8:17 p.m.
Friday June ninth, A.C. 206
L1 Colony
Krieger Mansion Ballroom
Heero looked around the ballroom, here they were and another year had gone by almost without notice. He hadn't been forced to fight, fight like he had once done in a decade. A decade of peace, or as close as mankind would allow. Ten years during which, he and Relena had gotten married and become a family. Oh to be sure, they had been as close as two people in love could be. But you were never really a family, not really until there were more of you. There were more of them. Four to be exact. Two daughters. They were more than Heero deserved more than he should have ever been allowed to glimpse but they were his. Noriko, the elder of the two was seven years old, and very much her fathers' daughter. She liked her dark mahogany hair kept short, to about her shoulder blades so that it could be pulled back and kept out of her face. Her eyes, were that intense Prussian blue that Heero's eyes were. She didn't like dresses and even at seven she had decided that she was never ever going to become like her momma. Why? Well because her mother, much as she loved her, had to be nice to everybody. She had to always dress up fancy, and wear dresses- something the seven-year- old abhorred with a passion-and she wouldn't be able to carry a gun or get a leather jacket like her daddy. Was she ever Heero's daughter.
The younger of the two was as much like Relena like Nori was like Heero. Hitomi, the precocious five-year-old had that velvety soft blond hair like Relena though her eyes were not her mothers summer-sky-blue but her fathers' intense Prussian. She liked dressing up, and when the girls had to go into work Relena always took her because, she- sad to say- did not act like her father. Which, was to say She didn't glare at the other politicians, but smiled adorably and sometimes she got to see Aunt Sally or Uncle Wufei and their children. Liao and Shian-Li. She smiled, and was as shy and adorable as some five-year-olds are. But that was not to say that she wasn't Heero's daughter. Oh ho ho! She had his backbone, and while she was usually as sweet and adorable as they came when she wanted something really wanted she was a tough customer. She like her older sister and Heero was developing a death glare.
They like their mother were his salvation. Through him he was alive, to say father hood had mellowed him was true. He now loved as much as he had killed, cherished as he had fought. Heero Yuy was not a man who did things by half. It was all or nothing. This was his life now, extravagant parties, little girls in dresses, life, at its fullest. He would trade Peace for almost nothing on this earth, or in the colonies. Amongst the things that he would trade were the lives of his family, Relena. His two daughters, But even in this time of peace his instincts had not abraded fully. He was still Heero Yuy. Hero of two wars, Husband to one of the greatest politicians of their time. Sometimes he still got the gut feeling that something was horribly wrong, and it was seldom-if ever- wrong. As he turned away from his daughters to get them something to drink that icy-cold tendril of terror hit him. He spilled the glass he turned so quickly and when he did both girls were gone. Just a moment they had stood next to him, now they were nowhere in sight. They could have wandered off but he knew differently. Something he had not felt in years came back to him. That cold fulfilling, familiar darkness of being the perfect soldier. His eyes met Relena's across the room and her fright at seeing him in such a condition let her in on the secret. He didn't know where his little girls, his two little rays of light were. And it terrified him, though such emotions as fear were fueled to efficiency in his mission. To find them, chastise them if they had simply wandered off. Murder the cold-blooded bastards that had dared steal them away if not. He saw across the room Relena speak to a guard and suddenly the doors were blocked. Nobody was getting in or out of this room unless they were someone that the guards knew personally. Like Heero.
They knew him personally because he went over the security rosters at every engagement that he, Relena and the girls attended. He had hired most of them for guards for himself or Relena at some point in time. Even knew some of them from the wars. They were all men that he trusted implicitly, he knew that they would do whatever was needed to find his daughters. Though most of the guests didn't realize it, security measures were being taken as they danced. The balcony doors which, had previously been open, were now closed. Everyone was being herded, trapped. Somewhere in the room was a rat, and Heero was determined to find them. Whatever the cost.
11:15 a.m.
June tenth A.C.206
Earth: China
Chang-Po household
Wufei woke up late on the Saturdays. Not always, but after a big case he was liable to sleep in to what he considered an un-godly hour. Eleven o' clock. Usually he was up with the dawn. He liked to do his waking rituals with the dawning of the new day. At dawn everything, was fresh, and new, and alive. It was the grandest time of the day in his opinion; nothing was more beautiful than seeing the sunrise, spraying the earth with dozens of hues of red, gold, yellow, and orange. Nothing perhaps, but his wife of nine years, Sally, or their two children. He loved them, and as much as he loved them sometimes a father just needed a bit of time alone. Which was another good reason for being up at dawn.
