1 Chapter Thirty-Six: If You Cut All Ties, Don't Hurt Yourself

The next morning dawned –artificially at least- in underground Tokyo to find all four ex-soldiers already up and about. They had stayed in Mirek's guest suite, which was complete with three rooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen.

Anna stood in her bathrobe at the sink in the kitchen, sipping a mug of tea. She and Mirek had talked some yesterday, but mostly they had done research into OWN and Victor's operations. She knew the serious, personal talk would come today but it would have to wait until after her appointment. Cavel bounced into the room all smiles.

"We had a great time last night! We found a game place that had a restaurant and everything, Anna-chan. We played all sorts of games and won all sorts of prizes. I even met this really cute chick, and she's about my age, too." He grinned.

Anna laughed. "I'm glad you had fun. Had to keep the old man on his toes, ne?" she teased.

"Yup. He was real tense at the beginning, but he loosened up. I'm going to go get ready. They have a zoo down here, did you know? I never got to go to one as a kid." He dashed out of the room to get ready.

"I don't think I've ever seen a kid have such and overnight change. You could tell yesterday that he was still very much in the soldier frame of mind. He's becoming a real kid again." Mirek said, coming in and pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"I know. It's good for him. If worse comes to worse, and we have to fight full scale in this world, I want him to stay here. They won't find this place. He's been through a lot, and he could lead a normal life down here." Anna said.

"That can be arranged for him, don't worry." He paused. "So we know they're building a gundam."

"Yeah. The Gundam Ultimatum, wasn't it? I wish we could have gotten more information. Its name and the fact that OWN's been mining large amounts of gundainium for the past five years isn't helpful." She said.

"I wouldn't be worrying about their gundam right now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, they're building it, or it's already been completed. We found that out on the laptop last night. The question is what are you going to fight back with? There are only two gundams left in existence, the Zero and the Sandrock. And we found out that in the condition they're in now, they'd never hold up to the fire power of this new one." Mirek said.

Anna shrugged. "I have no earthly idea. From when we are now, gundainium isn't discovered for another what, five hundred years? So we aren't building one in this time. What is the alternative? Go to the future and build one. For the sake of argument, let's say we go to the future to build a gundam. What do we find when we get there? That OWN has had ten years to gather all the obvious gundainium fields and search out the harder to find bits in space. That makes it really tough to get our hands on enough to produce a full-fledged gundam. Let's say we get enough. We don't know how to design it to combat whatever Trowa's cooked up. He's had a decade to plan this thing, and he's got a heck of an analytical mind, so there won't be any flaws on this baby. That means we're pretty much screwed."

"You aren't very optimistic before you have caffeine in the morning, are you?" Mirek said dryly.

Anna glared at him over her mug. "I'll work on it."

He laughed gently. Anna brushed a stray curl out of her face and dumped the rest of her drink in the sink. Mirek watched her as she rinsed the cup out and stuck it in the dish drainer mindlessly. He smiled. She turned on him.

"I'm going to get dressed and go above. I have some business to take care of, but I'll be back before lunch. You want to go out somewhere?" she asked.

"Sure," he said without missing a beat.

"I'll see you around noon then." She called as she disappeared into the bedroom.

Mirek arched an eyebrow. "Business, ne, Anna-chan? I wonder what you're up too."

Anna pulled on jeans and a blouse and pinned her hair up. She went to her bag and rifled through it until she stopped and triumphantly pulled out a pile of paperwork. She shoved the papers into her purse.

"I'm leaving! See you guys later!" she shouted and headed up the staircase she'd come down the night before.

"Where's she going?" Wufei asked Mirek.

Mirek shrugged. "I have no idea. I have some business to take care of, so you guys have fun and we'll see you later."

"Sure thing." Wufei said, and watched the older man leave.

Cavel came back to the kitchen, now completely ready. "Where'd they go?"

"Upstairs, so to speak. There's something up with the two of them." Wufei said, half to himself, half to the boy.

"Maybe they're involved." Cavel said, grabbing an apple out of the refrigerator.

"You ready?"

Cavel chewed down the rest of the apple quickly. "Uh-huh!"

Anna emerged in downtown Tokyo and she took a deep breath. It felt good to be back. The only thing that didn't feel so good was what she was planning to do.

She immersed herself into the crowd, drifting wherever the flow of movement took her. When she spotted a police officer, she broke away and flagged him down.

"Onegai iidasu ware doko kouhantei eizoubutsu rokeeshon?" she asked.

