couldn't help herself. "One way or another?" she whispered.
"We'll send our demands soon," he told her. "If your parents do as they're told, we'll release you as soon as they're done." She saw something in his eyes flicker, and his heartbeat sped up slightly. "If they try something, though... lets just say you don't want them to try anything."
He holstered the gun in a shoulder rig, then turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Julia heard the lock turning, and his footsteps receding. She strained to hear, and didn't relax in the slightest until she couldn't hear him anymore.
:I'm a hostage. They're going to make Duo-daddy and otousan do something, something bad. And they're going to kill me.: She knew her fathers well, and knew that there was absolutely no way that they were going to be able to tamely wait this out, or that they would trust Stevens when he said that he'd let her go. She didn't believe him, either. She wasn't an expert, but she knew an irregular heartbeat when she heard one. He'd been lying when he said that he'd release her. He was only keeping her alive now because he probably needed to give them proof that she was safe. But... letting her go? She couldn't picture it, and didn't like the implications.
:I have to get out of here.:
Julia found it a little bit humorous that instead of scaring her senseless, Stevens had actually managed to push her past the point where she was terrified. Now she was just numb.
She looked down at the handcuff on her left wrist. She needed to get out of this first. Her fathers were coming after her, but she couldn't just wait for them. If she could get out of this room, she could hide somewhere, maybe, until they came. But first she had to get out of this room...
As she thought, she'd been staring at the key hole of the handcuff. Something about this seemed familiar...
Julia stiffened as a buried memory flickered near the surface. Sitting on something warm and comfortable, snuggled up against Daddy's chest... He was holding a pair of handcuffs, which dangled from his hand. "See, easy!" he told her, and she giggled, reaching towards the shiny object. She was very young in this memory, whenever it was.
"Baka," Tousan's voice said from somewhere above her. "Do you want her to grow up to be a thief?"
"Aww, she's too young to remember this," Daddy's voice was caring, and reassuring even just in memory. "And it does entertain her. See how she watches?"
The memory fragment faded as suddenly as it had come, and Julia shook her head, trying to clear it. Daddy had shown her how to pick locks at one point? It wasn't that surprising, now that she thought of it. He'd been a Gundam pilot, and before then he'd lived on the streets, stealing for a living. It wasn't that odd that he would know how to pick locks. It was a little odd to show something like that to an infant, but it must have been right after they adopted her, when they were still getting used to the idea of fatherhood. He must have been going out of his mind trying to find things to occupy her.
Julia smiled slightly at the thought of Daddy running around, trying to figure out how to entertain an infant, and falling back onto the skill of lock-picking to do it, then forced herself to be serious. Anything anyone heard or saw was never forgotten, just tucked away somewhere in their minds. And she could recover that information.
:It's better than just sitting here, waiting to be rescued or killed,: her brain pointed out logically.
It was a very old memory, almost fifteen years old. It would take her a long time and a lot of work to recover. But it was better than just sitting here. And at least she wouldn't be thinking about her present situation.
Julia settled herself against the wall, trying to get as comfortable as she could, under the circumstances, then she closed her eyes. It was more difficult than usual to slip into the half-trance necessary for digging up really old memories, but eventually she managed it, and found herself lost in the past...
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Eight hours. Julia had been missing for eight hours, and there was no word of her. Duo had raced from the house along the path she would have taken to and from school, and found Scott lying on the street, a dart embedded in his chest. It had taken them several hours to revive him, and even then he couldn't tell them much more then they already knew. It was obvious that he felt absolutely horrible about not preventing the kidnapping, and if circumstances had been different Duo would have felt bad about the grilling Heero gave him, but as it was, he just wanted to find Julia.
Approximately five and a half hours after Katie had called them to let them know Julia had been kidnapped, Katie, Quatre, and Trowa arrived on-planet. As far as Duo knew, Katie had never left the colony before. It had been a big shock when she left Quatre's estate long enough to pick them up when they'd last visited, for her to come off colony... She didn't look very good - exceedingly pale and strained, but she insisted that she had to be here, that she could help. She spent most of her time in the car that Quatre had brought down with him on his own shuttle, it had some shielding in it that was helping her deal with all of the people around her, but it was obvious that it wasn't going to help her forever. But she'd announced that she had to be here, to do something (she didn't say what - either she didn't know or wasn't telling them), and that she wasn't leaving until she finished.
