Disclaimer: Same as Chapter One!
Chapter Ten
"The Trial"
By Magic and the Little Fairy From Nam
Hannah woke up in shackles, in a dark room, without her Silence Glaive. Those were the first three strikes of the day, and by the fact that the room was almost pitch black, she was sure that more would be sure to follow right behind those. She attempted to straighten out her back because she was getting a very large cramp in her side, but the shackles held her tightly in place. She couldn't move a muscle; not only that, but her feet were asleep. No one likes it when their feet are asleep. That was the fourth strike of the day, and Hannah couldn't take anymore, especially after she was just starting to remember what had happened earlier.
The blonde released a scream like no other. The two other sets of eardrums in the room seemed to almost burst on the impact of the loud sound wave as it crashed through out the room.
"She's in her too? This is injustice!!!" Wufei screamed loudly as he threw his head back; he was in the almost same predicament as Hannah was. That, and he couldn't believe that he had been placed in the same room as the Devil Girl. He grit his teeth as he tried to think of a way to escape as soon as possible. He had been awake for awhile and had sat in the dark, thinking that he was been the only other in the room, but the scream had proven wrong.
He was now in a very fowl mood. (His ponytail was out and he had not hair gel. That has got to be a scary sight.) It wasn't helped by the fact that the bullet wound through his left hand stung and throbbed as if his hand were going to fall off his arm at any moment; the sharp nerve signals pounded up his left arm and even into his shoulder as the sharp pain cursed throughout his left side.
"Yeah, I'm sure it is," Trinity retorted quietly in remark to both Hannah and Wufei's screams of ranting. She felt nervous in this situation and knew that it wasn't going to be long before everything that she had attempted to hide came out into the open. Her past was starting to catch up to her faster than she was ready for; Trinity didn't want to be thrust into reality just yet.
There WAS one thing that was going to keep Trinity from being silent though: the awkward silence that had enveloped the room seemed to be spreading and was sending chills down her spine. She felt as if the others had already left her; as if they already knew her secret which she had tried to keep from them.
"So," Trinity started, her voice starting out very quiet and meek, but slowly gaining it's strength as she convinced herself there wasn't anyway for them to know about anything just yet, "how did you get caught in here, being a Gundam Pilot and all?" Her question had obviously been directed at Wufei wherever he was in the darkness, but Hannah's ears also snapped at the question; the fact that he was a pilot hadn't been declared to her until then.
"They shot my hand as I was trying to run down the hall and then caught up with me. It isn't very easy to escape while you're carrying 'that' sack of rocks on your shoulder," Wufei growled the last part of his statement out in reference to the blonde in the room.
"Shut up about that! Don't you dare call me a sack of rocks ever again, you male pig!" Hannah's shackles rattled from over across the room from Trinity as the blonde tried to break free of her bondage. "Not only did you get the two of us captured, but you lied to us all along about being a-a--a GUNDAM PILOT!? Don't you think that is the kind of thing that the people around you should know about. Especially the ones that you are fighting with and asking them to risk their lives on missions that don't even have ANYTHING to do with the them to begin with!!" Hannah growled through clenched teeth, "I don't CARE what your reasons are! You lied to me, WUFAGOT!" (Just to make it perfectly clear, I have nothing against homosexuals or anything like that. The name is purely a form of Hannah's character and the product of late night writing and lots of sugar. Take no offense.)
"What did you call me!!!???" Wufei bellowed in the blonde's general direction.
"You heard me, Wufagot!" The blonde returned.
Trinity's laughter on the matter erupted from over on her wall as tears poured from her eyes; they were in a dire position and still fighting. "That is" laughter "the funniest name" fit of giggles "that I have EVER heard in my life!" She left a slight pause in there for good measure, then screamed,"Wufagot!"
Wufei, knowing a losing battle when he saw one, decided just to give up and shut up after he mumbled," I hope they kill you guys soon."
"I still don't feel loved here!!" Hannah yelled. "I really need to gain some weight. I can't believe that the psycho guy just hefted me up and carried me on his shoulder all the way to Trinity. I WILL BE A SUMO WRESTLER SOME DAY!! But right now, I need some CAFFEINE!!!"
