Chapter Twenty-seven: Trowa's Puzzle is Falling Apart
Jack Avis pushed his way through the throng of dismissing soldiers. Whatever they'd all been doing in halls had apparently failed. He spotted the man he was looking for leaning against the wall. Trowa looked like he was ready to turn around and begin banging his head against it at any given moment.
"Trowa? What's going on?" There was no one around, so Jack decided to be informal.
Trowa forced a smile at the younger man. "I'm a fool. A sheep in wolf's clothing."
"Why do you say that?"
"She had the laptop. I practically gave her a way out."
Jack shrugged. "Maybe it's better that way. She can take care of herself."
"I know she can. But she doesn't know what she'll be up against."
"Oh, and you do, huh? I think Victor has so many wild cards up his sleeve he could do almost anything." Jack said. "Things that neither one of us know about."
"I'm sure your right, my friend. I'm sure your right."
Jack smirked. "You want to hear a funny story?"
Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Sure. Why not?"
"That lady assassin that Victor hired is about as double edged as you are." Jack said.
"What?"
"You heard me. She *did* break the coroner out, and she helped with the escape of Ryuujin the swordmaster."
Trowa's brain flew into overdrive. "She helped them escape...That's why she covered me..."
Jack frowned. "Covered you?"
Trowa looked over at him. "Yeah. Victor played a little game that involved guns. Luckily she had one because he told me to come unarmed."
Jack's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious! This guy is out of his mind!"
Trowa waved at him to be quieter. "I know that. But there's nothing we can do at the moment. There's no point in going after Chase again. It would be complete suicide now that they have Ryu. All we can do is protect Quatre."
"About Quatre..."
"Jack..."
"He's gone."
Trowa closed his eyes and clenched his hands several times. "What do you mean gone?"
"He's still here somewhere, but Victor had him moved. I've been searching the whole place and I can't find him. Victor's up to something."
Trowa uttered a curse under his breath. "If she has anything to do with this," he muttered.
Jack shook his head. "I don't know. I'll keep looking. But if Victor wants to play..." he let the statement trail off.
"I know. He'll play to the very end." Trowa reached out and squeezed his friend's shoulder. "I need you to do something for me."
"Name it." Jack said instantly.
Trowa handed him a piece of paper. "This is Hoshimawari Mei's address. Watch it. I want to know when she's awake, when she's asleep, what she eats, and when she cleans her guns. Don't let her leave without my knowledge. Will you do that for me?" he asked.
"Sure thing. Don't worry my friend. It will work out for you, it always did in the past." Jack saluted him, and vanished to do his assignment.
"Be careful, Jack. I have a feeling this is all going to backfire on me. And soon." Trowa whispered into the empty hall.
"That is bad." Cavel agreed, after Anna had finished her story. So he would believe her, she had used the laptop to return to her original appearance. He watched her pace the living room.
"We have two options available to us. We act tonight and kidnap him, or we wait until Victor releases him tomorrow." Anna said.
"If we wait Victor will want a body." Cavel said gently.
"If we don't wait Victor will get suspicious. His prisoners didn't start disappearing until I showed up."
"If we wait we can send him back with your laptop."
"If we don't wait Victor could catch us."
"If we wait we may not be able to find him."
"If we don't wait we may not be able to find him."
Cavel and Anna looked at each other. "Let's wait." They said together.
Anna nodded and rubbed her hands together nervously. "We can set it up as a car explosion which would explain no body."
"How do we know he'll get in a car?"
"He has too. Quatre's not stupid enough to think they're letting him go out of the goodness of their hearts. He'll go directly to the airport and head for Preventer Headquarters. He'll go there because he can't get back to the past."
"If he could get back to the past, would he go there?" Cavel asked.
"Yes. Heero, Chase, Wufei, and Duo are there. The sooner the six of us re-unite the better." Anna said. A thought hit her. "Duo. They thought he was a traitor..."
"Duo Maxwell?"
"The one and only."
"You believe it."
Anna ran a hand through her hair. "I'm not sure what I believe right now. It's all so confusing." They heard a crash outside.
Jack mumbled something under his breath and rubbed his shin. He hadn't seen that trash can there. Inside, Anna took the laptop and disappeared into the bedroom. When she returned, she once again had the appearance of Hoshimawari Mei. "I don't like the sound of that." She said.
