Living In the Spirit of the Ring
1/6
Chapter I: The New Job
"I'm here to apply for a job."
"Oh really? And just how do you expect to get it?" A tall, black-haired man sat back in his swivel chair and sighed deeply, expressing his impatience. "You need background, Lady. Chill and kick back."
The blonde woman scowled. "C'mon, Linnaeus! You need to act like a real officer, not some street trash like you are!"
Linnaeus painted a hurt look on his face, then smiled. "Okay, Midii. I get it." He cleared his throat and prepared it to be low-pitched.
"Shit!" One of the other sweepers in the broken-down shack grabbed his book bag off a hay bail and ran towards the back. "Soldiers. OZ. Get the hell outta here!"
"We're out!" Midii screamed and jumped through the back door. She got cover from the woods before the shack exploded into thousands of pieces of burnt wood and hay. Some landed around her and Linnaeus. She stood slowly, and after checking the cover around her, kicked a piece of the wood.
"There goes our cover," Linnaeus murmured to no one.
"Doesn't look like it covered good enough," Midii responded, placing a hand on his shoulder. "They found me," she added with a sigh.
He looked at her, a frown on his face. "And they won't give up just yet."
~~***~~
"Morning, Officer Barton," Wufei said into his cup of stale coffee.
"Chang." Trowa sat next to him and settled for a piece of toast instead of brown liquid.
"We blew up one of the sweepers' hideouts last night. There was no evidence, but all members were eliminated, for sure." His onyx eyes searched Trowa's emerald green, looking for his hidden secrets. Curiosity killed the cat, but he was no cat. He was Nanashi's successor, the Dragon.
"Hn," Trowa mumbled, using one hand to push back a piece of hair from his eyes.
"You've been quiet lately. Something wrong?" The teen wasn't usually this open, but Trowa had become a sort of friend of Wufei's when coming into rank at OZ.
"No." Trowa didn't say anything of the shadows that followed him by day and the dreams that haunted him by night. Enough was enough the way it was already. And nothing would change that.
Pressing for more, Wufei asked once more if the banged teen was all right. When he nodded and kept his eyes on the toast in his hands, Wufei excused himself from the table and left for another day of intense training. Nothing was better for him than a full day of martial arts with the people that were weaker than him. But as soon as he reached the hall, Wufei decided that the training could wait until after breakfast, and returned to his seat next to Trowa.
Trowa sat, waiting for nothing in particular. Since when had his life become so boring? Usually there were missions to complete and important people to rescue.
He had no idea how much his life would change in the next ten minutes.
~~***~~
"Thank you very much, Mister Dekim."
"You are most welcome, Miss Une. If you need anything, anything at all, you can come to me." He held his office door open for her exit, and watched her back as she left. He smiled briefly and closed the door.
A man, no younger than twenty and dressed in an officer's uniform, came up behind Midii and fell in stride with her. One look and he knew this girl was in trouble.
Knowing her instincts, Midii sensed the figure behind her and swiveled on her heel.
"New recruit?" he asked, his black hair gleaming in the early morning sunlight.
"Yes." She looked down the hall and realized she'd miss breakfast if she didn't shake this man off. Another look at the bars and stripes on his uniform, and she knew he was a lieutenant. "Good morning, sir. Is something the matter?"
"No, ma'am. You are new here, correct?"
"I believe we've established that already, sir."
"Yes, yes. Do you know the schedule here, officer?" When she shook her head, he proceeded. "You have a maximum of five minutes before breakfast is over. Get in there before you starve yourself," he muttered after noticing how loose her uniform clung to her.
"Sir," she said as she came to attention. Once he was down the hall away from her, she continued to the mess hall.
~~***~~
"Hey! Look at that chick," one low-ranking officer said, clucking his tongue.
"Ya don't get many like that!" another agreed. "Look at that hair. She's a beau, isn't she Kev?"
"Sure is. Wouldn't mind havin' her 'round my sleepin' quarters!"
The two men laughed uproariously and continued with their chatter. But in a dark corner, Trowa and Wufei sat, sipping on coffee.
"New girl."
"Yea." Trowa kept one emerald green eye on her and took a gulp of the stimulation.
"What's wrong," he said, not asked. Something is going on inside his head. I know it. Wufei resisted the urge to push for more and let quiet reign for a moment.
"I know her."
"Really?" Wufei quirked a brow. "I never saw you associate with an onna before, with the exception of Po or Colonel Une." His curiosity got the best of him. "Who is she?"
Spies never forget faces, Trowa thought as he watched the young blonde grab a tray. "She is from my past."
Since Wufei had been spending considerable amounts of time around the banged pilot, he knew no more would—could—be leaked out of him.
"I am not going to ask. Just pass me another Danish."
~~***~~
"Good evening, officer!" The small computer on Midii's desk chimed in its usual manner.
"Evening, Hugo. What's the news?"
"Boss needs new info by Wednesday. Are you sure you can do it, Midii?"
Her shoulders shrugged and warm air escaped her lips. "It's a job, right? And if I can't do the job, I get killed. So far, I'm pretty damn good."
"Yes, you are, Miss. I can't tell you how good it feels to be on assignment with you."
"I'm glad I got you. 'The Best of the Best'. You certainly earned a name for yourself," Midii complimented as she picked up the small, compact version of Hugo.
"My manufactures made me, Miss Midii," he explained. "You made the name for yourself."
"Why, thank you, Hu. Tonight is gonna be big if I have to get all the files and info I need before tomorrow night." She bound the communicator around her neck, wearing it like a necklace.
"You ready for this?" she asked, gathering all her equipment and placing them in various places around her body.
"Of course. Let's do it!"
~~TBC
A/n: This story originally was supposed to be all action, but as I wrote it (which it took 5 months to write 6 chapters [don't hurt me]), it became clear there was more than just the average get your guns and shoot. There is depth and irony and things that make you think in this story, which I wanted to put in to make it more interesting. Warning: In the end, this story may seem to be a little off-topic. Please just think of it as another story that kind of linked on to this one. It's easier that way, trust me. Don't worry, I'll have the other chapters up ASAP.
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply for all the following chapters.