He and Sally had been blessed by two wonderful children. The older of the two was Shian-Li. Eight years old, with hair as fine as silk and black as onyx. She looked like a typical Chinese girl, the slightly slanted eyes, dark hair, and pale milky complexion but her eyes, ah they were her mother's eyes through and through. They were a sapphire that burned with the fire of her entire soul, with all the fire of her personality. It was that personality that had allowed her to even be introduced to the world. Shian-Li had been Wufei's first child but she had almost died at birth. Sally, after getting into a near fatal car accident had gone into labor early. She had been pregnant for only seven months. The baby had been delivered successfully but had been so tiny, for four weeks they had kept her at the hospital. After that time, she was brought home. Seven times in those four weeks her tiny heart had almost stopped. Seven times but.she had Wufei's strength of character and Sally's raw stubbornness and she had come home a healthy baby girl.
Their second child was a little boy named Liao. His birth had not been nearly as dramatic as Shian-Li's. He had come into the world a healthy 7 lbs. 6 oz. Baby right on time. Where Shian-li was all fire and whirlwind Liao was quieter. He liked to read, and though he was only six he wanted to learn how to play Chess so that he could beat his father one-day. He too had that fine silky black hair, and unlike his sister he also had Wufei's somber brown eyes. He was a tranquil child, but a boy none the less, though he did not have quite so much energy as other boys his age because he practiced his karate.often. Wufei had both children learning. Both from their father and from lessons. He had once thought that he never wished to be married, but he had been young. And foolish. Meiran had shown him his foolishness though he had paid with it with her life. But she had shown no regret, and Wufei honored her memory. The dragon Clan had been destroyed many years ago, his family destroyed. But now, it was rebuilding. He sat down on the couch and idly flipped on the news to see what the weather would be like, his normally honey-gold face turned ashen and his throat worked convulsively as one thought ran through his mind screaming. no! Oh god NO!!
*** "My name is Danielle Heng, and I'm here at the Chen-Li mall. I'm here because a heinous crime has been perpetrated; the two young children of former gundam pilot and preventer agent Wufei Chang and his wife, preventer Agent Sally Po-Chang have been kidnapped. As it seems, the children were playing on the indoor jungle gym you see just behind me. Mrs. Chang-Po had sat down with their purchases while the children played, and after several minutes when she tried to find her children they were gone. None of the four police officers in the mall saw anyone leading two struggling children from the mall, or saw anything out of the ordinary. Police are now on the scene and a statement is expected within the hour. Whether these disappearances are connected to the alleged kidnappings of Noriko and Hitomi Yuy, daughters of former gundam pilot and preventer agent Heero Yuy and vice foreign minister Relena Darlian Peacecraft-Yuy is yet to be confirmed. Also to be confirmed is whether these kidnappings may be involved with the abductions of Marilyn Maxwell, Michael Maxwell, and Matthew Maxwell. Children of former gundam pilot Duo Maxwell and Hilde Schbeiker-Maxwell. "
Sally sat on a nearby bench, out of sight of the cameras and surrounded by police personnel. Though she was in shock, she could still hear the news reporter; she was no more than fifteen feet away at most. The mall which was usually very quiet was buzzing with police, reporters, camera crews and on lookers. Sally's mind was feebly trying to keep up with what she had just heard. "The alleged kidnappings of Noriko and Hitomi Yuy, daughters of former gundam Pilot and preventer agent Heero Yuy and vice foreign minister Relena Darlian Peacecraft-Yuy" "the abductions of Marilyn Maxwell, Michael Maxwell, and Matthew Maxwell. Children of former gundam pilot Duo Maxwell and Hilde Schbeiker-Maxwell. " Two of the most protective pairs of parents she knew also had children missing. Duo.and Heero, both had "alleged kidnappings" both were gundam pilots. It could just be a terrible, terrible coincidence but she doubted it. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Sally was frightened, no perhaps mindlessly terrified would be a better way to describe it. Though she wasn't mindless, instead she was trying to understand how this had happened? How was it that the two things she protected more than her own life were simply gone? Did it happen everyday? Did mothers go the mall leave their children alone for a minute or two only to realize that they were gone? Or was it her, was she a bad mother, how could she have not realized that her children were gone? Her children! Sally wanted to scream or cry, and vaguely she registered that if she became hysterical the police would give her a tranquilizer and she wouldn't be able to think.
