Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the plot and the original characters. I hope you enjoy and please review cause I'd love to hear from you. ^_^
The Masks and Lies Come Out
"Hey, this place has huge satellites right, here and in the colonies I would imagine." Julian said as he tapped a finger against his cheek. "Do you think we could use them?" Julian added when the guys nodded that they did indeed have some awesome satellites that were in the earth and the various colonies atmospheres.
"I don't see why we couldn't but how is that going to help us?" Duo asked as he looked at Julian questioningly. He'd force them to let them use the satellites if it meant getting Heero and Noin back to them safely.
"But the satellites can be used to hone in on a signal, which means that provided they haven't taken Rome underground or separated the two we should be able to find them." Julian said with an excited look on his face. "Where's the control rooms for the satellites?"
"Not that you bothered to ask but you have my permission to access them and you can explain along the way what the Hell is going on here because I feel like I'm not understanding half of what's going on." Lady Une said as she motioned with her head towards the elevator. Since there were so many of them the Gundam pilots agreed to take the stairs to the top floor which Duo was in too much of a worry to complain about. Everyone else loading into the elevator Lady Une started firing questions as soon as the doors shut. She trusted the pilots enough to allow them to use the satellites but her trust only went so far and she wanted answers and she wanted them now. "All right, I want answers and I want them now. Who are you two, why do you look like my former Lieutenant Noin and just plain what the Hell is going on here?"
"I'm Julian like I said earlier and this is my grandfather Niles McMaster Senior." Julian said trying to think of how on earth he was going to explain this.
"Noin is my late wife's maiden name, what does that have to do with anything and for that matter why on earth are you here, Julian?" Niles demanded as he looked over at his grandson. He'd heard about his grandson's assistant as well and Niles had to agree with their assessment of her. She was scary and intimidating the way she looked at you with those cold dark eyes, as if she could look right through you and into your soul. "I'm aware that you do business with this operation but why on earth were you threatening him?" Niles wanted to know since Milliardo Peacecraft was not someone anyone with a mind wanted to make an enemy of. "And for that matter I don't see how it's possibly that any of my wife's relatives could resemble us."
"Ah well, Grandfather." Julian said with a weak smile, cursing the fact that he was going to have to be the one to explain all this. "You see Rome and Paris decided to follow family tradition and enlisted in the military. Up until a little while ago they both worked here." Julian thought it wise that he leave why he was after Peacecraft alone for the time being. "They both signed up under different names."
"Wait a minute, do you mean to tell me that our security is so bad that both Noin and..dear god not Heero." Lady Une said as she stared at the boy in shock. Heero was the only one who had left recently and without any real solid reason either. "Tell me Lucreazia Noin and Heero Yuy are not siblings."
"Actually they are." Relena said since the poor kid looked like a cornered rat. "We only recently found out about it ourselves."
"Wait a minute, isn't Lucreazia Noin the girl you've been dating and living with for the last couple of years?" Niles asked in confusion as he looked over at Milliardo questioningly. "My daughter in law loves to gossip and they're always speculating about you two. Hold on a minute-has this son of a bitch been living with my Rome!" Niles thundered and quickly everyone saw where Paris had got his death glare from.
"Am I the only one in this whole world that didn't know about this!" Julian said as he looked at them all with a shocked look on his face. "What else is everyone keeping from me?" Julian added as he looked over at Sue-Ling with a desperate look on his face. "And don't worry about the living together, I'm handling it as soon as this is over."
The elevator pinging everyone got out all talking at once as they tried to explain what had happened while Julian and Sue-Ling kept a firm grip on his grandfather since he looked like he very much wanted to break Milliardo into little pieces.
"What..did..we miss?" Duo asked as they came into view, Duo and Quatre both looking a little worse for wear while Wufei and Trowa appeared unaffected. All four boys were looking at the scene in front of them and thinking that Paris resembled his grandfather in a lot of ways which was a scary thought really.
