Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, Lupin the Third, any movies, books, or any songs that are used in this story. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Notice to Readers: To understand certain parts of this story, you'll have to read the other stories before this one. It is recommended by not required.
Gundam Wing and Lupin the Third
The Wizards Glass
Chapter 4: For Love or Money
*
Lupin the third dashed through the Winner family mansion like a rambunctious six-year-old with the copy of Forbes magazine in his hand. He bounded up the stairs and flung open the doors yelling into each one, I found it, I found it!
"What's all the freakin' noise about Lupin?" Jigen asked in a very grouchy voice
"I found it!" Lupin continued to shout while holding the magazine over his head as if it was the Stanley Cup. He then opened the pages of it, fumbling past the cologne and beer ads. He then came to the page that he needed and gave it over to Jigen.
"Here, look for yourself." He said
Jigen was annoyed like he usually was when Lupin got in such a state like this, though normally sometimes he would be doing this whenever there was a pretty piece of ass walking around. He looked at Lupin with a crocked eyebrow as he took the magazine and looked into it. He was trying to search for whatever was driving Lupin up the wall and screaming that he found it. At first, he was only reading through the articles, but that was when he looked at the bigger picture of Vincent Ferer in front of his book case with something round and pink in the background. He held the magazine closer to his face to make sure that it wasn't something that Lupin had done to play a trick on him. At least that's what he thought at first until he read the caption.
"Vincent Ferer with his library and his most prized possession, the Wizard's Glass. 'I would never leave home without it' he says."
"I'll be damned." Jigen uttered, "This creep has it."
Fujiko snatched the magazine from Jigen, "Let me see that." She looked at the magazine herself and found out that it was true; this billionaire named Vincent Ferer had the Wizard's Glass.
"So, this billionaire has the Wizard's Glass?" Jigen asked
Lupin shrugged with a smile that was lost only about an hour ago, "That's the gist of it. Now all we got to do is find out how to get it back."
"I'm working on that." Lupin said with great confidence in his own craft. Then again, he had to have confidence in what he could do. After all he's faced so much in the past, mad scientists, voodoo witch doctors, enraged policemen, and even beautiful women, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem.
"It is said," Goemon spun his words of wisdom, "that the fly should come to the spider and not the spider to the fly."
"I have to disagree." Lupin stated, "In this case we don't know this place that well, so we're going to have to improvise our tactics and go to wherever Mr. Ferer is."
Fujiko read aloud the article, "Vincent Ferer, a self-made billionaire who claims to have been named after a saint who betrayed his best friend, made his fortune by delving into several fields, such as technology, precious metals, fuel sources, he has become so successful that it is even rumored on Wall Street that he can see into the future. Of course, Mr. Ferer laughs at this and simply says, "I just have eyes for possibility".
"Of all the possessions that Mr. Ferer holds dear the one that he would never let out of his sight is a precious pink diamond sphere that is called "The Wizards Glass". "I've gone through too much trouble to get this jewel and I'm not about to let it go."
"What a crook." Lupin stewed, "That jewel would have been mine this whole time. He's a bigger thief then I am, and I don't remember him stealing it from me."
Then a loud voice came at the door, "Hey, what's all the ruckus?"
Lupin looked to see Inspector Zenigata, "Always one step behind, pops." He smiled
"What's going on here?"
Lupin filled him in on what he had discovered.
"Why don't we ask Preventer to get a search warrant and get the Wizard's Glass?" Zenigata asked
"Didn't you hear what he said?" Jigen asked, "He said that he's not about to let it go."
"So," Lupin picked up, "That means we're going to have to take it from him."
"From who?" Another voice came into the room.
Lupin and the others looked to find Quatre Raberba Winner standing in the doorway. He looked confused or at least questioning as if he had been standing in that doorway the whole time and was only waiting for the right time to step in. So, Quatre was invited into the conspiracy to commit theft, but then he heard the name, Vincent Ferer. The very moment that name left Lupin's lips and entered into Quatre's brain, the synapses fired and the muscles in his face stretched into surprise. His face looked as if he had seen a ghost.
"Did you say…Vincent Ferer?" Quatre asked with a dry throat
Lupin pulled his head back in fear, "…Yeah…what about him?"