Then another thought, what was Wufei going to say? He treasured the children, anyone would give a second chance at love and she had gone and.lost them. She shuddered but waved off a police officer that asked her what was wrong. As if it weren't completely obvious, she could hear a sarcastic voice on her head. "Oh nothing's wrong officer my two children who are as dear to me as life itself are missing, but I'm sure they'll turn up somewhere, maybe I left them in car" even in her head the voice seemed to drip with an undisguised venom. Things had happened over the last decade. There had been no true threat to the peace that Relena idealized because people like her husband, and Sally, and Wufei had nipped anything that might someday resemble a threat in the bud. They refused to let their children grow up in a world like their own, a world full of war, and death, and famine. Of hatred, a place where your best friends died in your arms and your family was killed before you could remember them. Wufei had almost started forest fires before, not real ones. But fires of vengeance and justice, in those times Sally had held him back. She had tempered him with resistance, but this time it had gone too far. Her children, and Duo's and Heero's, Heero's for god's sakes had been taken. This time the fires would ravage the world and no fire firemen would race to putout the burn. Eden was burning but Sally didn't give a damn, someone had taken her children. They had invoked the wrath of three of the most dangerous men alive but they all paled in comparison to what a woman was capable of.
Men could be evil, yes. They could be cruel, and spiteful, hateful and demeaning. But nobody, nobody was a connoisseur of pain if it wasn't a woman. Men preferred to use violence to solve their problems for the most part, but it was women who could draw out pain in a cold thick line like you wouldn't believe. And they could do it without ever laying a finger on you. Sally knew subconsciously that this was a woman's work, an evil, dark soulless woman, to try and harm a child for the parent's sins, but a woman none the less. Behind every manipulating man, there is a malicious woman.
And this one was smart, but she didn't know what she had gotten herself
into, and Sally intended to show her just how dark a woman's soul could
become when the people she cared about most were on the line.
Friday June ninth, A.C. 206
L1 Colony
Krieger Mansion Ballroom
Heero looked around the ballroom, here they were and another year had gone by almost without notice. He hadn't been forced to fight, fight like he had once done in a decade. A decade of peace, or as close as mankind would allow. Ten years during which, he and Relena had gotten married and become a family. Oh to be sure, they had been as close as two people in love could be. But you were never really a family, not really until there were more of you. There were more of them. Four to be exact. Two daughters. They were more than Heero deserved more than he should have ever been allowed to glimpse but they were his. Noriko, the elder of the two was seven years old, and very much her fathers' daughter. She liked her dark mahogany hair kept short, to about her shoulder blades so that it could be pulled back and kept out of her face. Her eyes, were that intense Prussian blue that Heero's eyes were. She didn't like dresses and even at seven she had decided that she was never ever going to become like her momma. Why? Well because her mother, much as she loved her, had to be nice to everybody. She had to always dress up fancy, and wear dresses- something the seven-year- old abhorred with a passion-and she wouldn't be able to carry a gun or get a leather jacket like her daddy. Was she ever Heero's daughter.
The younger of the two was as much like Relena like Nori was like Heero. Hitomi, the precocious five-year-old had that velvety soft blond hair like Relena though her eyes were not her mothers summer-sky-blue but her fathers' intense Prussian. She liked dressing up, and when the girls had to go into work Relena always took her because, she- sad to say- did not act like her father. Which, was to say She didn't glare at the other politicians, but smiled adorably and sometimes she got to see Aunt Sally or Uncle Wufei and their children. Liao and Shian-Li. She smiled, and was as shy and adorable as some five-year-olds are. But that was not to say that she wasn't Heero's daughter. Oh ho ho! She had his backbone, and while she was usually as sweet and adorable as they came when she wanted something really wanted she was a tough customer. She like her older sister and Heero was developing a death glare.