He gave her the directions to the court building, for which she thanked him. She found the building without much trouble, and slipped inside among the businessmen. Anna saw the receptionist and walked over to her.

"Hi, I'm looking to get a," she searched for the word, "shissousenkoku?"

The woman nodded and replied in Japanese. "Yes, that's the term. Do you have proof?"

"I have a signed affidavit." Anna replied.

The woman nodded again and handed her a slip of paper. "Take this to the fifth floor and the second office to the right. He'll take care of it."

"Domo arigato." Anna smiled and thanked her and headed for the fifth floor.

She gently rapped on the second office door to the right and waited to be called in. When she heard enter, she stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

Anna held out the paperwork for him. "I'm looking to get a shissousenkoku and an annulment for my marriage."

"Is the shissousenkoku for your husband, Mrs. Maxwell?" he asked, reading her name of the papers.

"Yes."

"How long has he been missing?"

"It will be eleven years this month."

He raised an eyebrow. "You were married at fifteen?"

"It was an arranged marriage and it was in southern Europe." Anna lied.

The man nodded. "I see." He sat down at his computer and typed Duo Maxwell's name into the computer. He frowned. "We have no record of this man."

"My husband was involved with the American government from a very young age. His parents were agents and their cover was blown, so there are no records on him." She said, hoping he'd get the hint.

He glanced at her. "Of course." He switched to a different computer and pulled some pages up. "You're an AC girl, aren't you?"

"You could say that." Anna agreed.

"Ah, there we are." He looked at her, surprise forming on his face. "You were married to a gundam pilot."

"Yes."

"Do you have reason to believe that he's dead?"

"There's a signed affidavit with those papers from a person who believed he witnessed my husbands death."

The man skimmed over the account. "An OWN soldier?"

"Ex-OWN. He's in my custody."

"Very well, Mrs. Maxwell, I see no reason not to grant you what you want. The government will recognize your missing husband as legally dead when I issue the shissousenkoku." He singed several other papers and handed them over to her to sign. She did, and gave them back.

"Very well. You're marriage is annulled and I pronounce you registered in the system as a single woman."

"Thank you." She stood to go.

"Give my regards to Mirek, won't you?"

She grinned at him. "Of course. Thank you for your understanding."

He nodded. "Good day, Miss Russell."

"Good day."

Anna stepped out of the building and headed back to Mirek's. She fingered the wedding band on her right hand before pulling it off and dropping it in her purse. The time had come for her to move on from the past.

After she'd walked two blocks, a figure fell into step beside her. Anna wasn't surprised. "So, what do you think of me and what I did?"

Mirek raised an eyebrow. "I think it was a little hasty, Anna. He died and came back once before."

She looked up at him. He stood four inches above her five foot eight, and he was broad shouldered. His dark brown hair was longer than average, but not long enough to have to tie back. His brown eyes gazed steadily at her.

"I don't believe you just said that to me. It took him ten years to come back last time and that was through Dr. J's intervention. What am I supposed to do? Wait another ten years? That's pushing my proverbial ticking clock, isn't it?"

"Maybe it wouldn't take as long." He suggested.

She stopped and put a hand on his arm. "Mirek, Duo is dead. He is not coming back this time. I can't wait for a fantasy forever. You know that."

He pulled her back into a walk and draped an arm across her shoulders. "I know that. But what if he's alive and it's another one of Victor's games?"

"So what if he's alive?" she murmured and watched the ground.

"You're protecting yourself, aren't you?" Mirek asked.

"I am. I have the right, don't I? I was faithful to a dead man for almost ten years. You want to know why I was coming back last weekend?"

"Why?"

"I wanted to know if your offer was still open to me, or if I'd ruined that."

He'd led into a rose garden that had streams running through it. He sighed as they traversed the paths. "You're a very good friend to me, Anna. You've been the best friend I've had since I was very little and the last fight we had was mostly my fault."

"Mostly?" she grinned.

He smiled smugly. "It takes two to tango and brawl, doesn't it?"

"I suppose it does." She agreed.

They stopped on a bridge that over looked a small brook. He picked a white rose from one of the bushes near and handed it to her. "My offer is always open to you, tamadachi."

"I know you're serious if you're using Japanese." She murmured. He smiled.

"Would we live here?" she asked.

"In the rose garden? We might have to get a special permit for that." He teased.

Anna rolled her eyes. "I mean in Tokyo."