"You're stuck to the wall, dear," Trinity tried to be blunt and clear it up for her that caffeine or even a bathroom break was probably out of the question.
Hannah retorted right back at Trinity's blunt tone with, "Yeah, well, I'm still not a morning person or a waking up from unconscious person. Just wait until I get off this wall. There is going to be hell to pay."
"Not only that, but I don't even think that we got what we came for, did we?" Trinity asked, her voice mocking as she turned toward where she believed Wufei was attached to the wall.
"Botched your mission?" Hannah inquired, her head turning to face the same direction.
"I didn't botch my mission! I got shot in the hand. Anyone normal human being would have dropped that disk. If I do believe anyway, Trinity plucked it off the ground after the fact, so it's not like we didn't get it away," Wufei wasn't in the mood for arguing or being ridiculed by these two childish girls any longer.
"And you don't think that they searched me before they put me in here?" Trinity asked sweetly; he of all people should know that they didn't just stick prisoners into cells without taking away all of their belongings.
Silence just sounded throughout the room for a couple of seconds as Wufei realized what the brunette was getting at; the mission must have been a failure. On top of that as well, the three of them had been captured. Wufei's black eyes widened slightly as he remembered who Trinity truly was and wondered what they were planning on doing with the trio.
"Then you botched your mission. But guess who didn't?" Trinity was going to let herself feel like she was on top for as long as humanly possible. When she felt like the dramatic pause had been long enough, she laughed slightly and revealed to the two,"I stuck it in Duo's hand right before I shoved him off into space. So, unless Duo is completely inept and dropped the disk out into the vast regions of space, it's a good bet that the others have whatever in the world you five came to get in the first place."
Wufei snorted slightly; the two girls in the room weren't sure whether it was a laugh or a mocking noise, but the two were quiet amazed by his next comment. "The woman did something right for a change."
"Shut up with the womanizing crap, you egomaniacal skitz!" Hannah demanded. The comment hadn't been good enough for her and she had noticed the mocking tone to his voice as he drawled it out slowly. "Aurora saved your ass and got the information out. On top of that, she took a hit from the crazy dude and didn't pass out." Then she thought about it. "Well, at least not immediately."
Psycho man walked through the door right at the moment with impeccable timing on his part. (It wasn't a pretty door. It didn't have pictures on both sides. It was big, heavy and death (black)). The light from the hallway spread in through the door, and the three room mates squinted as the light splashed onto their faces. He stood there, his body outlined by the glaring lights, and whasped a bit for good measure.
"I want my Silence Glaive back, Psycho Man!!" Hannah yelled frantically at Nadir, her shackles ratting loudly on the wall as she struggled to free herself vainly. "P.S. Your breath stinks!"
"That doesn't sound like a very good plan if I do say so myself. I have no intention of returning your weapons, besides just one." He turned to look at his step-sister and greeted frostily," Hello, Trinity."
"Trinity?! Her name is Aurora you idiot psycho man!" Hannah informed as Trinity's blood stopped flowing in her veins. This was it, she realized. Everything was going to be revealed now and there was no way for her to stop it; not now, not ever.
Nadir raised an eyebrow in complete amusement. "Is that what she told you? Well, well, well, Trinity. You surely have made a home for yourself with these people haven't you. I mean, how ironic that you just escape me and then fall into the hands of my enemies and an annoying little girl. Wow, you do work fast to create a new life. Did you just forget about me and your other family, Trinity?" He turned once again to Hannah. "Her name, my dear Miss Date, is in truth Trinity Renada, charged with the murder of her mother and step-father in cold blood."
Hannah's light blue eyes shot from Nadir's form over to Trinity's; her friend's head hung in down as her brown eyes bore into the floor, her short brown hair covering most of her face. Even so, her shame was clear all over her body features as she sagged against the shackles, no longer holding up her own weight.
"It's true, isn't it, Aur.....Trinity," Hannah hissed out the last word, and she too lowered her eyes to the ground. "Well, this has been and informing day. What next? Is Psyco Dude over there your great grandfather, eh?"