She was currently sitting outside in the car again. Duo didn't really blame her - in just a few hours Wufei had managed to mobilize what seemed like half of the Preventers to search for Julia, and most of them were basing the search from their house. It was almost overwhelming, even for him, and he wasn't a telepath.
"Duo," Trowa said, walking up to him. "Katie wants to talk to you."
Duo's eyes flicked across the room to where Heero was reviewing the little data they had that might tell them where Julia was, then nodded slightly. Heero could take care of things here. With so little information, there was very little they could do except wait. And that was the hardest thing in the world to do, when he knew that his little girl was out there somewhere, scared, possibly hurt, and alone...
Duo followed Trowa out to the car parked in the street (although limo probably would have been a more accurate description), and climbed inside.
"Julia's awake," Katie said immediately. She was sitting straight upright, stiff as a board, staring into space. One of her hands gripped Quatre's tightly enough that Duo was sure she'd leave indentations whenever she let go. Quatre was also incredibly tense, but all of his attention seemed to be focused on Katie, whereas her attention seemed focused outward.
"What?" Duo asked, immediately sliding into the seat.
"She's awake," Katie repeated. "I can feel her. She's OK."
"Are you sure?" Duo asked, noting that he sounded a little desperate, even to his own ears.
"She's a little sore, but her powers are under control again and she's uninjured," Katie replied, her voice unnaturally calm. Duo glanced at Trowa to see if this was normal for her, but the worried look on Trowa's face was enough of an answer. "She's in a small room, handcuffed to a radiator, but they haven't done anything else..." she suddenly cut herself off, and winced.
"Katie?" Trowa asked. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing..." Katie said after a long silence. "She's fine.
"What happened?"
"I... I just lost the connection for a moment. It's nothing." Trowa looked as though he didn't believe her, but he didn't dispute her claim. "She's fine. They're just leaving her alone," Katie repeated, then winced, rubbing her forehead. Looking over at Quatre, she shook her head and pried her hand out of his. Almost immediately Quatre went limp, breathing deeply. After a few seconds he straightened up and looked at Katie.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
Katie swallowed but managed a sickly smile. "I'm fine. I'll be fine. Thanks for the blocking, Dad."
Quatre smiled thinly, but he still looked worried. He stared at her silently for a moment, and she frowned and shook her head. "I can't leave yet." She turned and looked at Trowa, then finally shifted from her rigidly seated position. She leaned forward and placed one hand gently on his arm, first where the cloth covered his skin, then she slowly slid her arm down to touch his hand. Trowa smiled faintly, then closed his eyes as hers went blank.
"Trowa?" Duo asked, but Trowa didn't seem to be listening. :What the hell...: "What's going on?" he demanded of Quatre. "Since when is he psychic too?"
"He's not psychic, Duo," Quatre replied wearily. "Remember? We told you at the party, Katie can just make herself heard if she's close enough to him. It takes a lot of concentration for both of them to communicate in words, though."
"Are you all right?"
Quatre smiled gently at him. "I'm fine. I've got the easier part, really. I'm just shielding Katie a little, so that she doesn't get bombarded by as many thoughts when she goes looking for Julia. It's not perfect, but it's better than no protection at all." He looked worried. "She can't stay here much longer, it's destroying her shields," he said softly.
"What is she waiting for?" Duo asked. He didn't have a clue what Quatre was talking about, but he'd heard Katie say that she couldn't leave yet too many times to miss that point.
"I don't know. I don't know if she knows. But she will, when the time comes."
"Oh. Was she really in contact with Julia?"
"If she says she was, she was."
"But if she's contacting her, why can't she just lead us to her?" Duo demanded. He knew it was unreasonable to expect miracles out of the girl, but it wasn't exactly his reason that was speaking right now. His baby girl was out there, somewhere, and he couldn't help her.
"Because I'm not a fucking dog," Katie said harshly. She'd come out of her trance when he wasn't watching, and was now wincing, hands pressed to her temples. "I can connect to her because we're linked, but it's not like a radar, it's just there. She doesn't know where she is, so I can't find out from her. I need to find someone who knows where she is, and I need something to focus on in order to do that." She winced again and slid away from him a little. "Please calm down. I can't feel anything at all over your fear. And it hurts."