He shrugged. "That's up to you. We can go wherever you like. I was actually looking at apartments in Chicago several months ago."

She furrowed her brow. "What would you do in Chicago?"

His grin broadened. "Anything I wanted. As long as it didn't involve McDonalds, ne?"

Anna laughed. "No." She paused. "Were you looking at one bedroom apartments or two?"

"One for the moment. But I promised, so not permanently."

"You make it hard for a girl to refuse."

He thought for a moment before constructing his sentence. "Watashi suru sore yori anata.

She clasped his hand that was on her shoulder. "Would you be happy though? I want you to be happy, Mirek."

He studied her profile for a long moment. "I can see a future where I live in a house in the suburbs with two cars, a dog, no picket fence, kids that look like us and a wife that looks amazingly similar to you. And in this future I am very happy."

"Loved but not in love." Anna said.

"Yeah."

"Can we have a cat?"

"Of course."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah. I'll marry you." Anna said.

"Should I be worried?"

She glanced up at him. "What do you mean?"

"You just annulled your last marriage and your agreeing to marry me?"

"He's been dead to me for a long time, Mirek. When we were together for that one day in the last week, it was like a dream. And then I woke to a harsher reality." She patted his hand. "And then there was you, my friend."

"I hope I live up to your expectations. We could use the same wedding ring you have." He teased.

She pulled her fan out of her purse and bopped him over the head with it.

As they were leaving the garden, they passed a telephone pole littered with flyers. Mirek didn't pay much attention, but Anna stopped and pulled one off.

"Two days only, manga convention in the Anime Center. Featured 10/15 only is celebrated artist Elise Thate." Anna read. "Leave it to Chase to hold a manga convention in the middle of a war." She added.

"That was yesterday, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. She'll still be here." Anna said, looking around.

"We should get back to the underground if you don't want her to find you. She might already get a hold of the fact you're in Tokyo if she gets wind of the fact that your marriage was just annulled." Mirek said.

"She shouldn't have any reason to hack into marriage files in the future, Mirek. Besides, I thought you said he was confidential."

"He is. Chase is not."

"True. Let's get back."

They reached Mirek's inn and vanished inside.



Jack juggled his bag as he fished around for his keys in his pocket. He'd been given the morning and early afternoon off, so he decided to do a little shopping for civilian clothing. He had a feeling Trowa was going to make an unexpected move, and he wanted to be ready for it. He'd follow the older man to the ends of the earth and back.

Jack Avis had been orphaned when he was six years old, and he was left to the care of the circus. It was hard for him, because no one had time to take of him, just to train him for his part. He'd befriended the Silencer when he had acquired amnesia during the Eve war, again after the Eve war, and after the war with Marimeia. When Trowa had come back after the war with Marimeia, he took an interest in the younger boy and had taught him a lot. When Jack heard that Trowa was going to join a suspicious group that called themselves OWN, he begged Trowa to take him with him. Trowa had eventually relented and they both joined OWN.

He finally found his key and shoved it in the lock to his quarters. As he was turning it, he saw that light was spilling out from under the door. Jack was sure he'd turned off all the lights when he left. He sat the bag down and drew his gun. He finished unlocking the door, pushed it open, and barged in. He had the intruder in sight and his finger tightened on the trigger until he saw the glint of long bangs under the light. He sighed and lowered his weapon.

"You trying to get yourself killed, Trowa-kun?" he murmured, going back out for his bag.

Trowa said nothing; he didn't even turn to look at Jack. He came back in and sat his bag down to the side as the door closed behind him.

"Trowa? What happened? Daijoubu?"

Trowa rolled his neck until it popped. "Nothing happened, Jack. I just wanted to see you when you got home." His tone was totally cold.

Jack watched him warily. Trowa only acted like this on a mission or when he was angry with one of the new cadets…or maybe him. "Did I do something?"

Trowa finally glanced at him. "Of course not, Jack."

Jack. First name always meant good terms. "You want to go grab some lunch then? First afternoon off we've had in a while." Jack asked. There was still something bothering him about this.

"I'd like to. Let me go change and I'll meet you downstairs." Trowa said, his voice going flat again. He stood from where he was sitting and was almost to the door when Jack noticed a small discoloring in his shirt. It was darker than it should be normally. Jack reached out and clasped Trowa's shoulder. Trowa grimaced and stopped before facing his subordinate.