"Actually, I'm her step-brother," Nadir added in as a matter-of-fact.
Hannah's blood was starting to boil. "And is Wufei a circus preformer as well as a pilot?"
"No." Wufei turned to face Hannah in order to see her reaction. "That would be Trowa."
"And I'm a big piece of cinnamon-sugar toast. I was born on Pluto and am really a international spy trying to capture all Economics books and burn them. Of course. Now that we all finally have revealed our secrets to each other, lets beat The Brunette!" A vein on Hannah's forehead looked as if it was about to burst as the pressure skyrocketed.
"With pleasure of course. I just need to borrow her for a little bit, but after I bring her back, feel free," Nadir commented as he motioned to the guards who walked into the room and unchained Trinity. They led her out the door between the two of them as the door swung shut behind them.
Silence came again to the two still left in the room. Eventually, Hannah turned towards Wufei and very quietly asked, "You knew, didn't you? You weren't surprised at all."
"Yes. The five of us knew."
"Remind me to beat you thoroughly as well if we ever get out of this." Even with her threats, Hannah was still worried about what was happening to her friend newly named Trinity Renada.
***
Nadir turned to Trinity as he walked besides him down the long white halls of the base. "We are going to the trial of the murder of your parents. You created quite a riot with those murders and then that great disappearing act. Everyone wants to see the guilty person brought to justice."
"So do I," Trinity spat; she didn't even want to talk to him about anything. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing to talk about. It was all that she could do not to deck him again in the face (that, and the throbbing pain she still had in the side of her own face).
"Guards. Leave us," Nadir growled to the man at his side, who quickly exited through the nearest door. He lifted his gun to rest on Trinity's temple so that she wouldn't try to run away or do anything fishy. It was time for a little one on one chat with his step-sister.
Trinity wasn't going to let him be the first to speak though. The past had caught up with her, that was for sure, but she wasn't going to just stand there and take it. "You killed them, Nadir. Since I'm quite sure you're not the one going on trial, I'm pretty sure it's me. Whoa, you're more of a psychopath than I first thought. I've heard what you're feeding to the people, what you're saying about me. I did NOTHING. It was all you. Do you expect me to admit to this? I'd rather do math for the rest of my life non-stop and eat asparagus for every meal."
"Oh, but I saw you. You must have hit you head with the brick when you jumped off that cliff. I recall everything so clearly. It was so very scarring to see my younger, loving sister to preform such vial acts of murder," Nadir ground the nozzle of the gun into her head. "The murderer WILL admit to the crime. Justice will be had. Prepare yourself for damnation, or your little friend with the penchant for sharp pointy objects in there wont ever get her morning caffeine again."
This is not the way I would have planned out happy little family reunion, but I'll just have to try to look on the bright side---if there is one, Trinity thought to herself sarcastically. "You're twisted now. What the hell happened to you durin-- " She was cut off by the doors to the court room being opened. The large wooden doors clanged against the metal walls and sent the vibrations through the floor and into her body. She had no idea what she was going to do about this situation, but there didn't seem to be any escape.
The guards on the sides of the door grabbed Trinity's arms and lead her up to the judge. She received glares by most of the people there. Looks like they already know that I'm 'guilty'. There wasn't a kind face in the crowd; her hair stood on end.
The verdict seemed to have already been given: Guilty as charged.
Trinity found herself melting under the ruthless gaze of the judge. In one hand she held her own life and in the other she held Hannah's. She looked down at her shoes and tried to melt into the black leather and disappear off the face of the Earth, but it didn't work too well. Funny, she thought to herself, this is the same outfit I was wearing when Nadir killed my parents, I bet Nadir thinks I don't change clothes ever. This caused Trinity to smile, slightly, only on the inside. She looked up at the judge as she began to speak.
"You are Trinity Renada, yes? Please state your name for the jury."
"Trinity Renada." Her voice shook terribly as the color in her face left.
"What is your plead?"
"Plead?"