"It's probably cats." Cavel said, stifling a yawn.
"When you're an assassin, cats can be deadly. In this case you're probably right. Go get some sleep, Sparky. I'll be planning."
"Okay. Night, Anna-san."
"Night, Cavel-kun."
At eight the next morning, Meg was waiting on the pier. She pulled her jacket closer around her to protect her from the wind. She'd brought the journal entry, and the picture of the seven. She'd gotten there early just in case he did. She didn't want to miss him. Something was going on and Meg was determined to be a part of it.
Wufei had just arrived and spotted the girl. He walked close to the water with silent steps. He was almost surprised she was there. Navy Pier wasn't open yet so there was no one else around. If they were caught they would more than likely be arrested.
Meg heard someone moving behind her but did not turn around.
"Good morning." Wufei said quietly.
She looked behind her. Sure enough, it was the Chinese man from the picture. "Good morning. Not a very busy day so far, is it?"
"Most people avoid trespassing." Wufei replied. "So you're her."
"Yes. I'm Meg Collins. And you're him."
"Wufei Chang. Hajimemashite."
"Nice to meet you too."
"How did you know about the boy?" Wufei asked. "Did she tell you?"
Meg shook her head as he came to stand next to her. "No, she never mentioned anything about having a son. I didn't even know she'd been married until Duo showed up at the hospital several days ago to get her."
"Then how?" Wufei asked.
Meg pulled the journal entry out of her pocket and handed it to him. "I found this."
Wufei scanned down the page, eyes widening; then he smiled. "I'd almost forgotten."
"One of my questions was this. What happened to him? Was it a miscarriage? Did she give him away?"
Wufei shook his head. "Not exactly. Well, I guess she did, in a sense." He sighed. "This is hard to explain. Anna wouldn't ever willingly give her own child away. But when Duo and Heero died, she was faced with a situation that made her choose between her son and someone else."
Meg raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand."
"I'll put it this way. You realize that I'm from the future, right?"
"Yes, that's what I assumed."
"And you realize that my friends and enemies are from the future, too, right?"
"Yeah. Barton, or whatever his name is." Meg agreed. "The evil one. He's good looking though."
Wufei gave a short laugh. "I never noticed. Anyway, when they were supposedly killed, Quatre, Trowa, and myself thought it would be best if the girls went home. Here."
Meg blinked. "So you sent them back to the past. Like a Michael J. Fox movie."
He laughed again. "Yeah. But we wound up sending them back before any of it had happened. The war, the marriages..."
"So the baby ceased to exist."
"Correct."
Meg nodded sadly. "My second question. Don't kill me for asking this, okay?"
Wufei looked confused, but nodded.
Meg paused and rubbed her hands together. "Whose baby was it?" she blurted out.
Mild confusion became complete loss. "Eh?"
Meg groaned and rolled her eyes. "English, Wufei, English. Anna's baby. Whose was it?"
"Anna's." Wufei said, still not grasping the question.
"In a word: Duh. The other half of the equation."
Wufei glanced down at the letter in his hand. "I see. No, the child wasn't mine. You obviously don't read Japanese. It was Duo's. Surely you think more of your friend than that."
Meg gave him a pointed look. "I've been kidnapped into the future, found out a good friend of mine not only had a husband but a child at one point, and that the world is going to be taken over by nuts from the future. I'm trying not to think more about anything."
Wufei smiled. "I see. Do you know where this Hoshi Mei is?"
The doctor thought for a moment. "No, I can't say that I do. I do know that she was with a young man. He was just watching, he didn't help her."
The oriental man frowned. "She must still be around there somewhere."
"This Hoshi Mei person is Anna, isn't it?"
"Yes. I'm going after her."
"Can I go?"
"No."
"Please?"
"Absolutely not."
Meg stuck her lower lip out. Wufei nearly sweat-dropped.
"No, Miss Collins, you can't come with me. There is something you could do for us though."
Meg grinned. "What?"
"Go back to Chase and Anna's apartment. Wait for her. She'll come back there. If she comes back alone, call me at the same number you did before."
Meg nodded slowly. "Are the good guys going to win?"
"We're sure going to try."
Chase entered the room with caution. The lights were out and she wasn't sure where she was. "Ore wa yume*?"