Jack pulled his hand towards him and looked down at it. His eyes grew wide as they took in the sight. His fingers were covered in a sticky crimson substance that could only be blood. He looked up at Trowa with fear and concern in his eyes. "You were shot," he breathed.

"It was an accident. It's not that important. I'll have it looked at before we go." Trowa brushed it off. He tried to leave before Jack figured out what happened.

Jack grabbed Trowa's hand, smearing it with blood. "Who did this to you?" he demanded angrily.

"It was an accident, Jack." Trowa repeated. He found himself pinned by the younger man's blue-grey glare. He wasn't buying it.

"Why were you here before you got that looked at?" Jack asked. His voice was dangerously quiet.

Trowa realized his mistake too late. He couldn't reply without lying to his friend. Jack saw the look of defeat in Trowa's eyes.

"It was Victor, wasn't it? One of his games? He shot you and threatened me, didn't he? He used me against you." Jack growled.

Trowa paused, unsure of how his protégé would react with the answer. Jack waited.

"Yes," Trowa murmured.

Jack let out a low curse and stormed out of the room, Trowa on his heels. Jack had never been so angry in all of his life. Never, never had he been used to get somebody hurt, and as he thought about, he'd never been used. Once he got his hands on Victor, there would be no mercy. Vaguely he realized that Trowa was calling after him, but didn't acknowledge him until the older man grabbed him.

"Jack! Stop!" Trowa demanded.

Jack wrenched out of his grasp.

"Jack, please," Trowa gasped, holding his bleeding shoulder.

Jack heard the actual pleading tone to his voice and faced him. "Why? We always knew this guy was crazy, Trowa! Look what he did to you! And for what?"

Trowa grabbed his shoulders and shook him, ignoring the pain in his arm. "For you, you idiot. How many people do you think I'd stand and take a bullet for?" he shouted.

Jack froze. "Stand? Stand and take a bullet for?" he repeated in a mumble.

Trowa lowered his voice. "Victor called me into his office and started alluding to the fact he was watching you and could have you dead in a second. I tried going at him, but he was ready with gun in hand. He said if I fought him, you would die. So he shot me and I left to go find you. He told me if I left the base you wouldn't be coming back. There was no way in hell I was going to risk that, Jack. It's my fault you're a part of this anyway."

Jack was gaping at him. "You stood there and let him shoot you. Are you out of your mind?"

"What do you think I was going to do? Move and have you show up on my doorstep in a body bag?" Trowa hissed.

"What if he killed you?"

"He didn't."

Jack was speechless. Trowa cupped the side of his face.

"I've known you since you were nine years old, Jack. I can't let anything happen to you now. I'm going to get you out of this, Jack. I've got to get you out of this."

Jack didn't move, still too stunned to form anything other than a mental fragment. After a moment Trowa grabbed his arm and was pulling him back towards his quarters. Once inside, Trowa issued one command.

"Pack."

"Pack?"

"Yes. Whatever can fit in one bag. I'm taking you to Tokyo, where you'll be safe from Victor until I can deal with him."

"No, Trowa, I'm not going to leave you here to his whimsies."

"Don't argue with me. Pack."

"Where are you going to hide me in Tokyo?" Jack protested.

"I don't know yet. But it's a big place and Victor won't look for you in the past."

"The past! Trowa, that's insane! If anything happens to you I won't be able to get back!"

"Maybe that's a good thing." Trowa murmured, throwing things into a bag since Jack was still standing there aghast.

Trowa zipped the bag shut and pitched it to Jack, who caught it last second. Jack then found himself being dragged down the hall again towards Trowa's quarters. The taller man pulled him into his room and grabbed a bag of his own and the laptop. He booted it up, and got ready.

"You're still bleeding," Jack reminded him.

"I know someone who can look at it there." Trowa said. He activated the program and the room was emptied of persons.

Frowning slightly, Heero Yuy watched the program movement on his own laptop. He hadn't wanted to do this in the past timeframe, but it would have to do. He too disappeared in a bright flash of light, on the trail of his best friends killer.

Victor was also watching the movement of Trowa, Jack, and less recently Anna. He tapped his fingers along the edge of his desk. The game was sliding out of his control, and he knew it. His superiors had expressed their displeasure with his handling of power.

He fingered the new scar running down his cheek. The point of playing the game his way was so that he did not loose. He had already learned that he was to be 'let go' within the next week, which in his mind left him one option. He was going to launch one final, massive assault against his two main opponents, those two who had outwitted him. If he was going to die, he was not going to do it by the hands of his employers. Oh, no. If he was going to die, he was going to do it his way, and take his challengers with him.