"Did you or did you not kill your mother and step-father? Hurry it up." The old lady gazed down at Trinity as if she was some sort of bug that needed to be squashed as soon as possible.
She froze. The world began to become faint and blurred around the edges. She put all of her weight on the soldiers and let them hold her up. She felt the stares of everyone in the room burning into her back, causing her to be pushed farther to the ground. She looked up from her shoes and right into Nadir's eyes. He was grinning like she had never seen him grin before. He looked like the happy boy that had been her only companion when she was little. How could he?! Trinity felt the question burn into her mind. How could he put me threw all of this pain? How could he kill the only people that ever loved me?
She felt a very unwanted tear fall down her check as his cold stare answered her question.
"I plead--I plead." Everyone in the court room leaned forward to hear her soft voice. It sounded empty and dull in the small base court room as she looked around at the crowd, the judge, everywhere but Nadir.
"Guilty."
***
Duo Maxwell shut off the television on the space craft as the adds for a new triple decker burger started to roll with a middle aged man dancing around in a fry suit. In his hand, he held the disk that Trinity had put there. He hadn't even noticed that she had done so at the time, but there it was. Right in his hand.
"What are we going to do, Heero?" Quatre inquired as Heero walked over towards Duo and pulled the disk out of his hand.
The pilot seemed to be deep in thought for a couple of seconds before stating. "We know that she's not guilty. We've seen the tapes on the security cameras in her house that night and know exactly what happened. She's only doing this, my guess, to save Hannah. We have found Nadir and now our cover is blown so there is not really any reason for us to go back and save the two."
Quatre's eyes widened as he swiftly stood up from his chair. " Do you really mean that, Heero?" He couldn't believe what he had just heard.
"You didn't let me finish, Quatre," Heero began to add. "The two helped us out on the mission, and Trinity even risked her life to get the data that we hold now. They also hold Wufei, so my intuition tells me that we need to go and pick them up. As long as there are no objections?"
Duo stuffed his hands into his pants and just slowly nodded. "Let's go bring them back. Hannah's not going to be very happy. It's been almost 42 hours since her last dose of caffeine. I wonder if Wufei is even still alive?" He smirked as he turned on his heels and waltzed towards the head of the ship.
Quatre hid a slight smile behind his hand as he thanked everything in the world for giving Duo a good sense of humor. He nodded to Heero and Trowa, who in turn nodded back. It was time to go retrieve the goods.
***
She was floating. The world around her couldn't see her as she walked down the hall of her old mansion. The ball room was filled with people that were there to celebrate the end of the war. Her step-father and mother were dancing together on the dance floor. Trinity had to warn them. Somewhere, somehow she knew that they were in trouble. She looked towards the door and saw her brother there, waiting for the right time, a gun in hand. She ran towards her parents and started screaming, but no one seemed to hear her. Then she saw her brother aim and pull the trigger; two bodies crumpled to the floor in front of her once again.
She screamed in agony as she fell to her knees. Her brother walked towards her carrying her sword and he placed it under her chin.
"It's all your fault, Trinity. You couldn't save them then and you can't save yourself," he said as he inched the sword closer to herself.
Suddenly Duo and the other's where in the room and they all stared coldly down at her. Nadir looked up and with her sword killed every single one of her friends.
"Nooo!!!!" she screamed as she watched, helpless to stop him. Then he came to Hannah and Trinity watched her friend fall as Hannah screamed, "TRINITY!!"
"Trinity!!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!"
Trinity woke up in the cell with Hannah and Wufei. Hannah was looking worriedly down at her, and Wufei had an unreadable expression on his face. The two had apparently been unshackled and the lights in the cell had been turned on. Trinity slowly sat up, her body wet with sweat from her nightmare and glanced around as she slowly remember what had happened.
"Wah?" Trinity asked, dazed. The dream was so vivid that she had believed that it was real. "But y---yo----you guys are dead," she said uncertainly. "Does that mean I'm dead?"
"No. You are not dead. Let me demonstrate," Hannah told her as she back handed Trinity across the face. "You could have told me you know! I would have understood!!"