"When this is all over you all have a lot of explaining to do." Lady Une said as she just shook her head, walking down the hallway with the others trailing close behind, Relena filling the guys in who had a feeling Milliardo was in a lot of trouble and that Paris seemed to be the only male in the family who didn't seem to want to kill the man. Now that was a scary thought. Stopping in front of a large set of doors Lady Une went to the security panel and quickly typed in the codes that would allow them in. A slight ping later the doors opened to reveal a huge room with one wall a huge screen with a huge console in the middle with various screens and other machinery everywhere else. Ushering everyone in Julian headed straight for the console, taking off his jacket as he went along. Slugging it over the nearest chair he sat down and began typing away, breaking through the coding with ease. "How the Hell, you know the codes?" Lady Une demanded as she looked over at his shoulder, watching his fingers move only making her dizzy. He was more skilled then Heero and Lady Une had a feeling that at least she could have the small consolation that any normal computer expert likely would have never been able to get in. Computer geniuses obviously ran in the family.
"I helped Paris design this, plus I make my living using these things, you learn shortcuts along the way." Julian said with a grin as his eyes never left the screen, not even having to look down at what he was typing in. "There are several layers to this so having the codes would help if you wouldn't mind giving them to me. Write them down, Sue-Ling." Julian said without even having to explain, knowing she'd understand. Pulling out a notebook and a pen Sue-Ling held them out to Lady Une who giving both Sue-Ling and Julian weird looks began writing down the codes. "Ling, I'm also going to need help here, it will go quicker with another set of hands. Call her up will you?"
"Of course." Sue-Ling said as she got on the phone and began to speak in rapid Chinese to whoever was on the other line before handing up a minute later. "She's on her way and will be here, in her words in two shakes of her fine ass." Sue-Ling said with a roll of her eyes.
"That's my girl." Julian said with a smile as he continued to type, using the codes Lady Une was providing him with. Moments later there was a loud knocking on the door. "That was quick, though I'd guess she shook her ass more then twice doing it." Julian said looking over before turning his attention to the console. "Would you mind letting her in, Lady Une?"
Curious to see who on earth was at the door and how she'd gotten here so fast Lady Une approached the door with a hint of dread. After all, what if it was one of her soldiers and the security had not only missed out on the truth about Heero and Noin but another one as well. Opening the door Lady Une could only blink at the person standing there who quickly pushed her aside and came running into the room at a dead run.
"Hey, Sir, don't worry, I'll get those reports finished for you for tomorrow mornings meetings. I promise." Asia said as she hurried over to the seat beside Julian and began typing away quickly, looking over at the codings Julian shoved over slightly so that she could read them better. At a speed that was just as dizzying though not as bad as Julians Asia began to break through wall after all with surprising ease.
"You-you work for them?" Quatre said and there was a hint of hurt in his voice when he said it which surprised him. It did hurt to think that she like Heero and Noin had lied and it was a shock to realize that he valued her friendship and company as much as the other two. He spent more time with her then anyone else and he'd thought that they were friends.
"No, Quatre." Asia said looking up at her boss with her usual happy smile, not wanting him to think for a moment that she wasn't loyal to him. "I work for you; I just know Rome and Paris a little better then you do. Everything I told you has been true." Asia continued as she looked back at the screen, continuing her typing as she spoke. "I just never mentioned that the Oz soldier that saved my life was Rome. You're my number one; they're just really close seconds." Asia added the realizing how that sounded she quickly clarified with just a hint of pink on her cheeks. "I mean loyalty wise."
"Oh." Quatre said, his own cheeks going a tad pink as well. Of course he'd known that was what she meant. He was glad though that she obviously was loyal to him and that he hadn't been wrong to put his trust in her. And thinking back to what she'd told him about the Oz soldier and how she'd been saved he could understand her loyalty to Noin and the fact that she'd kept the McMasters secrets. She obviously felt she owed them a lot and it had never been necessary to tell them about the truth.
"All right." Julian said turning everyone's attention to him. "I've put in the codings for her signal, its being scanned for right now. All we can do is wait and hope that we can find it."
"What kind of signal?" Trowa asked curiously. "Does Rome habitually wear a tracking device of some sort?"
"Never goes anywhere without it." Julian said with a grin as he spun in his chair to face them. "Both she and Paris had tracking device planed in their bodies so that if anything should happened to them in battle their remains could be found easier, especially Paris who seemed determined to blow himself up." Julian added with a roll of his eyes. "Which is why we can't scan for him as well, his doesn't work anymore and he never got a new one though of the two he was the one that needed it the most."