Quatre snapped back to reality and cleared his throat, "Vincent Ferer is a man that we at Preventer have been trying to catch for the past few months. According to what we've found out, he's not only a billionaire, he's also an arms dealer, but an arms dealer of a very sneaky type. He's been selling out mobile suits to rebel armies all over the Earth and Colonies. This is one of the many reasons why he's such a rich son of a bitch."
"If he's done deeds like that," Zenigata asked, "Then why hasn't he been arrested."
Quatre held up on finger, "One word…evidence….We don't have enough evidence to convict him. Every time that we've come close he slips through our fingers like a bar of soap. I just got off the phone with my co-workers Duo and Heero and they told me that the mobile suit that we caught today was one of his, I'm sure of it, but a pile of mobile suit debris is not evidence."
"Damn bureaucrats." Zenigata grumbled
"We do have an idea of where he'll be." Lupin offered, "From what we've read in the article, he's going to hold a big party on his newly constructed cruise liner, The Juliet, to celebrate his 40th Birthday. It leaves dock from New York City in about a week."
Quatre sighed, "I have to call in the other officers." Quatre got up and was about to leave the room, yet the way he did it showed very subtle signs that he was on a mission.
"What for?" Jigen asked
Quatre turned around and smiled, "We're going on a Black Bag mission."
* * *
Quatre had I indeed called in the other officers, but he didn't call in all of Preventer. He called a good number of the Gundam pilots, like Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Wufei Chang, Johan Rodriguez, and Haruka Tenou. He even called in some of the other members like Sally Po, and Lucrezia Noin. He brought them all in to the Winner Family Mansion and introduced them to Lupin and his crew. Then it was told what the situation was.
"So," Johan said, "After all these years, another tear has opened."
"That's right." Quatre continued the briefing, "And from what they've told me, they got here by way of a jewel called The Wizard's Glass, which is in possession of the very man that we're trying to capture…Vincent Ferer."
"You're telling us," Wufei postulated, "That we can kill two birds with one stone, if we help them get this Wizard's Glass from Vincent Ferer then we might be able to nail him on his arms dealing?"
"Yes." Quatre answered, "I've also found out that he's going to have a big Birthday celebration on his ship, the Juliet that leaves New York City within a week."
"In that case" Heero got up assuming the leader role, "We're going to need some information, Duo try to find out if there's any way to get passage aboard the ship."
"Right" Duo smiled
"Trowa" Heero addressed the Silencer, "Get any blueprints you can on this ship, the Juliet."
"Got it" Trowa acknowledged.
"Quatre see if you can find a way to create alternate identities for all of us. No one can recognize us as Preventer officers."
"Understood"
"Johan work with Duo and see if there aren't any tickets then try to find a way to squeeze us on that ship."
"I'm on it"
"And Wufei, find out whatever you can about the security systems."
"Sure" Wufei said in his same monotone voice.
* * *
"An officer should never be in this kind of position." Quatre thought to himself, "Grand Theft, Conspiracy to Commit Grand Theft, Attempted Fraud, and Fraud. People like us should never get into situations like this, but what other choice do we have?"
Quatre was spinning in his head about eh ethics of this kind of situation, debating and re-debating the pros and cons of it. With every action there is an equal an opposite reaction, the most basic law of life, the universe, as well as everything else. It became so much that Quatre actually felt ill to his stomach which was very odd since he had faced so many things before that were just as frightening when his life was on the line. Yet…what would be at stake if the worse thing had happened in this? They were the only police force for Earth and Space, so the only ones to judge and try their conduct for this mission would be the World Nation. Even then Quatre thought of the worse possible scenario, being stripped of all rank and privileges as well as imprisonment. While Quatre was working on the ID's for himself as well as the other Preventers, Lupin's crew, as well as Zenigata (Whom Quatre thought would be the Preventer Officer for this mission), he decided to put it all aside for the moment and try to clear his head.
Yet, he couldn't clear his head, there was something else there nagging at him like a child tugging on his sleeve, begging him to look down. The thought that pulled at him, was the thought of that woman, Miss Fujiko Mine. Quatre could still remember the experience of her. Fujiko Mine in herself was an experience, the smoothness of her skin and dress, the smell of her perfume, the look on her face, and the way she moved in front of Quatre. When those thoughts came to him he smiled, but then he felt a little embarrassed when he found out that his own body was reacting to those thoughts about Fujiko.
