Disclaimer: Same as Chapter One!

Chapter 2

"The Plot Thickens"

By Magic


Trinity walked past the pool and into her side of the house. Since her sister had left to fight in the war as well as her step-brother, she received the twenty-room corner of the house all to herself. This corner of the house was decorated the same as the rest of it, old fashion semi-Victorian with a hint of medieval in it. She loved all of the suits of armor that the knights had worn in the Middle Ages that lined the halls down in this corner. She finally got to her favorite room on the top floor of three, in the corner, over looking the pool, gardens and, her favorite part, the fencing area.

Trinity had been taught how to fence at the age of about four. It was then that her step- father had given her a very special present for her fifth birthday: an old fashion sword. It was a little too heavy for her at that age, but she soon learned how to master the weapon and was fighting her step-brother by the age of seven while he was twelve. Even her teacher couldn't beat her now. She was a natural. Everyone thought so, and even her father, who she hadn't seen much of during her childhood, had congratulated her performance in the sport.

Her father had died recently in a spacecraft accident. He had been the leader of the Romerfeller Foundation that had caused the war before this one purposely. Trinity couldn't really say that she was all that sad about it, since her father hated her mother, whom she loved dearly, and he never talked to her much. In fact he had talked to his granddaughter Dorothy, her niece, more than her, but she didn't really care about that. She hadn't liked to see him on her birthdays because he and her mother had always gone off and bickered about things for hours on end. Not only that, but he had always brought Dorothy with him. The last time Dorothy had been over, which was three years ago, Trinity had beaten her in fencing and Dorothy hadn't talked to her since. Not that it's all that bad of a thing, she thought. In some ways, Trinity had wished she had beat Dorothy at fencing sooner so she wouldn't have had to put up with her!

Oh well. I can't live in the past, she thought as she flung off her school uniform.

She changed into her favorite pair of green cargo shorts and a semi-tight fitting black shirt. Now she was ready for sword practice. She had to get ready for her brother because every time he came over he wanted to fight her. He always won too, but last time she won only because her teacher was there and wouldn't let Nadir "play rough".

She ran down the three flights of stairs and into the hall. She first needed to get the key from her step-dad to open the safe, which held her sword. She ran into the large main living room to find her dad talking to one of the Winner sisters. Trinity should have known her name, but there was too many of them to keep track of so she had given up after meeting the thirteenth one. She smiled kindly when the sister said hello and asked her stepfather for the key. He turned to look at her and smiled for a second, his bearded face crinkling along his wrinkles that had just started to show. Trinity had always thought of him as being her father since he had been around her since she was three. He rummaged around in his pocket for a bit, then gave it to her, and she ran off towards the opposite end of the house.

It was a long run so she had time to think about what the Winner sister might have been doing at her house. Probably trying to get her step-father to call off his son from the fighting. Her step-father had made it clear that he did not back up his son's plans or the fact that he was starting up a war that had almost the whole universe confused. Because of this, there was no one that could hurt or sue the family if his son screwed up. This was one reason that Trinity never got to see her step-brother. He and her had been really close before he went off to fight a year ago after he almost seemed to disappear from the house, but now they had grown apart because Trinity never saw him, and she didn't really like the idea of him going out and killing people.

He wasn't actually the complete, loving brother, Trinity had to admit. It was because sometimes her step-father paid more attention to her than to him. Also, there was the fact about the sword. Her step-father had been given the sword from his father and his father had gotten it from his father and so on and so on. Her step-brother had always thought that he should have gotten the sword, and when he found out that Trinity had gotten it, he was so mad at both his father and Trinity, he didn't talk to either of them for a whole day (which is quite long for a ten year old). Trinity always thought that he had never fully forgiven her for having gotten "his" sword, though it had always eluded her as to why she had ever gotten it in the first place.

Trinity had finally reached the safe, and she stuck the key into the lock. Her step-father was the only one with a key and the key was the only one ever made, so the safe was almost impossible to break into. She turned the key to the left and heard the faint click of the lock opening. She took the key out and placed it into her pocket. She would give it to her step-father later.

She then pulled out her most prized possession, her sword. Its sheath was a beautiful sliver with only the darkest of blue jewels on it. Her father had ordered the sheath for her for her sixth birthday and had made sure that the jewels were her favorite color, cobalt blue. She loved the sheath, but even more she loved the sword. It was a totally straight sword. It was double edged and completely balanced the whole way down. The edges were so sharp that they could almost cut through any kind of metal like it was butter. And for that reason, one had to be very careful when handling it, but Trinity could handle it better than anyone else in the world her stepfather would say as he watched her practice. Over the years, she had learned how to switch hands quickly, through it behind her back to the other hand and a bunch of tricks that were probably good for only showing off. Except for the fact that she could block people when they came at her from behind by throwing it behind her so quickly that most people couldn't catch how she had done that. Because of this, Trinity could show off even more when fighting someone else by turning around and around changing from fighting front ways to with her back to them and back to front again.