Duo swallowed, and attempted to calm down a little, pushing his feelings away for her sake. "I'm sorry. Is that why you asked so see those pictures Julia drew after... after the first attempt," he managed to get out.
Katie's eyes were getting glassy again, and her breathing was speeding up. "I... yes... I..." her eyes unfocused completely for several seconds. "What was the question again?" They refocused on him. "Oh yes, the pictures. The ones that Julia drew. I... I looked at the pictures that Julia drew. Couldn't use them. They felt too much like her. The pictures she drew, she burned that incident into them. I looked at them." Now her chest was rising and falling rapidly, eyes darting back and forth around the interior of the car.
"Should I leave?" Duo asked, getting very concerned very fast. He reached for the handle to the door, but before he could turn it, someone knocked on the window. He cracked open the door. "Yes?"
"They need you inside, sir. A ransom note has been delivered."
"What? How?"
"A package with a disk arrived by mail just now."
"Thank you," Duo immediately began to slip out of the car.
"Wait!" Katie gasped, and Duo spun to look at her. "I... I might be able to use that. Don't let anyone else touch it."
Duo glanced at the nameless young Preventer. "You heard her! Get in there and make sure no one touches the thing!"
"Ah, yes sir!" the young man stammered, then ran into the house.
"Do you need anything else?" Duo asked Katie.
"If... you could get people away from me, that might help," Katie replied slowly, crawling towards the door. She was nearly hyperventilating now, and looked terrible.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Duo asked her.
"I'm going to punch the next person who asks me that," she mumbled. "I'll be fine."
But he watched her as she climbed out of the car, and saw her flinch violently when she looked at the house, sagging back against the car. "Katie, if this is going to hurt you..."
"Shut up!" she snapped, and he wasn't altogether certain she was talking to him as she screwed her face up and pressed her hands to her temples. "I'm going to find Julia! Now stop worrying about me, you're making it worse. Just... try to clear the way for me," she finished, leaning heavily against Trowa, who'd followed her out.
Duo glanced at Trowa, ready to stuff her back in the car and send her back to L4 if he gave the word, but the taller man simply nodded slightly, wrapping one long arm around Katie's shoulders. He started half-supporting, half-carrying her, making slow progress towards the house, with Quatre trailing anxiously behind.
Spinning on his heel, Duo ran back to his house. "All right, everyone out in the back, right now!" he ordered. Everyone stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "Out!" he repeated, louder this time, and several people jumped.
After a few seconds, some of the Preventers started shuffling out the back door. Heero glared at the ones who looked like they might ignore Duo until they also decided it was better to humor him for now. "What is it?" he asked quietly, coming closer.
"Katie wants to see the disc," he said in a low voice. "She thinks she can use it to find Julia."
Heero's eyes widened slightly, and he swallowed. "Can..." he trailed off for a second, then took refuge in the practical. "Why did you want everyone out?"
"Katie's having a rough time. Less people is better," Duo explained.
Heero blinked, then asked, "Should we leave?"
"No, it's fine. You all are so focused you're reasonably quiet, as long as you're not thinking about me." Katie was practically being carried by Trowa now, but she seemed to have gotten some control back. "Is that the disc?" she asked, nodding towards a disk lying by Heero's laptop.
"Hai."
"OK. This might take a few minutes." Katie sat in Heero's chair, lay both of her hands gently on the disc, and closed her eyes.
No such luck. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, the pain did fade, even the throbbing in her head stopped. And that, of course, left her with nothing else to do but open her eyes and look around.
It hadn't been a nightmare, at least not one in her sleep. Looking around, Julia felt very much like she was in some kind of living nightmare. She was lying on the floor of a featureless room with a single halogen light on the ceiling and a metal door in the wall opposite her. Julia sat up, and discovered one other feature of her situation - there was a handcuff around her left wrist, and the other end of it was attached to a radiator she was lying next to. Julia felt a hysterical giggle bubbling up as the thought crossed her mind that this situation couldn't possibly get more cliché, but she forced it back down. Now was not a good time to give in to hysterics. She was going to wait until she was safe at home, and then she was going to have a nice little mental breakdown. That was appropriate after you were kidnapped, right?