"Not now. Please," Trinity pleaded as she placed her head in her hands; the trial was returning to her. She was now labeled as guilty for her mother and step-father's murder. She had received her sentence and then returned to the room where she believed she had passed out from the stress. Then the nightmare had struck. Now she was awake and up to the present time.
"The only good thing about them brining you back was that they unchained us, " Wufei started to say coldly as he sat down on the floor a couple feet behind Hannah.
"And gave us food," Hannah reminded him as if it was the most important thing that happened that day," But I still don't have my MOCHACHINNO!!!!"
In harsh situations, sometimes people are said to go raving mad. Maybe they had been mad to start out with, but Trinity and Hannah met eyes after Hannah's last caffeine demand and bust out into laughter. It was just like the blonde to think about caffeine in a situation and time like this. Food always came around full cycle into every conversation.
Suddenly, Hannah looked towards the door and Trinity followed. The screws on t he door seemed to be coming loose. The two registered what exactly was going to happen, and that it was going to happen very soon, but they decided not to tell Wufei that the door was going to momentarily going to fall on his head, until it was 'too late'.
"Wufei, watch out for that random falling door. " Hannah began to say, but was interrupted by the sound of it cracking his skull as the heavy door slammed him to the ground beneath its great weight.
"Oops," The figure in the doorway stated as his braid swayed this way and that. Three other shadowed figures stood behind him with a bundle of unconscious soldiers bodies scattered here and there across the hallway floor around their feet. It was a very dramatic entrance on their part; the two girls almost felt like bursting out into applause (but, there was still not random sparkles or breezes to whasp in).
The four other Gundam pilots entered the cell slowly as they gazed around, taking in everything that was around them.
"Fancy digs ya got here," Duo commented as he scanned the room."Chains and everything." Trowa shrugged and raised an eyebrow as he lifted the door off Wufei and helped him to his feet.
"I'm so happy we found you three," Quatre said, smiling at the two girls, then at Wufei who had picked himself off the floor by that time.
While the others were busy talking, Trowa walked over to Hannah and handed her Silence Glaive and change sock back to her that she had been carrying in her backpack on the mission. "The love comes flooding back!!!" Hannah yelled as she gave Trowa a small hug. "Here comes hell," she muttered as she advanced on Trinity, only to be stopped by Trowa's outstretched arm. "LET ME AT HER!! Okay, if I can be stopped this easily I really need to gain some weight!"
"I beg to differ?" Trinity asked as she backed against the far wall. As she hit the wall, she heard a small clank behind her and looked down to find her sword lying propped up against the wall. She didn't even think about why it would be in the room with them before she picked it up and stuffed it into her belt; she might as well take it with her since it had been pretty much the start of all this trouble.
"Leaving would be a good idea at this time," Trowa declared to the others in the room as he glanced up and down the hallway. No one had noticed their location quite yet, but it wasn't going to take much time for anyone to figure out what was going on with all of the unconscious bodies strewn around.
The group ran down the hall and towards the elevator at the other end (was it a pretty elevator?--no it wasn't a pretty elevator. Quite ugly, just like the door...anyway--), and they all piled in. They didn't fit all that well as a group of around seven normal sized people usually don't under normal circumstances.
"Duo! Your elbow's in my stomach!"
"Heero, you're on my foot!"
"WUFEI YOU'RE SITTING ON ME!!"
"Auro-Trinity, stop touching my butt!!"
And a grunt. (Always have to have a grunt!).
Finally the doors opened and let them out. Trowa had a small amount of Cluster phobia and was the first to push his way through. "TROWA!" Everyone yelled as he stepped on their feet; no one had expect him to react in that way.
They were in another long hall lined with many doors. Heero seemed to know where he was going so everyone decided to follow him. Nobody knew if he knew where he was going, but they just assumed and trudged behind. A couple of halls and doors later, Heero walked up to a door. He opened the door and looked in. It seems he found the top-secret, nobody-is -supposed-to-know- about, super-important, janitors closet.
"Hey Heero! I thought you knew where you were going!" Duo said, hands on hips. It was just natural for everyone to tag along after him as he usually ended up leading them off to where ever in the first place, he might as well lead them back.