"Ananta negai*," a voice said from somewhere in the room. The lights came on with a flash and the former pilot of the Gundam Galaxy shielded her eyes. "Dare*?" She opened her eyes to see Victor standing by the still body of Trowa Barton. "Trowa-kun! Iie! Masaka*!"
Chase ran towards him, eyes filled with tears. She blinked and her surroundings changed. She found herself suspended in nothingness. Her emerald eyes looked out for anything. "Doko watashi wa*?"
Glass mirrors appeared around her and she looked into then. Images of her friends seemed to reflect out at her. Heero, Anna, Trowa, Ryuujin, Quatre, Duo, Wufei, and even Hikari. Chase looked closer at the glass images and saw the earth appear behind them. Then she saw a thin crack appear in it. "Nani de suka?*"
Suddenly, the glass shattered into millions of tiny shards. Chase screamed.
Chase Yuy sat strait up, breathing hard. Her mind raced to think of what the dream had been. Yet, when she remembered, she wished she hadn't.
"Chase-chan?"
The small girl looked to see Heero sitting up next to her. Her mind finally came to the conclusion that she must have fallen asleep while watching over her injured husband.
The sound of the door opening made the two look towards it. Ryuujin and Odin came in quickly. "We heard you scream, Chase-chan," Ryu said quickly.
"Daijoubu ka, Elise?"
Chase took an unsteady breath. "Hai... Just a strange dream."
"What kind of dream?" Heero asked.
"Not one that you should worry about. I'm just emotionally stressed out. Nothing to worry about."
Heero looked at her oddly. "All right, Chase."
(A/N: Yes, I know I wrote near to nothing, but I wanted to get that in and finish the chapter up with something strange. Weird dreams... Also, it was kinda strange, but Chase dreamed in Japanese. Did ya ketch that? She's reverting more and more back into her old self.
Translations:
*Is it a dream?
*You wish.
*Trowa! No! It can't be!
*Where am I?
*What is it?
And those are the translations. Partially for the readers on ff.net that don't know what it means (I know I hate it when people write stuff in other languages and don't put up translations and I'm left in the dark... _) and also for Rhett. ^_^
Jack Avis pushed his way through the throng of dismissing soldiers. Whatever they'd all been doing in halls had apparently failed. He spotted the man he was looking for leaning against the wall. Trowa looked like he was ready to turn around and begin banging his head against it at any given moment.
"Trowa? What's going on?" There was no one around, so Jack decided to be informal.
Trowa forced a smile at the younger man. "I'm a fool. A sheep in wolf's clothing."
"Why do you say that?"
"She had the laptop. I practically gave her a way out."
Jack shrugged. "Maybe it's better that way. She can take care of herself."
"I know she can. But she doesn't know what she'll be up against."
"Oh, and you do, huh? I think Victor has so many wild cards up his sleeve he could do almost anything." Jack said. "Things that neither one of us know about."
"I'm sure your right, my friend. I'm sure your right."
Jack smirked. "You want to hear a funny story?"
Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Sure. Why not?"
"That lady assassin that Victor hired is about as double edged as you are." Jack said.
"What?"
"You heard me. She *did* break the coroner out, and she helped with the escape of Ryuujin the swordmaster."
Trowa's brain flew into overdrive. "She helped them escape...That's why she covered me..."
Jack frowned. "Covered you?"
Trowa looked over at him. "Yeah. Victor played a little game that involved guns. Luckily she had one because he told me to come unarmed."
Jack's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious! This guy is out of his mind!"
Trowa waved at him to be quieter. "I know that. But there's nothing we can do at the moment. There's no point in going after Chase again. It would be complete suicide now that they have Ryu. All we can do is protect Quatre."
"About Quatre..."
"Jack..."
"He's gone."
Trowa closed his eyes and clenched his hands several times. "What do you mean gone?"
"He's still here somewhere, but Victor had him moved. I've been searching the whole place and I can't find him. Victor's up to something."
Trowa uttered a curse under his breath. "If she has anything to do with this," he muttered.
Jack shook his head. "I don't know. I'll keep looking. But if Victor wants to play..." he let the statement trail off.
"I know. He'll play to the very end." Trowa reached out and squeezed his friend's shoulder. "I need you to do something for me."