She didn't really like showing off to anyone but her stuffy, old fencing teacher who had said when she was little that she would never become a good fencer if she didn't stand still, and spinning around until she was dizzy was not his idea of the right way to fence. Like I really care that you don't like me spinning around like a crazed baboon. It's fun! She walked out of the safe room and down to the fencing field. She started warming up her muscles until she was ready to start. She practiced gabbing, trusts, and blocks until she was bored stiff. And then she decided to try something new for a change. She started flipping and twirling her sword in many different directions, behind her back, around her head, and even once in between her legs. Soon the hot sun had gotten to her and she had to go inside and take a rest.

She walked into the kitchen to find her mother talking to the cook on what to prepare her stepbrother for supper. Trinity skipped asking her mother if she could have a snack and just grabbed a cookie from the jar. Unfortunately, her mother caught her in mid-action and told her to put it back. Trinity groaned and fussed, but finally gave up on trying to get her mom to let her eat. Her mother then decided that she needed to see what Trinity was wearing for her brother's arrival, and she was rushed up to her room with her dressing lady to get her hair done and her dress on.


***


Nadir Renada was sleeping when the flight attendant awakened him. He first checked to make sure that he hadn't drooled all over his new clean uniform and was glad to see that there was no wet stain on the blue thing.

"Beverage?" She asked.

"No," he said simply. He was in a good mood so he didn't need anything to drink. He was thinking about what was going to happen tonight. He had been planning it for a year, and now he was finally going to be able to put it into action. He was going to kill his father tonight when he got there. His men would surround the building to make sure no one escaped. Then he was going to go in there get the key to the safe first and kill his father. With his father gone, he would be the new head of the family and he would own the estate. He would then try to get the Winner family to join his side of the fight. If they did, he would rule over almost two-thirds of all of the colonies. His commander would be very pleased with what he was about to do; not only was it militarily helpful, but Nadir and his commander both agreed that it should be done "for the best".

He didn't really care about his father. Not ever since he had given that brat for a stepsister his sword. He had always wanted it, and even after the brat had it, he often thought of just taking it from her. It wasn't so much the fact that she had it, but the fact that his father had given it to her, and her not even being a blood relative. He smiled. She would soon be out of his way forever. He had something special in store for her. He was going to make her watch her step-father die. She loved him so much; it just seemed to make sense to make her watch it. His smile grew. Then he would kill her. No, not just kill her. He would beat her in a fencing match, and then kill her. He laughed cruelly. This is going to be fun, he thought, yes. . . real fun.


***


Quatre had called one of his sister's private jets so they were already back at his house. He was sitting in one of the many rooms of his old home, sipping some tea when Duo came in. His friend looked exhausted. He had bags under his eyes, and he walked slightly hunched over. Duo plopped down on the sofa across from Quatre and looked up at the ceiling as if inspecting it for cracks.

"You feel okay, Duo?" Quatre asked worriedly.

"Fine," was the one word he got from Duo. He had said one-word answers the whole rest of the day. Duo got up and looked out the window. Suddenly he seemed overcome with anger and punched the glass. "Why her and not me?!" he screamed, causing Quatre's tea set that sat on the table next to him to shudder.

"She did what she thought was right, Duo. She was a good friend, and she wanted to save you so she sacrificed her life for yours. There's nothing left to do now but remember her sacrifice and go on. I know it hurts, but you have to get on with your life. Living in the past doesn't help one bit," Quatre preached, and he got up and walked over to the window to stand besides his friend and partner. He looked out across the field with Duo and over to the warm lights of the mansion. "It's beautiful isn't it?"

Duo nodded his agreement for he also saw the beauty in the house. It was huge! Almost as big as Quatre's, and it had to have at least one thousands lights in the windows alone!

"It belongs to the Renada family," Quatre said quietly.

Duo swung around to face Quatre instead of the house. "What did you say?"

"You know what I said. The Renada family is a peace abiding family here. You shouldn't go mess up their life."

"But. . ."

"No, Duo. The Nadir's father hates the war as much as I do. As much as we all do. He disowned his son when he went to fight. You must understand that the family doesn't want to have this war. It's hard for the family to live a normal life with their son causing a major war right outside their home, and as far as we know, they don't have any more idea about why it's all happening than we do."

Duo just let that sink it. So the whole family wasn't as unbalanced as Nadir Renada. Suddenly Duo let his anger go. He would get Renada, yes that was for sure, but he wasn't going to fight the peace loving family. That doesn't mean I have to like this family though, Duo thought, I just won't kill them.

"Duo, I called the other guys. They'll all get here by tomorrow. In the mean time, we should do something about, well, Duo. . . you kind of stink."

Duo had to laugh. "Yeah, I know. We don't have a shower there so I probably smell worse then well umm. . . "

"I don't think anything could smell worse than you."

Duo gave him an 'I'm gonna kill you face' but then asked," Do you have a lake or a pool or something? I don't really like to wash up in showers."

This caused both of them to laugh. Quatre said that there was a clean river near by and that the two could go down there if he wished. Quatre grabbed his swim trunks and told Duo that he might want to wear those clothes because they smelled too. After ducking a lazy punch from Duo, they set off for the river.


***