There was a sudden click coming from the door, and Julia tried to press herself into the wall as it swung open. The man opening the door was muttering to himself as he pushed open the door with his right hand. "Just got a few minutes, but it ought to be enough..." He stopped short when he saw her staring at him. "What the hell... How are you awake?!" he demanded.
Julia didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but that might have been because her brain shut down as soon as she saw his face. He was the one she'd fought before on the streets. If her memory of his face wasn't enough proof, his left arm was encased in a cast from palm to elbow. She swallowed hard and tried to forget the feel of bones breaking under her hands. "I... I'm sorry," she whispered.
That was probably the absolute dumbest thing she could have said, but it was the only thing she could think of right now, how horrible it had felt to hurt him like that.
"You're what?!" he demanded, taking several steps towards her.
Julia shrank a little farther in on herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," she said in a whisper that was hardly more than a breath.
"Sorry, are you?" he snarled. "You're going to be more than sorry when I'm done with you." He took several more steps, covering the distance between, and raised his foot to kick her.
Julia automatically raised her right arm to deflect the blow and protect herself, but she forgot about the handcuff on her left arm. The kick, even though she managed to deflect most of its force, was enough to knock her forward. Normally she would have just rolled, but she couldn't move forward that far, so she just fell forward until the handcuff jerked her back, stopping her short. She ended up sprawled out on the floor with a badly scraped chin and palm. Then he stepped forward and kicked her in the stomach.
She would have cried out in pain, but he'd managed to knock all of the wind out of her, so for a few seconds she could think about nothing but getting air back into her lungs. He was beating her!
:I... I can't just lay here...:
"How you feeling now, you little bitch!"
The words echoed in her mind as she struggled to her knees, once again putting her back to the wall. This time she stayed in a crouch, keeping her left arm loose at her side and her right arm in front of her. He'd backed up a few steps to watch her struggling to get her breath back, but now he frowned. "Want some more?"
:I can't believe this. This isn't happening to me... This isn't real...:
He took a step towards her, drawing back his foot to kick her again. "Stay away from me!" she shrieked. But she didn't wait for the blow this time. Once again she planted her left hand and pivoted on it, slamming her right leg into the thug's as hard as she could. Maybe it was because of adrenaline, or maybe because she kicked him in just the wrong place, but she heard the 'snap!' of bone breaking when her leg impacted, and *she* didn't feel any pain.
The thug stared at her in shock for just a second, then dropped to the floor, screaming and clutching at his leg. Julia stared at him in horror, and the part of her mind that wasn't screaming along with him wondered whether she was going to throw up or burst into tears first.
Then she heard footsteps in the hall, and her head snapped up as three men bearing guns raced into the room, aiming their weapons at her and the man on the floor. Julia immediately forgot any other concerns as she flattened herself against the wall, trying to put as much distance between herself and the guns as possible. :Oh God, they have guns... they're going to kill me... I pissed them off, and now they're going to kill me...:
"What happened here?!" the leader... Stevens... demanded. Julia just stared up at him, too terrified to speak.
"Lester..." the man said threateningly, turning on his own subordinate.
"That bitch attacked me!" he yelled.
"And just what the hell were you doing in here, anyway?" Stevens demanded coldly. "I gave orders to stay away from her."
Lester, if that was really his name, didn't answer. Stevens turned back towards Julia, and took a few steps, bringing himself within reach of her. Julia froze as he casually aimed the gun at her, starting with her hand, and slowly training it up towards her face. He actually placed the gun under her chin and used it to tilt her head upwards, giving him a clear view of the scrapes on her chin.
"You fucking idiot," Stevens said in a low voice, finally moving away from her. Julia started breathing again. "You were beating on her, weren't you?" Lester didn't answer and averted his eyes. "Idiot! I should shoot you now... do you have any idea who her parents are?"
Lester continued to stare sullenly at the floor as he shook his head.
"They're Gundam pilots! Both of them! You wanna piss them off more by hurting their daughter?"
Lester's eyes were open wide with fear now, and he stared at Julia as if he was terrified of her.
That provoked a reaction from one of the other men. "Gundam pilots?! I thought we were just going after some programmer... You never said nothing about any Gundam pilots..."