They like their mother were his salvation. Through him he was alive, to say father hood had mellowed him was true. He now loved as much as he had killed, cherished as he had fought. Heero Yuy was not a man who did things by half. It was all or nothing. This was his life now, extravagant parties, little girls in dresses, life, at its fullest. He would trade Peace for almost nothing on this earth, or in the colonies. Amongst the things that he would trade were the lives of his family, Relena. His two daughters, But even in this time of peace his instincts had not abraded fully. He was still Heero Yuy. Hero of two wars, Husband to one of the greatest politicians of their time. Sometimes he still got the gut feeling that something was horribly wrong, and it was seldom-if ever- wrong. As he turned away from his daughters to get them something to drink that icy-cold tendril of terror hit him. He spilled the glass he turned so quickly and when he did both girls were gone. Just a moment they had stood next to him, now they were nowhere in sight. They could have wandered off but he knew differently. Something he had not felt in years came back to him. That cold fulfilling, familiar darkness of being the perfect soldier. His eyes met Relena's across the room and her fright at seeing him in such a condition let her in on the secret. He didn't know where his little girls, his two little rays of light were. And it terrified him, though such emotions as fear were fueled to efficiency in his mission. To find them, chastise them if they had simply wandered off. Murder the cold-blooded bastards that had dared steal them away if not. He saw across the room Relena speak to a guard and suddenly the doors were blocked. Nobody was getting in or out of this room unless they were someone that the guards knew personally. Like Heero.
They knew him personally because he went over the security rosters at every engagement that he, Relena and the girls attended. He had hired most of them for guards for himself or Relena at some point in time. Even knew some of them from the wars. They were all men that he trusted implicitly, he knew that they would do whatever was needed to find his daughters. Though most of the guests didn't realize it, security measures were being taken as they danced. The balcony doors which, had previously been open, were now closed. Everyone was being herded, trapped. Somewhere in the room was a rat, and Heero was determined to find them. Whatever the cost.
11:15 a.m.
June tenth A.C.206
Earth: China
Chang-Po household
Wufei woke up late on the Saturdays. Not always, but after a big case he was liable to sleep in to what he considered an un-godly hour. Eleven o' clock. Usually he was up with the dawn. He liked to do his waking rituals with the dawning of the new day. At dawn everything, was fresh, and new, and alive. It was the grandest time of the day in his opinion; nothing was more beautiful than seeing the sunrise, spraying the earth with dozens of hues of red, gold, yellow, and orange. Nothing perhaps, but his wife of nine years, Sally, or their two children. He loved them, and as much as he loved them sometimes a father just needed a bit of time alone. Which was another good reason for being up at dawn.
He and Sally had been blessed by two wonderful children. The older of the two was Shian-Li. Eight years old, with hair as fine as silk and black as onyx. She looked like a typical Chinese girl, the slightly slanted eyes, dark hair, and pale milky complexion but her eyes, ah they were her mother's eyes through and through. They were a sapphire that burned with the fire of her entire soul, with all the fire of her personality. It was that personality that had allowed her to even be introduced to the world. Shian-Li had been Wufei's first child but she had almost died at birth. Sally, after getting into a near fatal car accident had gone into labor early. She had been pregnant for only seven months. The baby had been delivered successfully but had been so tiny, for four weeks they had kept her at the hospital. After that time, she was brought home. Seven times in those four weeks her tiny heart had almost stopped. Seven times but.she had Wufei's strength of character and Sally's raw stubbornness and she had come home a healthy baby girl.
Their second child was a little boy named Liao. His birth had not been nearly as dramatic as Shian-Li's. He had come into the world a healthy 7 lbs. 6 oz. Baby right on time. Where Shian-li was all fire and whirlwind Liao was quieter. He liked to read, and though he was only six he wanted to learn how to play Chess so that he could beat his father one-day. He too had that fine silky black hair, and unlike his sister he also had Wufei's somber brown eyes. He was a tranquil child, but a boy none the less, though he did not have quite so much energy as other boys his age because he practiced his karate.often. Wufei had both children learning. Both from their father and from lessons. He had once thought that he never wished to be married, but he had been young. And foolish. Meiran had shown him his foolishness though he had paid with it with her life. But she had shown no regret, and Wufei honored her memory. The dragon Clan had been destroyed many years ago, his family destroyed. But now, it was rebuilding. He sat down on the couch and idly flipped on the news to see what the weather would be like, his normally honey-gold face turned ashen and his throat worked convulsively as one thought ran through his mind screaming. no! Oh god NO!!
