Chapter Twenty-six: A new player in the game - Ryuujin the swordsman

(A/N: to explain what happened with Chase and the break out, I'm going to have to jump back, so this could get confusing. Be warned.)

Chase sank to the ground, frustration taking over. Trowa would not see the end of this if Ryuujin met him. Ryuujin was strong. Stronger than any of them, if he had taken on the personality she expected.

The door was all but thrown open and a tall man with spiky blue hair stepped in, wielding a sword. Chase looked up. "Ryu-kun..."

His red eyes glared down at her and she rolled out of the reach of his sword. It had been a long time since she had had to bring him out of this state and she hoped her old tricks would still work.

Chase jumped up high in the air, landing behind him. When he whirled around to face her, she kissed him. Ryuujin's eyes widened as they faded back to the reflective blue that they were suppose to be. Chase pulled away and smiled. "Long time no see, boyo."

After the surprise wore off, Ryuujin returned her smile. "Alternate personality?"

"Too much pepper on your food, I suppose," Chase answered.

"Let's get out of here," the elder man said.

"Yeah, I'm sure the guards would just love to get a hold of you right now."

"I could still defeat them."

"These are children, my friend. We're in a no kill zone, if at all possible."

Ryuujin grumbled something and then nodded. "Hai, Chase-chan," he answered.

"I need to get something, Ryu."

"And what would that be?"

"My computer. Trowa has it and it has the blue prints for the Gundams on it. If he uses that, we're all in trouble, no matter what time you're from."

"How would he get the gundaniam to build it with?"

"Trowa's resourceful. He'll find a way."

Ten minutes or so later, Chase and Ryu rounded the corner and stepped into a room. The guards rushed past the room, shouting things in various languages as they rushed after what they thought to be their prey.

Ryu placed a hand on the hilt of his sword as he looked after them. "I see what you mean about them being kids."

"Hai..." Chase surveyed the room. It appeared to be someone's privet quarters. A small bed was over in the corner with a jacket laid across it. A computer on a desk was the only other thing in the room. On the desk were various pictures. "Look."

Ryu looked at the pictures. "Gundam pilots."

Indeed the pictures were of the various Gundam pilots. One of the pictures the young American could not forget if she had wanted to. It was of her, no older than sixteen, sitting cross-legged with Katherine Bloom aiming a knife towards her and smiling.

"Trowa's room."

"It has to be," Ryu answered. "Let's find your computer and get going. Nothing good will come of being here too long."

Chase nodded her agreement as she began to search the room from top to bottom. When she looked under the pillow on the bed, that's when she found it. The blue covering was dirtied as if the computer had been used a great deal more than it had even during its time with its owner. The former pilot picked it up and cradled it close.

"Isn't this yours as well?" Ryu asked, holding up a leather bag.

Chase took it from his hands, holding it close as she had done the computer. "It's my bag," she whispered as she looked at the tattered leather bag. "My bag from ten years ago."

"Does it have any of your old toys in it?"

Chase opened the pouch and checked. "My bottomless arsenal," she whispered with a smirk. "Of course."

Ryu nodded. "Let's get going. You have your laptop and your other belongings."

Chase nodded as she slid the laptop into the bag and swung it over one shoulder. They rushed out the door and down the hall, turning at the end. They stopped halfway down when they heard a voice.

"Stealing is wrong, Chase. You should know that."

"Not when it's mine in the first place," she hissed to Trowa.

He smirked, all of the thankfulness from the earlier saving gone from his eyes. Chase wasn't surprised. "But you gave that laptop to me."

"To destroy."

"And I did what I wished with it. I felt it had better purposes than destruction. Time travel, for instance."

"Forget it, Trowa. Your game is over. The big picture has just been shattered."

"The 'game' isn't mine. That belongs to Victor. And as to the big picture: it is yet to come, my friend."

As he moved forward, Ryu unsheathed his sword. "Step back, Barton."

"Ryuujin-san," Trowa said with a curt nod. "Yet an other of Chase's love interests. They seem to all come back into her life at once again."

Ryu's glare bore into the green-eyed man. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"It won't do you any good."

"I'm sure Chase has no wish to see you die, but if you come at me, I will kill you."

"Ryu-kun," Chase whispered. "Let's just go. Trowa can't stop both of us without his army of lackeys."

The tall man nodded.

"If you leave, Chase, Quatre stays here."

"Blast you!"

"You wouldn't find him anyway. He's far too well hidden."

Chase's eyes burned with a dark, emerald fire and she made a lunge for him. Ryu caught her around her middle, holding her back. "Iie, Chase-chan," he said. "It's reckless to rush at him like that."

The fire died and she no longer struggled against his unyielding grip. "Hai..."

"We can always come back for Quatre later."

"You will not leave," Trowa said simply as guards flooded the hallways.

"Yes, Trowa-kun, we will," Chase answered as she pulled out the laptop and quickly hit the enter button, leaving for 2013, New York City, United States of America, Earth.

Odin looked up from his empty gaze towards the television, where they had announced the pilot and the swordsman's escape, when he heard a knock at the hotel door.

He stood and approached it carefully, feeling his gun in the inside pocket of his jacket. He cracked the door open and was met by the brown eyes of the former pilot of the Gundam Galaxy.

"Elise! I heard you had escaped!" Odin said as he embraced her cheerfully.

"Only with a great deal of help, old friend. Odin Lowe, this is Ryuujin. Ryuujin, this is Odin."

The retired assassin looked at the swordsman carefully. He then extended his hand. "I believe I've heard the name before."

"Hopefully good things," the blue-haired man answered with a smirk.

"How's Heero? He's okay, right?" Chase asked quickly, interrupting them.

"He's in there resting," Odin answered, pointing to the other room. "It would do him some good to see you."

Chase nodded as she walked briskly to the other room.

Ryuujin looked after her. "So, Lowe-san, please tell me what is going on..."

Chase walked into the room and smiled. Heero lay peacefully on the bed, sound to sleep. She knelt down by the bed and lay her chin in the edge of it. "Heero-chan?" she called to him gently.

His dark blue eyes fluttered open and he smiled. "Odin said Ryuujin had gotten you out."

"Hai. Ryu-kun and I came strait here."

"Arigatou."

She smiled and nodded, taking his hand in her own. "How are you feeling, boyo?"

"Better," he answered half truthfully. "I just need a couple more days rest. Then we can go help Anna."

"Where is Anna?"

Heero looked at her sharply. She didn't know. "Anna... We think Anna infiltrated OWN."

Chase nearly fell strait back. "That girl... Oh stars..."

"What girl?"

"Victor was playing a 'game.' He told me to choose between a girl I didn't even know and Trowa. Who was going to die? I chose the girl... That girl was Anna-chan. What did I do? What did I almost do?"

"Almost?"

"She lived. They both lived. Trowa... I've tried everything. I even told him that if he came back we'd accept him. He wouldn't listen. He's so hell bent on his big picture."

"I know," Heero said gently.

"I swear that man is either going to come back to us or die like the traitor he is."

"And you don't wish for the second one?" Heero knew the answer.

"No."

"We won't kill him then. Only if we have to for our own sakes."

"The good of the many, ne?"

"Hai. The good of the many."

"Where's Wufei? I thought he was with you."

"He went back to Chicago." Heero said.

"Why?"

"He went to meet Meg Collins. She has information about Anna, he thinks."

"Meg? How would Meg have information on Anna?"

"Trowa kidnapped her, Anna set her loose. That's how we found out about her being near OWN."

Chase raised an eyebrow. "Is there something you aren't telling me, boyo?"

Heero closed his eyes. "Iie, Chase-chan, iie."