"I didn't find the information until recently," Stevens dismissed the man's objections with a wave of his gun. "It changes nothing. We can still use them, just like we planned." He regarded Lester silently for a moment, then said, "Get him out of here. And if I hear anything about anyone else molesting her, I'll shoot them myself. Got it?"
The men muttered their agreement, then lifted Lester off the ground, doing their best not to jostle his broken leg. They carried him out the door, but Stevens stayed behind, looking at her curiously. "You're a tough little thing, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically. Julia still didn't answer. "Ah well, I guess it's to be expected. You know, I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop hurting my men. It's bad for morale, and if you keep it up, I might not be able to keep them away from you. You don't want that, do you?"
Julia somehow managed to shake her head negatively.
"Good. Glad we understand each other. You just sit tight. This will be over one way or another soon."
Julia couldn't help herself. "One way or another?" she whispered.
"We'll send our demands soon," he told her. "If your parents do as they're told, we'll release you as soon as they're done." She saw something in his eyes flicker, and his heartbeat sped up slightly. "If they try something, though... lets just say you don't want them to try anything."
He holstered the gun in a shoulder rig, then turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Julia heard the lock turning, and his footsteps receding. She strained to hear, and didn't relax in the slightest until she couldn't hear him anymore.
:I'm a hostage. They're going to make Duo-daddy and otousan do something, something bad. And they're going to kill me.: She knew her fathers well, and knew that there was absolutely no way that they were going to be able to tamely wait this out, or that they would trust Stevens when he said that he'd let her go. She didn't believe him, either. She wasn't an expert, but she knew an irregular heartbeat when she heard one. He'd been lying when he said that he'd release her. He was only keeping her alive now because he probably needed to give them proof that she was safe. But... letting her go? She couldn't picture it, and didn't like the implications.
:I have to get out of here.:
Julia found it a little bit humorous that instead of scaring her senseless, Stevens had actually managed to push her past the point where she was terrified. Now she was just numb.
She looked down at the handcuff on her left wrist. She needed to get out of this first. Her fathers were coming after her, but she couldn't just wait for them. If she could get out of this room, she could hide somewhere, maybe, until they came. But first she had to get out of this room...
As she thought, she'd been staring at the key hole of the handcuff. Something about this seemed familiar...
Julia stiffened as a buried memory flickered near the surface. Sitting on something warm and comfortable, snuggled up against Daddy's chest... He was holding a pair of handcuffs, which dangled from his hand. "See, easy!" he told her, and she giggled, reaching towards the shiny object. She was very young in this memory, whenever it was.
"Baka," Tousan's voice said from somewhere above her. "Do you want her to grow up to be a thief?"
"Aww, she's too young to remember this," Daddy's voice was caring, and reassuring even just in memory. "And it does entertain her. See how she watches?"
The memory fragment faded as suddenly as it had come, and Julia shook her head, trying to clear it. Daddy had shown her how to pick locks at one point? It wasn't that surprising, now that she thought of it. He'd been a Gundam pilot, and before then he'd lived on the streets, stealing for a living. It wasn't that odd that he would know how to pick locks. It was a little odd to show something like that to an infant, but it must have been right after they adopted her, when they were still getting used to the idea of fatherhood. He must have been going out of his mind trying to find things to occupy her.
Julia smiled slightly at the thought of Daddy running around, trying to figure out how to entertain an infant, and falling back onto the skill of lock-picking to do it, then forced herself to be serious. Anything anyone heard or saw was never forgotten, just tucked away somewhere in their minds. And she could recover that information.
:It's better than just sitting here, waiting to be rescued or killed,: her brain pointed out logically.
It was a very old memory, almost fifteen years old. It would take her a long time and a lot of work to recover. But it was better than just sitting here. And at least she wouldn't be thinking about her present situation.
Julia settled herself against the wall, trying to get as comfortable as she could, under the circumstances, then she closed her eyes. It was more difficult than usual to slip into the half-trance necessary for digging up really old memories, but eventually she managed it, and found herself lost in the past...
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Eight hours. Julia had been missing for eight hours, and there was no word of her. Duo had raced from the house along the path she would have taken to and from school, and found Scott lying on the street, a dart embedded in his chest. It had taken them several hours to revive him, and even then he couldn't tell them much more then they already knew. It was obvious that he felt absolutely horrible about not preventing the kidnapping, and if circumstances had been different Duo would have felt bad about the grilling Heero gave him, but as it was, he just wanted to find Julia.