At first he couldn't explain it, the sweat in his palms, the twisting and turning in the pit of his stomach. He had felt this once in his adolescent years, but he didn't have a clear understanding of it back then. With time and age, Quatre knew what it was…love. He was in love with that woman, but how is that possible? It was only one day that he had known her or at least gotten to know her name.
Quatre wanted to do something, but couldn't figure out what to do, this feeling of love was just like being in a roller coaster. The sensations are so much that its hard to concentrate on what to do next. All that can be done is to just sit there and take whatever twists, turns, and loops that can be thrown. Quatre thought about the traditions that had been brought about between men and women. Such as the flowers and candy, etc, but Quatre knew that he could do so much better than that. His thoughts about it brought his eyes to the streets in front of the Winner family mansion. Down there he saw the little shops that had sprung around his home like how grass and flowers grow in a wet part of the forest. He thought about the shops that were there, a few antique stores, some clothes shops (The trendy kinds that change nearly every week), and there was…
"A jewelry store" Quatre thought to himself and just uttering what was down there on that street gave him the greatest idea that he could think of. He knew that there was time before the launching of the Juliet, so he decided to take a little stroll into one of those shops.
* * *
Of course, it was a Saturday and the streets around the shops were buzzing with activity. All the stores were open and not just with its open doors but with tables and racks of items that were on sale. Everywhere that could be looked there were people just ready and willing to buy whatever seemed to please their eyes.
In all that confusion of people coming and going, buying and selling, Quatre was finding his way to the store that he was looking for. It was a small hole-in-the-wall jewelry store, simply entitled "Flawless". Kind of a play on of what they were hoping a really great diamond would be when they sold it.
Quatre walked in with the door ringing the bell to signal to the salesman of a new customer. Quatre looked around at the pristine visage of glass cases and precious pieces of jewelry on model fingers, ring holders, and stands of all kinds to display their brilliance. The Noble in the Desert, couldn't help but lean over the display cases and peer into the towers of jewels.
"What can I help you with today, sir" The owner and salesman came out to greet him. The owners name was Hamad, a tall rather large around the waist kind of man, with a thick mustache, and beady little eyes that were set upon Quatre.
Quatre looked up and said, "I'm looking for a special piece of jewelry for a woman I…"
"Ah!" Hamad said with a wide smile, "Then I know just the piece that could do for her."
He reached under the glass case and pulled out a small ring that had a yellow diamond crowning it. "This would definitely please the little lady."
Quatre took one look at it and said, "No, I don't think so. She's a lot more than that."
Hamad placed the diamond back in its case, but cupped his chin trying to figure out what else he had in his inventory that could please his new customer. He thought only for a moment and then thought of something else that could work. He reached behind him to a case that contained a neck stand. He gently brought out a great necklace that was intertwined must like the strands of a spiders web. Yet, within those strands were hundreds and hundreds of little diamonds that sent off more reflections of white light and rainbows than a disco ball. Quatre could plainly see that if a woman wore such a necklace it would stretch from the base to the very top of her neck where it meets her chin. He looked at it for a moment and tried to imagine Fujiko in such a necklace, but it still didn't feel right. So, Quatre only shook his head.
Hamad placed it back in its case, but scratched his head in confusion about what can please this rather difficult customer. Most of the people that would come into his store would love nearly every single piece that he had, as if each one had a spell upon it that made its future owner love it. Then again, from what Hamad saw in his store, women think about diamonds much like how men think about sex, and in the same way leeches think about blood. Yet, this man seemed to have a glint in his eye when he mentioned this woman, the kind of glint that told him that something very, very special must be used for this occasion. He leaned over to Quatre making sure that there was no one else in the store and that no one else was going to come in.
"Um…" Hamad started rather sloppily, "Sir?" He wanted to know his name
"Quatre" He started, "Quatre Raberba Winner."
Hamad gave Quatre a very odd look, he knew about the Winner family but he never dreamed that one would walk into his humble little shop and try to find a very special piece. Yet, in the back of his mind there was something that he had in the shop ever since his father had it. He bent down underneath all the glass cases and pulled out a small metal box. Looking at it Hamad took in one deep breath and blew off the dust from it dampening himself in a cloud of its dirty tickling on his skin and in his nose. Enough to make him sneeze but he held it in as hard as he could. Then came back up and set the dusty metallic box upon the clean glass, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small key to open the box.