"Anna, come look at this." Mirek called. He sounded serious.

She breezed in, looking slightly disgruntled. She hated playing chess with Wufei simply because she had never won. "What is it?"

"There were two jumps made using the transport technology."

"How can you tell?"

"Because I have that technology as well. I don't have it in a laptop, but it's what's used to get people from the future to here. When Dr. J sent me here, he also gave me this program. It's a tracking device. I can watch for any jumps from any computer that has that capability." He answered.

"So were you watching my jumps to the future and back?"

"No. I have to have an exact time frame, unless it's on open run which shows me every jump. Open run takes up a lot of energy from our computer systems, so I don't do it often."

Anna frowned. "Two jumps from the future? From the same or different machines?"

"Different."

"Can you tell from where?"

"I can tell you from when."

"When?"

Mirek double clicked on an icon. "They both came from AC 209, one right after the other. The first jump contained two person codes, and the second one only one."

Anna looked confused. "Check from yesterday morning to the jump time today. Are there any jumps from this time to that?"

Mirek typed the times in and waited. "No."

"Then it wasn't Chase. She was at the convention. I don't even know if she's got access to the program right now since I took it. That means it must have Trowa. But who would be with him?" Anna wondered out loud.

Mirek shrugged. "Ask the kid. He would know."

"Yeah. Hey, Sparky!"

Cavel stuck his head in, having just gotten back from the zoo. "Yeah, Anna?"

"If Trowa went anywhere, say a time jump, and took someone with him, who would it be?" she asked.

"Jack Avis." He replied instantly. "They go back a ways, Jack told me."

"He was the guy with him the other night."

"Uh-huh."

"Where did they go, Mirek?"

"You mean location?"

"Yes."

Mirek again typed something in, and the computer pulled it up. "I could only get a general area, but you're not going to like it. They came here, to Tokyo."

Her head snapped up. "Trowa's in Tokyo?"

"It would appear that way."

"Crap. And the other jump took place in less than a minute after what we assume is Trowa. Who would be following him that closely?"

"I have no idea. I can tell you it's a prototype computer, because I can't track a serial number on it."

"A prototype?" A thought occurred to her. "Wufei! Where is my phone?" she cried, dashing out of the room. Mirek and Cavel followed her.

"You're phone? It's in my bag." Wufei answered from his room. He appeared in the hall, phone in hand. Anna snatched it from him with a small glare, and dialed a number from memory. As it was ringing, she looked at Wufei again.

"Does Chase know I was Hoshimawari Mei?"

He nodded.

"Crap." She was about to pick up when a light male voice answered.

"Hello?" Quatre said. He had picked it up, because he had no idea where Chase was.

"Quatre?"

"Yes. Anna?"

"Hai! Daijoubu?"

Quatre smiled. "Hai, daijoubu. Anata?"

"Daijoubu, arigato. I have a question, Quatre."

"Go ahead."

"Is Heero with you?"

"No, I'm afraid not," the blonde answered, concern tinting his voice.

"Where is he?"

"We don't know. He took a prototype laptop and jumped."

Anna put her hand over the reciever. "It's Heero following Trowa." She announced to the three men who were gathered around her.

"Anna, I'm so sorry about Duo," Quatre said softly.

"It's okay, Quatre. It's not the first time." Anna replied with a small smile. She frowned as the pieces suddenly clicked in her head. "Quatre, is Ryuujin with you?"

"He is, I don't know if he's here at the hotel or not. Where are you, Anna?"

"Closer than you think, but farther away than I like." Anna said with a sigh. "When you see Ryuujin, give him the number of my phone, will you? I need to talk to him."

"You sound serious." Quatre said.

"It is. It is. Talk to you later, Quatre. Oh, buddy? Don't tell her I called, okay?"

"Anna,"

"Promise me, Quat, please?"

Quatre paused. "All right."

"You're an angel, babe. See you soon." Anna hung up.

"Well?" Mirek asked.

"Heero has a prototype. He used a day and a half ago, maybe. Cavel told me that Heero witnessed Duo's death. If Heero is following Trowa, it's only for one reason." Anna said slowly.

"To kill him." Wufei filled in.

"What about Jack?" Cavel asked.

"If he gets in the way," Wufei trailed off.

"That's what I'm afraid of. Once I talk to Ryuujin, I'll know for sure." Anna said.