"Name it." Jack said instantly.
Trowa handed him a piece of paper. "This is Hoshimawari Mei's address. Watch it. I want to know when she's awake, when she's asleep, what she eats, and when she cleans her guns. Don't let her leave without my knowledge. Will you do that for me?" he asked.
"Sure thing. Don't worry my friend. It will work out for you, it always did in the past." Jack saluted him, and vanished to do his assignment.
"Be careful, Jack. I have a feeling this is all going to backfire on me. And soon." Trowa whispered into the empty hall.
"That is bad." Cavel agreed, after Anna had finished her story. So he would believe her, she had used the laptop to return to her original appearance. He watched her pace the living room.
"We have two options available to us. We act tonight and kidnap him, or we wait until Victor releases him tomorrow." Anna said.
"If we wait Victor will want a body." Cavel said gently.
"If we don't wait Victor will get suspicious. His prisoners didn't start disappearing until I showed up."
"If we wait we can send him back with your laptop."
"If we don't wait Victor could catch us."
"If we wait we may not be able to find him."
"If we don't wait we may not be able to find him."
Cavel and Anna looked at each other. "Let's wait." They said together.
Anna nodded and rubbed her hands together nervously. "We can set it up as a car explosion which would explain no body."
"How do we know he'll get in a car?"
"He has too. Quatre's not stupid enough to think they're letting him go out of the goodness of their hearts. He'll go directly to the airport and head for Preventer Headquarters. He'll go there because he can't get back to the past."
"If he could get back to the past, would he go there?" Cavel asked.
"Yes. Heero, Chase, Wufei, and Duo are there. The sooner the six of us re-unite the better." Anna said. A thought hit her. "Duo. They thought he was a traitor..."
"Duo Maxwell?"
"The one and only."
"You believe it."
Anna ran a hand through her hair. "I'm not sure what I believe right now. It's all so confusing." They heard a crash outside.
Jack mumbled something under his breath and rubbed his shin. He hadn't seen that trash can there. Inside, Anna took the laptop and disappeared into the bedroom. When she returned, she once again had the appearance of Hoshimawari Mei. "I don't like the sound of that." She said.
"It's probably cats." Cavel said, stifling a yawn.
"When you're an assassin, cats can be deadly. In this case you're probably right. Go get some sleep, Sparky. I'll be planning."
"Okay. Night, Anna-san."
"Night, Cavel-kun."
At eight the next morning, Meg was waiting on the pier. She pulled her jacket closer around her to protect her from the wind. She'd brought the journal entry, and the picture of the seven. She'd gotten there early just in case he did. She didn't want to miss him. Something was going on and Meg was determined to be a part of it.
Wufei had just arrived and spotted the girl. He walked close to the water with silent steps. He was almost surprised she was there. Navy Pier wasn't open yet so there was no one else around. If they were caught they would more than likely be arrested.
Meg heard someone moving behind her but did not turn around.
"Good morning." Wufei said quietly.
She looked behind her. Sure enough, it was the Chinese man from the picture. "Good morning. Not a very busy day so far, is it?"
"Most people avoid trespassing." Wufei replied. "So you're her."
"Yes. I'm Meg Collins. And you're him."
"Wufei Chang. Hajimemashite."
"Nice to meet you too."
"How did you know about the boy?" Wufei asked. "Did she tell you?"
Meg shook her head as he came to stand next to her. "No, she never mentioned anything about having a son. I didn't even know she'd been married until Duo showed up at the hospital several days ago to get her."
"Then how?" Wufei asked.
Meg pulled the journal entry out of her pocket and handed it to him. "I found this."
Wufei scanned down the page, eyes widening; then he smiled. "I'd almost forgotten."
"One of my questions was this. What happened to him? Was it a miscarriage? Did she give him away?"
Wufei shook his head. "Not exactly. Well, I guess she did, in a sense." He sighed. "This is hard to explain. Anna wouldn't ever willingly give her own child away. But when Duo and Heero died, she was faced with a situation that made her choose between her son and someone else."
Meg raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand."
"I'll put it this way. You realize that I'm from the future, right?"
"Yes, that's what I assumed."
"And you realize that my friends and enemies are from the future, too, right?"
"Yeah. Barton, or whatever his name is." Meg agreed. "The evil one. He's good looking though."