Quatre watched with great interest of what the treasure may be inside. Wondering what great piece of jewelry may be pulled out by Hamad's great hands. He watched as the jeweler brought out a small piece of cloth that was wrapping something within it. Hamad held out his hand and flung back one flap of the cloth showing something that Quatre had never in his wildest imaginations could have seen. Upon the cloth that was supported by Hamad's gentle hand, Quatre saw a flower, a jeweled rose.
Quatre gazed at it, seeing the red petals give off their shimmer. Quatre gaze at its beauty, he knew immediately what pieces were in it. He saw creamy jade for the stem of the rose and emeralds lined with gold along their edges for the leaves. Then there was the rose bud itself, its leaves all crafted from rubies. Each petal concealing the greatest crown that the rose had, for within the grasp of the ruby petals there was a diamond, a canary yellow diamond as the great nectar center of the rose.
"Incredible." Quatre uttered
"This is the Ruby Rose." Hamad said, "Passed down from my family for generations, it was said to have been made for an Arabian Prince as a dowry for his marriage to his first wife. Yet, the marriage ended in tragedy when she died in child-birth. This Rose was all that the prince had to remember her by. In his broken heart, he gave it back to the man who made it, a poor craftsman who worked for weeks to make this rose. Buying, begging, bartering, and even stealing for the materials that went into it. The stories of this rose are highly abound, but my family only wanted to sell this rose to someone who had love in his heart for the woman he gave it to. I see that look in your eyes, young Quatre Raberba Winner. Give this rose to the woman that you've fallen in love with."
"I shall." Quatre said, his voice sounding as love-stricken as ever, "How much for it?"
Hamad whispered, "Nothing."
Quatre gave Hamad a confused look
The jeweler took the cloth that had the rose in it and gently placed it into Quatre's hands.
"May this rose bring the two of you closer" Hamad said with a smile under his thick mustache, "Go now."
Quatre left the shop back to the bustle of the busy Saturday shopping with confusion in his mind and the Ruby Rose in his hand.
* * *
Quatre came back to the Winner Family Mansion, carefully making sure that he didn't drop or crush the Ruby Rose as if it was as fragile as an egg. Yet, walking down the streets and up the walkway to the mansion seemed like a walk to reason what had just happened. Why had the jeweler given Quatre such an extravagant piece? Especially since Quatre was rich, he wouldn't exactly deny that, he was a rather rich person. Especially considering how much of the resource satellites controlled by his family, so it does stand to reason that he's wealthy beyond a doubt. He could have easily paid the price that the jeweler might have asked for, but instead it was given to him as if it was a birthday present.
As Quatre came to the front door of his mansion, a voice called out to him. A voice that he hadn't heard in a very long time, a sweet, yet somehow very sinister voice, and Quatre looked. At the doorstep of his mansion, he found Dorothy Catalonia. She had grown up in the past 15 years, both up and out as most women do. Even with the looks that Dorothy had acquired and tried to upkeep with time, she still had that feeling of her sinister ways. Both in the dullness of her blue eyes as well as the forked eyebrows above them like twin V's laying on their sides.
"Quatre Raberba Winner" She said as she brushed away one strand of her very long blonde hair.
"Hello, Dorothy." Quatre said, with a certain grimace in the back of his mind, then again who could blame Quatre? This was a girl that over 20 years ago had stabbed Quatre with a sharpened fencing foil. Quatre still had the scar from it, each time he would bathe or shower he could see that scar, a permanent reminder of the things that Dorothy had done to him. Despite that, he did have feelings for her once, but that was then and that time he had that rose in his hands was something altogether different.
"What do you have there?" She asked daintily pointing at the cloth in Quatre's hands.
"It's a gift."
"For me?" Dorothy asked implying innocently to herself
"No, this is for someone that I met." Quatre explained, "A very special woman named Fujiko Mine."
"Fujiko…" Dorothy's voice took a drastic one-hundred-eighty degree turn and went straight for being disgusted at the sound of the name, "…Mine."