Approximately five and a half hours after Katie had called them to let them know Julia had been kidnapped, Katie, Quatre, and Trowa arrived on-planet. As far as Duo knew, Katie had never left the colony before. It had been a big shock when she left Quatre's estate long enough to pick them up when they'd last visited, for her to come off colony... She didn't look very good - exceedingly pale and strained, but she insisted that she had to be here, that she could help. She spent most of her time in the car that Quatre had brought down with him on his own shuttle, it had some shielding in it that was helping her deal with all of the people around her, but it was obvious that it wasn't going to help her forever. But she'd announced that she had to be here, to do something (she didn't say what - either she didn't know or wasn't telling them), and that she wasn't leaving until she finished.
She was currently sitting outside in the car again. Duo didn't really blame her - in just a few hours Wufei had managed to mobilize what seemed like half of the Preventers to search for Julia, and most of them were basing the search from their house. It was almost overwhelming, even for him, and he wasn't a telepath.
"Duo," Trowa said, walking up to him. "Katie wants to talk to you."
Duo's eyes flicked across the room to where Heero was reviewing the little data they had that might tell them where Julia was, then nodded slightly. Heero could take care of things here. With so little information, there was very little they could do except wait. And that was the hardest thing in the world to do, when he knew that his little girl was out there somewhere, scared, possibly hurt, and alone...
Duo followed Trowa out to the car parked in the street (although limo probably would have been a more accurate description), and climbed inside.
"Julia's awake," Katie said immediately. She was sitting straight upright, stiff as a board, staring into space. One of her hands gripped Quatre's tightly enough that Duo was sure she'd leave indentations whenever she let go. Quatre was also incredibly tense, but all of his attention seemed to be focused on Katie, whereas her attention seemed focused outward.
"What?" Duo asked, immediately sliding into the seat.
"She's awake," Katie repeated. "I can feel her. She's OK."
"Are you sure?" Duo asked, noting that he sounded a little desperate, even to his own ears.
"She's a little sore, but her powers are under control again and she's uninjured," Katie replied, her voice unnaturally calm. Duo glanced at Trowa to see if this was normal for her, but the worried look on Trowa's face was enough of an answer. "She's in a small room, handcuffed to a radiator, but they haven't done anything else..." she suddenly cut herself off, and winced.
"Katie?" Trowa asked. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing..." Katie said after a long silence. "She's fine.
"What happened?"
"I... I just lost the connection for a moment. It's nothing." Trowa looked as though he didn't believe her, but he didn't dispute her claim. "She's fine. They're just leaving her alone," Katie repeated, then winced, rubbing her forehead. Looking over at Quatre, she shook her head and pried her hand out of his. Almost immediately Quatre went limp, breathing deeply. After a few seconds he straightened up and looked at Katie.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
Katie swallowed but managed a sickly smile. "I'm fine. I'll be fine. Thanks for the blocking, Dad."
Quatre smiled thinly, but he still looked worried. He stared at her silently for a moment, and she frowned and shook her head. "I can't leave yet." She turned and looked at Trowa, then finally shifted from her rigidly seated position. She leaned forward and placed one hand gently on his arm, first where the cloth covered his skin, then she slowly slid her arm down to touch his hand. Trowa smiled faintly, then closed his eyes as hers went blank.
"Trowa?" Duo asked, but Trowa didn't seem to be listening. :What the hell...: "What's going on?" he demanded of Quatre. "Since when is he psychic too?"
"He's not psychic, Duo," Quatre replied wearily. "Remember? We told you at the party, Katie can just make herself heard if she's close enough to him. It takes a lot of concentration for both of them to communicate in words, though."
"Are you all right?"
Quatre smiled gently at him. "I'm fine. I've got the easier part, really. I'm just shielding Katie a little, so that she doesn't get bombarded by as many thoughts when she goes looking for Julia. It's not perfect, but it's better than no protection at all." He looked worried. "She can't stay here much longer, it's destroying her shields," he said softly.
"What is she waiting for?" Duo asked. He didn't have a clue what Quatre was talking about, but he'd heard Katie say that she couldn't leave yet too many times to miss that point.