Wufei gave a short laugh. "I never noticed. Anyway, when they were supposedly killed, Quatre, Trowa, and myself thought it would be best if the girls went home. Here."
Meg blinked. "So you sent them back to the past. Like a Michael J. Fox movie."
He laughed again. "Yeah. But we wound up sending them back before any of it had happened. The war, the marriages..."
"So the baby ceased to exist."
"Correct."
Meg nodded sadly. "My second question. Don't kill me for asking this, okay?"
Wufei looked confused, but nodded.
Meg paused and rubbed her hands together. "Whose baby was it?" she blurted out.
Mild confusion became complete loss. "Eh?"
Meg groaned and rolled her eyes. "English, Wufei, English. Anna's baby. Whose was it?"
"Anna's." Wufei said, still not grasping the question.
"In a word: Duh. The other half of the equation."
Wufei glanced down at the letter in his hand. "I see. No, the child wasn't mine. You obviously don't read Japanese. It was Duo's. Surely you think more of your friend than that."
Meg gave him a pointed look. "I've been kidnapped into the future, found out a good friend of mine not only had a husband but a child at one point, and that the world is going to be taken over by nuts from the future. I'm trying not to think more about anything."
Wufei smiled. "I see. Do you know where this Hoshi Mei is?"
The doctor thought for a moment. "No, I can't say that I do. I do know that she was with a young man. He was just watching, he didn't help her."
The oriental man frowned. "She must still be around there somewhere."
"This Hoshi Mei person is Anna, isn't it?"
"Yes. I'm going after her."
"Can I go?"
"No."
"Please?"
"Absolutely not."
Meg stuck her lower lip out. Wufei nearly sweat-dropped.
"No, Miss Collins, you can't come with me. There is something you could do for us though."
Meg grinned. "What?"
"Go back to Chase and Anna's apartment. Wait for her. She'll come back there. If she comes back alone, call me at the same number you did before."
Meg nodded slowly. "Are the good guys going to win?"
"We're sure going to try."
Chase entered the room with caution. The lights were out and she wasn't sure where she was. "Ore wa yume*?"
"Ananta negai*," a voice said from somewhere in the room. The lights came on with a flash and the former pilot of the Gundam Galaxy shielded her eyes. "Dare*?" She opened her eyes to see Victor standing by the still body of Trowa Barton. "Trowa-kun! Iie! Masaka*!"
Chase ran towards him, eyes filled with tears. She blinked and her surroundings changed. She found herself suspended in nothingness. Her emerald eyes looked out for anything. "Doko watashi wa*?"
Glass mirrors appeared around her and she looked into then. Images of her friends seemed to reflect out at her. Heero, Anna, Trowa, Ryuujin, Quatre, Duo, Wufei, and even Hikari. Chase looked closer at the glass images and saw the earth appear behind them. Then she saw a thin crack appear in it. "Nani de suka?*"
Suddenly, the glass shattered into millions of tiny shards. Chase screamed.
Chase Yuy sat strait up, breathing hard. Her mind raced to think of what the dream had been. Yet, when she remembered, she wished she hadn't.
"Chase-chan?"
The small girl looked to see Heero sitting up next to her. Her mind finally came to the conclusion that she must have fallen asleep while watching over her injured husband.
The sound of the door opening made the two look towards it. Ryuujin and Odin came in quickly. "We heard you scream, Chase-chan," Ryu said quickly.
"Daijoubu ka, Elise?"
Chase took an unsteady breath. "Hai... Just a strange dream."
"What kind of dream?" Heero asked.
"Not one that you should worry about. I'm just emotionally stressed out. Nothing to worry about."
Heero looked at her oddly. "All right, Chase."
(A/N: Yes, I know I wrote near to nothing, but I wanted to get that in and finish the chapter up with something strange. Weird dreams... Also, it was kinda strange, but Chase dreamed in Japanese. Did ya ketch that? She's reverting more and more back into her old self.
Translations:
*Is it a dream?
*You wish.
*Trowa! No! It can't be!
*Where am I?
*What is it?
And those are the translations. Partially for the readers on ff.net that don't know what it means (I know I hate it when people write stuff in other languages and don't put up translations and I'm left in the dark... _) and also for Rhett. ^_^