Dorothy had only arrived at the mansion recently and had met the Lupin crew that had arrived from the other universe. Needless to say all of Lupin's crew felt very creepy about looking at Dorothy much less being around her and speaking to her. Even Fujiko felt the sinister vibe that Dorothy gave off from both the discussions she picked and the look in her face, that expression that she always had something evil planned. Yet, Dorothy on the other hand had a different feeling from the Lupin crew, especially Fujiko. Just looking at how she was dressed in how high her hem was and how low the cut in her collar was. To Dorothy, Fujiko looked like a street walker and she wasn't silent about voicing this to Quatre.
"If it's some kind of jewelry," She started, "I wouldn't give it to her. She's just a harlot, a whore, a gold-digger, and a filthy slut. She's only after you money, I hope you realize that." Her tone sounding so matter-of-factly, "I've seen her kind everywhere on street corners selling their bodies like commodities. She looks like she could fit in with them."
Those hurtful comments that Dorothy had made about Fujiko made Quatre angry inside, but he had something else to say about this. "You can't stand her can you?" He asked.
"I don't know what you mean." She tried to sound innocent again, "I'm simply stating a fact that she can never feel anything for you because of how big your wallet is and not by your heart."
"You're just jealous." Quatre came back
"Jealous?" Dorothy asked, "How could I be so jealous of a cheap dressing slut like her?"
"You're jealous because I love her."
There was silence, but within the eyes of the sinister Dorothy Catalonia, Quatre knew that he had struck a very deep chord with her. He could almost see some pooling of tears in those wretchedly cold eyes.
"I want her and not you." Quatre rebutted, "And that's driving you mad."
Quatre walked into the Winner Family Mansion leaving Dorothy Catalonia to stew in what he knew to be her own jealousy. It's true that Dorothy was never like the really sappy romantic types that have to say "I love you" every five minutes. On the other hand, some of Quatre's friends had wondered if Dorothy was even capable of feeling love in the first place. Quatre, usually being his trusting self, would say that Dorothy can feel love but chooses to ignore it like how many choose to ignore things that are unpleasant to them.
* * *
It was time for it, Quatre had come up to Fujiko's door. He held the piece of cloth that concealed the Ruby Rose within it as he used his other hand to knock on the door. His heart raced like mad as he waited for a positive reply from the other side. He swallowed several times and he also cleared his throat to make sure that he wouldn't choke when he spoke to her.
"Come in." Fujiko's sweet voice rang out from behind the solid wood door.
Quatre took the knob and turned it his mind racing like cars at the Indi-500 with thoughts of what Fujiko could be doing in her room. She could be in there in her slip, or she could be in the bath tub, getting out and wrapping herself in a towel to be somewhat respectable. He brushed off such thoughts and stepped into the room.
He looked around the room and found Fujiko lying down on the bed with her hands behind her head. She lounged as she looked up at Quatre with one hand behind his back like an adolescent boy ready to present his future girlfriend with flowers hoping to get started on the right foot.
"Why Quatre" Fujiko said as she brought herself onto her elbows to look up at the young man, "What can I do for you?"
The Noble in the Desert already started to feel his palms start to sweat again. He even felt little droplets of sweat starting to build up upon his forehead. Desperately he wanted to reach up and brush them away but he couldn't allow himself to look foolish and get everything started on the wrong foot. To him it was a social minefield; one misstep could mean utter disaster for his efforts.
"I…" Quatre felt his throat already becoming dry as he looked down at Fujiko's body. It seemed even more erotic since she was lying down on the bed, "I wanted…to give you something."
Fujiko sat up fully on the bed, her legs hanging over the edge as she brought herself closer to Quatre. Still, she was careful not to push the hem of her dress so far up that Quatre could get a good look at her panties.
"A present?" She asked, but then again she was expecting one of the Gundam pilots to bring her a gift of some sort. Many men have done the same thing, bringing her diamond rings, necklaces, mink coats, beautiful dresses, and all sorts of wonderful things all for her. She did wait in anticipation for what Quatre had for her.
"Here." Quatre said as he brought the cloth covered present out from behind his back. He held it out to Fujiko, who looked at the cloth with some confusion. To her, it looked tattered, dirty with dust smudges upon it and God knows what other stains are there.