"They had transmitters surgically placed into their bodies?" Niles demanded, horror in his face. "Exactly what have my grandchildren been up to?"
"Well since you disowned them its no wonder you don't know." Duo said with a dark look in the man's direction, Duo having decided he really didn't like the guy. "I'm Paris's best friend by the way but you wouldn't know that either now would you? Just like you wouldn't know that Paris and Rome have nearly died countless times, just like you don't know who they're close to and who their friends are."
"Duo." Relena said softly, placing a hand on the pilot's shoulder. Right now what was important was finding their friends, chewing out the bastard who in her opinion deserved to be squashed by a Gundam could wait until later. If she could find one she just might pilot it herself.
"No, he's right, I don't know them." Niles said with a shake of his head at the fact that a man who had hair longer then a girls was giving him a lecture and actually being right about it. "I always had such high hopes for Rome, she was everything I could have hoped for, just like her father." Niles said with a weary look in his eyes. "A sharp mind, a natural born leader, the kind that you could trust and expect to rise to any occasion. But she was determined to have things her way, would never follow the rules unless it suited her."
"You mean because she refused to be separated from her brother?" Wufei said with a hard look in the man's direction. Though he had been taught to respect his elders he felt the need to make his opinion on the subject known. "She chose the honorable path by refusing the material goods you offered her and instead chose to stay with her brother as her parents, as your son would have wanted her to do."
Before Niles could respond Julian spoke up. "Asia, what are you doing?" Julian asked having suddenly noticed that Asia was still typing away at something.
"I'm looking for another signal, I want to see if it's anywhere near Rome or if not where he is since there's always a chance Rome and Paris could be there too." Asia replied as she finished typing in the code, starting the search for the person as well. Part of her was hoping he was because that would be one more nail in the man's coffin but another part hoped it wasn't because that man would keep Rome alive but hated Paris more then anything else in the galaxy. Paris's survival chances would be lowered dramatically if he was in the hands of the bastard.
"Another signal, who's?" Julian asked curiously, wondering what he was missing here.
"Possibly the bastard that's got them though it's questionable whether we should happy about that or not." Asia said with a weary look as she rubbed her neck absently from bending over the console the way she'd been. "Well he's one possibility anyway, the only one we can track though so it's worth a shot."
"Well they're both on earth, or at least that's the most likely place." Julian said looking at the screen as he saw that the colonies had been ruled out as he'd expected them to be. They wouldn't have likely decided to take them into space, or at least not yet. Plus they had to realize how dangerous Rome and Paris were. "Who do you think might have them? And for that matter why?"
"Jealousy, pride and pure stupidity in this case." Asia said with a shake of her head, not quite sure what to tell them. After all she'd promised Rome that she'd keep her mouth shut about this. After all Rome had gone to a lot of trouble to keep this from everyone, even from Paris. Spilling now, when things were unsure would not be a good idea most likely, she'd wait until she thought it was confirmed that they were dealing with the asshole. "I'll explain it all if there's a good chance it's him."
"Just one question, it's not common knowledge that Rome was Noin and Paris Heero, is this the reason why she left Preventers, because of this person you're talking about?" Milliardo asked thinking it through from the pieces he'd been able to gather. "Paris thought that maybe something made her quit, from the sounds of it you know more then he did and you're close to her obviously. Are we dealing with that cause?"
"Well maybe you aren't as dense as I thought." Asia said with a smirk as she considered how to answer that little land mine. She couldn't say too much but perhaps she could somehow work it so that she said enough that he would get the general idea without landing her in very hot water with Rome later on. "Rome didn't leave because she wanted to go, she left because she had to go in order to insure the safety of those closest to her. An individual who was aware of Rome pretending and living here as Lucreazia Noin has been contacting her and threatened the lives of everyone from you and Paris to Pagan and Noin's next door neighbors kids. Obviously she chose the route where the least amount of suffering was caused."
"Hit her right where she was weakest." Trowa said with a nod, more pieces of the puzzle falling into place to show themselves to be facing a very dark and inhumane individual who'd been playing cat and mouse with Rome. "She's lost so much already, it was a given that she'd sacrifice her happiness to prevent losing anyone else, especially Milliardo and Paris. She's likely been trying to handle it on her own, to keep us from getting involved and possibly hurt in the process."