IMPORTANT A/n: It would appear that I have confused some people with the sudden appearance of Treize, Treize and Unes marriage, and Donovan earlier in this fic. AS to the fact that all three are important in this chappie, I had better explain. Treize was never dead; he just appeared from being MIA. Une and Treize are married and Une has adopted Mariemaia. Donovan is their first son who is 2 years old during this fic. If you try to skim this chappie, I can guarantee nothing will make sense. On with the fic.
Trainees snapped to attention, soldiers respectfully saluted. The respect they all had for the woman in full prevents uniform that all but ran down the corridors was clearly seen. But they were all genuinely happy to see the woman as well. She had been missing for several months now, and rumor had it that she had been injured on a mission. An air of worry surrounded her and stress lined her forehead.
Making her way to the office of Treize Kushrenada, she was followed by a man who was also in full uniform. As she breezed past the secretaries in the outer office, one got up to stop her. She didn't stop, but instead breezed right past the other woman and let herself into Treizes office. The man following her stopped in another office and reappeared with a second woman in tow.
Lucrezia Noin (a/n: oh, as if you hadn't already figured that one out!) walked into Treizes office, quickly followed by Zechs and Une. Treize immediately stood upon seeing who had entered his office and quickly had worked up a full head of steam.
"Noin, woman, what are you doing here? You weren't supposed to come back until your memory had returned and you had had time to recover completely! And Zechs, what the hell are you letting her come here for!?!?! For gods sake man, I'm going to kill you! You should know better!"
The angry ranting only ended when Treize was effectively silenced by a kiss from Une. She looked deeply into his eyes and led him over to a couch then placed a hand over his mouth. "Go ahead, Noin. If he tries to interrupt you, he's going to sleep on the couch for a month." At this threat of gigantic proportions, Treize quieted down and let Noin talk.
Noin looked around the room from her seat on a leather couch. Zechs sat next to her, silently holding her hand. Across the room, Une sat in a large chair, and Treize was perched on the arm of the chair.
"I left nearly two months ago for my assignment. You had placed me in the underground again, as Alana, the paid killer. Her cover had always served me well and I had never been caught. This time, though, my mission was more dangerous than any I'd ever taken on before. I was to infiltrate an association of paid killers, mercenaries and spies that had untied under a man known as Death in a quest for world domination. A little movie-ish, but true all the same. Those in the army of sorts that surrounds him are known as the Blades. The only way to become a Blade was to fight a high ranking Blade to prove your worth. You would then be trained for a month, and then sent out a mission to prove your loyalty.
"With the rumors in the underground about Alana, they were eager to initiate me when I approached them. My fight to gain entrance was against not just one man, but four at once. All of the men out weighed me and out reached me. When I beat all four, Death himself stepped forward to fight me. It was one of the hardest fights in my life. I was cut nearly fifteen times. You see, not only were martial arts skills required, but knife skills were even more important. I proved my worth with that fight, however. I was accepted as full member.
"The following two weeks was pure hell. Never before have I seen so many people tortured, raped, and murdered. I hope I or any one else must ever live through that again.
"Eventually, though, they gave me my first mission. To be blunt, my target was Une. The assignation was to take place at the charity ball that you and Treize host each year to help the orphans of the war. I was told to take my pick of weapons. They really wanted you dead.
"Seeing as to the fact I wasn't fully trusted yet, they sent a senior member with me on the mission to complete it if I didn't or couldn't for any reason.
"You're extraordinarily lucky that Donovan got the chicken pox's the day before. I was caught by me 'partner' trying to write a letter in warning. The woman assigned to monitor the mission broke the code and confronted me. Little did I know that while she was confronting me she was also poisoning my food. A maid came into my room, however, and scared her off before she emptied the full dose onto my food. I believe now that this poison was what caused the memory loss. I won't be sure until I get a sample of by blood and run testing. I only hope it hasn't completely left my blood stream."
The room had fallen completely and eerily silent while noin spoke. It seemed as though time stood still.
A/n: yes another cliff hanger! Don't ya'll just love me! By the way, I can get rid of the cliffhangers. Just reply. Because barley anybody is. Oh, and I'm looking for a good 6x9 site to post this fic on. If you know any, speak up and I may give you a special treat, such as emailing the next chappie to you early. By the way, I'm in a good mood. I just found a cool Zechs background for my comp. Long live his sexy-zechyness!
Kat: more evil cliffhaneryness! And no chastising me! You know how to avoid the cliffhangers! Make people review!
Chibi noin: chappie five was the second chappie I posted that day. And this one will be the last for a week in all likely hood. I have dance everyday this week.
Highwaywoman: thanks for being so magnanimous. And I appreciated the shirtless Zechs as well. That why he's in the ficcie. And I leave you with the two most sacred words ever uttered: Wild Turkey!!!!!!!!!!