She reached out with both hands and took the cloth, and then pulled away at the cloth carefully as if she unintentionally wanted to prolong the surprise. She never expected anything like what she saw when she pulled away the last flap of cloth and gazed upon the Ruby Rose. Her eyes widened with surprise and her jaw loosened. It truly was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen in her life. Nothing in her past scams, robberies, or thefts had compared to the surprise and visual ecstasy that she felt when she looked at it. She then looked up at Quatre Raberba Winner, a Gundam Pilot.
"It's beautiful." She uttered as she gently cradled the Ruby Rose in her hands under the cloth. "Why do you want to give this to me?"
Quatre saw his opportunity, he felt his mind slip for a moment as if all the speeches that he had practiced in his mind on the way to her room were suddenly gone and he was desperately trying to regain them.
"It's time for only your heart to speak." Quatre's calmer mind had told him, "Sit down next to her and tell her what's in your heart."
Quatre did what his calm rational voice had told him, he sat down on the edge of the bed next to Fujiko. He looked at the Ruby Rose sitting in Fujiko's hands and he looked up to Fujiko's face and looked deeply into her eyes behind those bangs of long brown hair.
"I brought this gift to you" Quatre began, "Because…" He trailed for a moment, he tried to grasp at the most convincing reason that he could think of.
Fujiko wanted to know the reason, "Because?" She asked
Quatre started up again, "I know that it has only been a couple of days, but in that time that I've gotten to know you, it has been…happy." He tried to keep eye contact with Fujiko when he spoke his words from the heart, "I think I may have fallen in love with you."
Fujiko wasn't exactly surprised by what Quatre had told her, many men have come to her bearing those expensive and extravagant gifts to her, all of them saying that they loved her, but Fujiko knew better. She knew above all else what those men, those dirty old men wanted from her. Just a little piece of Fujiko's action under her dress, that's all they wanted, but something felt different about this, still she had to ask out of honest since she wasn't seducing Quatre for his money.
"What is it that you expect in return?" She asked calmly, "For me to come to bed?"
Quatre smiled, "No."
The real surprise had fallen upon Fujiko, Quatre did not want any piece of Fujiko's action, that he actually said no to going to bed with her. Of all the seductions that Fujiko had played and of all the objects of lust and affection she had been, this one threw her for the greatest loop of all.
"Then what?" she asked
Quatre continued to speak from his own heart, "I just want to be near you." He said as he moved himself closer to Fujiko, "I want to be near you, to allow all my senses to know you, to see your face, to smell your perfume, and to touch your soft skin. The very vision of you to me is intoxicating and I don't just want one night."
This was the biggest surprise that Fujiko had received in the space of only a few minutes. First she receives a present that's beyond all what her eyes had ever seen and in the same moment a man didn't want to go to bed with her. He only wanted to be near her. It seemed so ironic that she had dealt with so many dirty old men and young perverts, including Lupin, and she was being worshiped by a pure heart. She couldn't resist as she reached up to touch Quatre's face and leaned in to place a soft kiss upon his lips. Quatre returned Fujiko's kiss. Fujiko loved his kissing, it was soft and gentle against her skin. If he didn't want to go to bed with her, it was the least that she could do for him for such wonderful gifts that were beyond all price.
* * *
One Week Later…
New York City: The New York Harbor
The day was bright and sunny, the seagulls called out as they flew high above the great cruise liner, the Juliet. It truly was an enormous ship, bigger than any ship that had been built before it. The things that were inside were the very features that made this ship better and greater than any in any fleet on Earth. It seemed almost unfathomable that any one man would have the money or the resources to build it, but the evidence was there sitting in water displacing vast amounts of water equal to its enormous mass. At its port, the boarding for each passenger were already starting. In fact it was a little smoother than most luxury liners. It was more like the boarding for first class passengers upon an airplane, just smooth as ice.
The boarding officer looked at the boarding pass for his next passenger. Everything had checked out, and he saw that this passenger was a V.I.P. and of course the treatment for VIP's is always treat them like royalty.
"Welcome aboard the Juliet, Mr.…?" He trailed off hoping that his passenger would fill in the blank.
"Mr. Arsene Lupin the 3rd." The passenger said as he took his ticket and went aboard.
To be continued…