"You always depend on me. You do have a brain floating somewhere in that mess of hair. Why don't you get to know it a little," Heero muttered, still having the look of death in his eyes. He really wanted to kill something now. He was never wrong and never took crap from pilot 02 unless the times where dire. The times may be slightly tense, but he was getting very short on his nerve strings at the moment.
"Ouch. Heero, that hurt right here." Duo retorted, pointing to his heart. Maybe Duo was feeling a little bit masochistic, but he was egging Heero on.
"I can make it hurt right there, if that's what you want." Heero declared, having a sense of deja-vu, as he lifted his gun up in Point blank shooting range of Duo's heart. His last nerve had been shattered by his braided companion yet again.
"You're really gonna shoot me, aren't ya?" Duo said, also feeling the deja-vu spreading through out the hallway.
Quatre, walking between Duo and Heero, told the two," We shouldn't be fighting at all!" And there goes deja -vu, all over again. All five of the pilots stood around for a couple of seconds, trying to remember where and what time period it actually was because the dialog that had just taken place was confusing their senses.
Trowa suggested, as he pulled a map out of his pocket. "Why don't we just use this map to get around?" He had cleverly drawn it after they had escaped from the base the first time from his memory; everything was in perfect order and he had even used a straight edge when making the walls.
Heero lowered his gun reluctantly and went over to look at the map while Duo was left to sigh with relief and try to make himself shut up. He usually wouldn't even try to egg Heero on, but seeing Nadir earlier that day had done something to his nerves as well and he wasn't in the best of moods. He felt as if they were wasting there time just standing around here and should go after the commander right now since they had confirmed his position on the base.
Trowa started to walk the opposite way of that in which they had come. Everyone decided to follow his instead of Heero because Heero really wanted to kill someone and Trowa did have a map. They finally ended up in front of another large door, and the banged pilot informed,"This is the hanger where we left our ship."
"Already here? But we didn't even see any big explosions on the way?" Hannah pouted slightly as she had been hoping for at least one random locked door that they would have to blast down with a grenade.
"Psychotic woman." Wufei growled, walking slightly faster than normal past both of the girls and into the hanger. Apparently he had spent a little too much quality time with the two.
It's this psychotic woman who can beat your pathetic behind. Hannah thought, already plotting revenge for two people as she too entered the hanger quickly after the Chinese pilot.
After they had all quickly boarded their ship, Heero flung himself at the controls at the warning shout from Trowa: enemy soldiers were quickly filing into the hanger.
"Guys, to the guns," Heero said as all of the guys left the room, besides Wufei who still hadn't recovered from the door. "Trinity, you pilot!" Heero yelled from the other room.
"Okay, " Hannah responded and muttered," we're all gonna die." The blonde turned towards Duo as the braided one reentered the room.
"Heero rethought that and he wants you to man the missiles now so that I can pilot," Duo pointed to the blonde down the hall as he took his seat in the pilots chair.
"Great," Hannah grumbled as she left the room, "we're all going to die, only not quite as fast." She left the room quickly before the pilot could respond to her comment.
Duo drove the ship through the seemingly endless amounts of mobile suits. Explosions littered the sky as the four guys and Hannah, who was having a little too much fun, let loose. It was only a short amount of time until the ship reached deep space; it was much faster than the mobile suits and out ran them with little problem. It was then that a very awkward silence opened in the room.
"So, uh, Duo..." Trinity attempted but failed at conversation as the braided pilot just turned his back to her, his braid swinging over the chair as he flipped the auto-pilot switch on and leaned back.
"Fine! I get the picture here! I'll just have a nice little conversation with myself!" Trinity said as she plopped down into the nearest chair. "Do you forgive me, Aurora? Yes, I do, Trinity. How could I stay mad at such a pretty, wonderful, smart, intelligent, gorgeous, nice. . . . . . . " Trinity listened to her own voice drown on as she didn't really pay any attention to what she was going on about. After awhile, her voice just died out, and she let the silence be heard.
***