*** "My name is Danielle Heng, and I'm here at the Chen-Li mall. I'm here because a heinous crime has been perpetrated; the two young children of former gundam pilot and preventer agent Wufei Chang and his wife, preventer Agent Sally Po-Chang have been kidnapped. As it seems, the children were playing on the indoor jungle gym you see just behind me. Mrs. Chang-Po had sat down with their purchases while the children played, and after several minutes when she tried to find her children they were gone. None of the four police officers in the mall saw anyone leading two struggling children from the mall, or saw anything out of the ordinary. Police are now on the scene and a statement is expected within the hour. Whether these disappearances are connected to the alleged kidnappings of Noriko and Hitomi Yuy, daughters of former gundam pilot and preventer agent Heero Yuy and vice foreign minister Relena Darlian Peacecraft-Yuy is yet to be confirmed. Also to be confirmed is whether these kidnappings may be involved with the abductions of Marilyn Maxwell, Michael Maxwell, and Matthew Maxwell. Children of former gundam pilot Duo Maxwell and Hilde Schbeiker-Maxwell. "
Sally sat on a nearby bench, out of sight of the cameras and surrounded by police personnel. Though she was in shock, she could still hear the news reporter; she was no more than fifteen feet away at most. The mall which was usually very quiet was buzzing with police, reporters, camera crews and on lookers. Sally's mind was feebly trying to keep up with what she had just heard. "The alleged kidnappings of Noriko and Hitomi Yuy, daughters of former gundam Pilot and preventer agent Heero Yuy and vice foreign minister Relena Darlian Peacecraft-Yuy" "the abductions of Marilyn Maxwell, Michael Maxwell, and Matthew Maxwell. Children of former gundam pilot Duo Maxwell and Hilde Schbeiker-Maxwell. " Two of the most protective pairs of parents she knew also had children missing. Duo.and Heero, both had "alleged kidnappings" both were gundam pilots. It could just be a terrible, terrible coincidence but she doubted it. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Sally was frightened, no perhaps mindlessly terrified would be a better way to describe it. Though she wasn't mindless, instead she was trying to understand how this had happened? How was it that the two things she protected more than her own life were simply gone? Did it happen everyday? Did mothers go the mall leave their children alone for a minute or two only to realize that they were gone? Or was it her, was she a bad mother, how could she have not realized that her children were gone? Her children! Sally wanted to scream or cry, and vaguely she registered that if she became hysterical the police would give her a tranquilizer and she wouldn't be able to think.
Then another thought, what was Wufei going to say? He treasured the children, anyone would give a second chance at love and she had gone and.lost them. She shuddered but waved off a police officer that asked her what was wrong. As if it weren't completely obvious, she could hear a sarcastic voice on her head. "Oh nothing's wrong officer my two children who are as dear to me as life itself are missing, but I'm sure they'll turn up somewhere, maybe I left them in car" even in her head the voice seemed to drip with an undisguised venom. Things had happened over the last decade. There had been no true threat to the peace that Relena idealized because people like her husband, and Sally, and Wufei had nipped anything that might someday resemble a threat in the bud. They refused to let their children grow up in a world like their own, a world full of war, and death, and famine. Of hatred, a place where your best friends died in your arms and your family was killed before you could remember them. Wufei had almost started forest fires before, not real ones. But fires of vengeance and justice, in those times Sally had held him back. She had tempered him with resistance, but this time it had gone too far. Her children, and Duo's and Heero's, Heero's for god's sakes had been taken. This time the fires would ravage the world and no fire firemen would race to putout the burn. Eden was burning but Sally didn't give a damn, someone had taken her children. They had invoked the wrath of three of the most dangerous men alive but they all paled in comparison to what a woman was capable of.
Men could be evil, yes. They could be cruel, and spiteful, hateful and demeaning. But nobody, nobody was a connoisseur of pain if it wasn't a woman. Men preferred to use violence to solve their problems for the most part, but it was women who could draw out pain in a cold thick line like you wouldn't believe. And they could do it without ever laying a finger on you. Sally knew subconsciously that this was a woman's work, an evil, dark soulless woman, to try and harm a child for the parent's sins, but a woman none the less. Behind every manipulating man, there is a malicious woman.
And this one was smart, but she didn't know what she had gotten herself
into, and Sally intended to show her just how dark a woman's soul could
become when the people she cared about most were on the line.