Jad: Here we are again!
Naga: *walks by* Hee, hee, hee.
Jad: *blinks* Uh, okay.
Jaid's voice: NAGA SADOW!
Naga: *walks by* Hee, hee, hee.
Jad: Um, why don't you read the story, while I find out what's going on…
************************************************************
"So, any plans yet?" Midii asked as she and Quatre sat in the badly lit, rather crowded, eating area.
"Not really." Quatre mused. "I figure we can stay there for a little while and decide what to do as we go. Why? Have you been thinking about it?"
"Yes and no." Midii said. "I mean, I have been wondering where we'll be going from here, but I don't really have an idea."
"Well, I've always wanted to go to Corellia." Quatre mused.
"You've never been there?" Midii asked.
"No."
"Hmm, I thought you would have visited every planet in the galaxy by now."
Quatre grinned. "Not quite. I'm not that old."
"Really. I couldn't tell." Midii said with a twinkle in her eye. Quatre threw his head back and laughed, causing some of the other passengers to look his way.
"Let's just decide when we get there. It's not like we have a deadline or anything." Quatre suggested.
"Okay." Midii smiled. "Sounds good to me."
* * *
Wufei grimaced. All day he had been trying to meditate, only to be interrupted. Now, when he finally had a room to himself, that baka Duo had insisted on playing his very loud music.
Keep calm, distance yourself, don't get angry. He told himself over and over. It wasn't working. Finally losing it, he stormed out of the bunk area and into the living quarter.
"Excuse me." He said, gritting his teeth. Duo's back was too him and apparently, he couldn't hear Wufei.
"Excuse me." Wufei said, louder this time.
"HEY, YOU!" he finally shouted. Duo whirled around.
"YEAH, WHAT DO YOU WANT?" He shouted back.
"COULD YOU TURN THAT DOWN?"
"HUH?"
Gritting his teeth again, Wufie reached over and cut the power.
"Hey!" Duo said.
"Could you turn it down?" Wufei said between clenched teeth. He would have been less polite, but this guy was giving him a ride.
"I like it loud."
"It's bothering me."
"So?"
Wufei was struggling to keep control of himself. "Because I am trying to meditate and your…noise is ruining my concentration."
"It's not noise; it's music." Duo scowled.
"Not to my ears."
"Like I care-"
The door whooshed open and Hilde came in. She looked at them with candid surprise, then turned to the food making counter.
"You guys hungry yet?" she asked, nonchalantly looking through supplies.
"Sure!" Duo said happily, forgetting the argument. Wufei began to breathe deeply in an effort to calm himself.
"Um…" Hilde paused. She couldn't remember his name. "Are you hungry too?"
Wufei forced himself to look at her. "No."
"Okay." Hilde turned back to the food. "What do you want, Duo?"
"Anything's good." He answered.
"Okay." She said. Wufei turned on his heel and left. Duo watched him go.
"That guy has a stick the size of-"
"Duo…"
"Well, he does." Duo said as Hilde handed him his food.
* * *
"Are you sure about this, Highness?" Dorothy asked. "If that report is true, then you will be in danger."
"I cannot sit by while the Imperials take complete control of my home." Relena said. "I don't even understand why they are doing this; Cinq never caused any trouble."
Dorothy was quiet for a moment. "I don't know." She admitted. "But I am strongly against you traveling back there. They may arrest you or hold you hostage or something."
"So I should just sit by while my people are enslaved?" Relena asked angrily.
"No!" Dorothy shook her head. "No. But there are places we can go; people who will help."
Relena was silent for a moment. "You mean the Rebellion." She said quietly. Dorothy nodded. Relena looked at her for a while.
"And you think that will really help? It could be years before my people are freed." Relena said.
"Better years than forever, majesty. The only way a lot of planets will see freedom is having the Empire toppled." Dorothy said.
"And what if Cinq thinks I have abandoned her?"
"There are ways to get messages."
Another silence. Relena stood.
"I shall have to think about it. I am no soldier."
"Of course, Your Highness." Dorothy bowed her head in respect. Relena looked at her.
"Sometimes I wonder if you are mocking me." She said, with a slight smile, then swept past, exiting the room. Dorothy looked after her.
"In a way." She conceded, with a smile of her own.
* * *
"We are almost there." Abdul said as they walked the dim hallways.
"I think I've lost track of time." Midii admitted. "I forgot how being in space makes everything blend together."
"Yeah." Quatre agreed. "Of course, that's what holocrons are for…"
Midii gave a dry look. "Yeah they are. If we had one."
"I didn't know that it was going to get smashed." Quatre muttered. "That droid should have been more careful."
"Oh really?" Midii raised an eyebrow. "I suppose you thought it was actually intelligent?"