"I don't know. I don't know if she knows. But she will, when the time comes."
"Oh. Was she really in contact with Julia?"
"If she says she was, she was."
"But if she's contacting her, why can't she just lead us to her?" Duo demanded. He knew it was unreasonable to expect miracles out of the girl, but it wasn't exactly his reason that was speaking right now. His baby girl was out there, somewhere, and he couldn't help her.
"Because I'm not a fucking dog," Katie said harshly. She'd come out of her trance when he wasn't watching, and was now wincing, hands pressed to her temples. "I can connect to her because we're linked, but it's not like a radar, it's just there. She doesn't know where she is, so I can't find out from her. I need to find someone who knows where she is, and I need something to focus on in order to do that." She winced again and slid away from him a little. "Please calm down. I can't feel anything at all over your fear. And it hurts."
Duo swallowed, and attempted to calm down a little, pushing his feelings away for her sake. "I'm sorry. Is that why you asked so see those pictures Julia drew after... after the first attempt," he managed to get out.
Katie's eyes were getting glassy again, and her breathing was speeding up. "I... yes... I..." her eyes unfocused completely for several seconds. "What was the question again?" They refocused on him. "Oh yes, the pictures. The ones that Julia drew. I... I looked at the pictures that Julia drew. Couldn't use them. They felt too much like her. The pictures she drew, she burned that incident into them. I looked at them." Now her chest was rising and falling rapidly, eyes darting back and forth around the interior of the car.
"Should I leave?" Duo asked, getting very concerned very fast. He reached for the handle to the door, but before he could turn it, someone knocked on the window. He cracked open the door. "Yes?"
"They need you inside, sir. A ransom note has been delivered."
"What? How?"
"A package with a disk arrived by mail just now."
"Thank you," Duo immediately began to slip out of the car.
"Wait!" Katie gasped, and Duo spun to look at her. "I... I might be able to use that. Don't let anyone else touch it."
Duo glanced at the nameless young Preventer. "You heard her! Get in there and make sure no one touches the thing!"
"Ah, yes sir!" the young man stammered, then ran into the house.
"Do you need anything else?" Duo asked Katie.
"If... you could get people away from me, that might help," Katie replied slowly, crawling towards the door. She was nearly hyperventilating now, and looked terrible.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Duo asked her.
"I'm going to punch the next person who asks me that," she mumbled. "I'll be fine."
But he watched her as she climbed out of the car, and saw her flinch violently when she looked at the house, sagging back against the car. "Katie, if this is going to hurt you..."
"Shut up!" she snapped, and he wasn't altogether certain she was talking to him as she screwed her face up and pressed her hands to her temples. "I'm going to find Julia! Now stop worrying about me, you're making it worse. Just... try to clear the way for me," she finished, leaning heavily against Trowa, who'd followed her out.
Duo glanced at Trowa, ready to stuff her back in the car and send her back to L4 if he gave the word, but the taller man simply nodded slightly, wrapping one long arm around Katie's shoulders. He started half-supporting, half-carrying her, making slow progress towards the house, with Quatre trailing anxiously behind.
Spinning on his heel, Duo ran back to his house. "All right, everyone out in the back, right now!" he ordered. Everyone stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "Out!" he repeated, louder this time, and several people jumped.
After a few seconds, some of the Preventers started shuffling out the back door. Heero glared at the ones who looked like they might ignore Duo until they also decided it was better to humor him for now. "What is it?" he asked quietly, coming closer.
"Katie wants to see the disc," he said in a low voice. "She thinks she can use it to find Julia."
Heero's eyes widened slightly, and he swallowed. "Can..." he trailed off for a second, then took refuge in the practical. "Why did you want everyone out?"
"Katie's having a rough time. Less people is better," Duo explained.
Heero blinked, then asked, "Should we leave?"
"No, it's fine. You all are so focused you're reasonably quiet, as long as you're not thinking about me." Katie was practically being carried by Trowa now, but she seemed to have gotten some control back. "Is that the disc?" she asked, nodding towards a disk lying by Heero's laptop.
"Hai."
"OK. This might take a few minutes." Katie sat in Heero's chair, lay both of her hands gently on the disc, and closed her eyes.