Quatre looked up about to defend himself, but he caught the glint in her eye. He smiled and shook his head. "Point taken."
Abdul turned away from them, smiling himself. It was good to be with the both of them.
* * *
"Setting out again?" Catherine asked. Triton looked up from the datapad he was holding. The tall blonde next to him moved away and Catherine walked closer.
"Just a short job." Triton said quietly. "I'll be back in a week or less."
"Good." Catherine smiled. "Where you going?"
"Classified." Triton deadpanned.
Catherine rolled her eyes. That was the closest her brother could get to a joke. Putting her arms around him, she sighed.
"Just be careful."
Triton didn't answer, but squeezed her slightly to tell her he understood.
* * *
"Here we are." Duo murmured, punching some controls as the Helen came out of hyperspace.
"What's his name again?" Hilde asked, hand hovering above the comm button.
"He's been with us for three days and you don't know his name?" Duo asked.
"No." Hilde admitted. "Do you?"
There was a pause.
"No." Duo admitted.
Hilde rolled her sapphire blue eyes and pressed the button. "Um, we're approaching Krelth. Do you want come up here?"
"Yes." Was the short reply. A few minutes later, Wufie was with them and seated in one of the passenger seats.
"You sure these are the right coordinates?" Duo asked. Wufei's jaw tightened.
"Yes." He said. "Why?"
" 'Cause we ain't headed for the space port." Duo said, looking at Hilde.
"My business isn't that public." Wufei told him. "If you will just follow-"
"Okay, okay." Duo said in a conciliatory tone. Hilde shot Wufei a nervous smile. He nodded back, allowing his features to relax, then directed his attention to the view port.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Duo muttered in an undertone.
* * *
Relena was awoken by a jolt that told her the ship was out of hyperspace. Getting up, she grabbed a robe and walked out of the room, looking for Dorothy or anyone who could and would tell her what was going on.
She walked down the passageway, but nobody was there. Relena frowned, finding that odd.
"Highness!"
Relena turned to see Dorothy coming from the opposite way.
"What? What's happened?" Relena asked, not liking the expression on the taller blonde's face.
"We need to leave now." Dorothy said, as the ship suddenly lurched, knocking both girls against the opposite wall.
"Why?"
"An Indictor Cruiser was waiting along the hyperspace lane. They've pulled us out with their gravity wells and we're being attacked." Dorothy had Relena's arm and was guiding her back to her room. "Throw something on and meet me at the bridge. I'm going to see if-never mind. Hurry!"
"But-" Relena stopped as the ship lurched violently again. Grimacing, Relena ran to her wardrobe and pulled out the simplest dress she could find. Yanking open her shoe compartment, she mentally bemoaned the fact that nothing she had was suitable for situations like this. Of course, I didn't expect to be thrown in a situation like this; I wonder where Dorothy got that jumpsuit she was wearing. Probably raided the crews' locker or something. Relena shook her head, wondering how she could think of the most mundane things when they were under an attack. She opened the door to see a young man in a crew uniform waiting for her.
"You're suppose to come with me, Highness." He said, face pale. Relena nodded, her throat suddenly tight as she followed him down the passageway.
****************************************************
Jaid: *sobs* My car, my beautiful car.
Jad: …
Naga: That was fun.
Jaid: Naga! You destroyed it! My beautiful, cherry red bug!!!!
Naga: It'll run. It's just a black, uh, slightly crumpled bug now.
Jaid: THE TRUNK IS PRACTICALLY SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE HOOD!
Naga: I thought that was normal…
Jaid: *smacks him with frying pan, extra hard*
Hello all! Yes, it is respond to the reviewer time. ^__^
Psycho kitty – Glad you liked the story! If you leave your e-mail, I can add you to my notification list thingie.
Midii Une – Thanx for the encouragement and the heads-up. That one scene was pretty fudged up; sorry. I didn't want to give too much away, but I wanted to do something…aww, you know how it is. I'll probably fix it later. Lol, don't worry, we'll find out what happened on Tatooine soon.
Blue eyes – lol, yeah, that was a plus! The other pairings I'm not so sure about, although I do know that it will be a DM/HS (obviously). I'm also working towards TK/LU, LN/ZM, and maybe some slight RP/HY and WC/SP.
Ley – Glad you liked it!
Fb2k – lol, I get easily amused as well. Glad you enjoyed it so far!
Okay, announcing a contest (I can't believe I'm doing this). I am going to put other anime characters in cameo parts as well as have some of my former original characters (for instance, you might see Jaran from CotM or Timmy from "On the Wild Frontier"). The people who can name and list all of them get to request a song fic for any pairing/any song (as long as I can get the lyrics). This means you have to be paying attention starting next chapter!
