A Sister's Sacrifice
Stopping only occasionally to rest and get her body under tight control Rome continued to search for her brother trying to get information out of every person she came across with not a lot of luck. Finally the tides turned when she saw a blur running down a corridor in front of her with several others in pursuit shooting at said blur. Taking it as a sign Rome hurried forward and started to pick off the men chasing the blur till she'd killed them all. Standing among the bodies Rome called out that the coast was clear. Seconds later a familiar dark head looked around the corner at her then grinning ran over to her with a grin on his face. Dressed only in his black boxers he had to be freezing in the cold dampness of the warehouse but he didn't so much as shiver. His body covered with forming bruises from his beatings he wasn't exactly a pretty sight but to Rome he was the most beautiful thing she'd seen all day. "I'd hug you but that would only hurt." Rome said as she reached out a hand to ruffle his head affectionately. "You got out too?"
"Yeah, they underestimated how much I wanted to get out of their company." Paris said with a chuckle, heaving a sigh of relief that she was there and she was okay. He'd been nearly paralyzed with terror at the thought that something might have happened to her. "You okay?" Paris asked trying to look her over but she was pretty much covered up good though he could faintly smell blood on her and fresh blood at that. "The blood yours?"
"Some of it, don't worry about it." Rome said as she lied with a straight face. Most of it was hers and the bandages were holding it in only so much. "Now what do you say we figure out how the hell to get out of this place in one piece."
"That's going to take some doing..our dear cousin has us locked up in here pretty tight." Paris said as he watched her face closely and when there was no surprise on it at the news he knew that she had known and suspected it all along. "How long have you known he's been after us, Rome?" Paris demanded to know in a not pleased at all tone of voice. They'd always been honest with each other and he was severely pissed off that she'd been hiding something so important from him.
"It's hard to remember a time when he didn't want us dead." Rome pointed out and Paris had to admit she was right. Cecil had hated them for as long as he could remember. "At first the threats were unsigned, made to look like a slight obsessed admirer but they were soon going down hill into threatening and little hints of exactly how much he hated me. Of course I put Asia on investigating it but we couldn't quite get a lock on it. Then the presents started. Pictures of you, all the pilots, Milliardo and all our friends. Stuff that had gone missing would suddenly appear in one of the packages. Then the notes telling me things were going to happen as a show of what was in store if I didn't do as he wanted. Remember when Quatre ended up in the hospital after he got so sick from eating almonds though he said he didn't eat any because he knew he was allergic? And when Sally was almost in a car accident because her brakes wouldn't work properly? Well those weren't accidents or their fault...and since I only had suspicions there was nothing I could do but take the threats seriously and follow them. Once I made it clear I understood and that I wouldn't go running to the police for help one of the first things he asked for was for me to break up with Milliardo saying that if he couldn't have me he'd make sure that no one else did. It was that that made me click into Cecil since he'd once said that same thing to me when he was trying to get me to come work with him on this project. He couldn't get grandfather to back the project but he knew that if I was involved Grandfather would be more likely to give it more of a chance."
"The bastard's always been fixated on you, even when we were little and he was trying to lock me into rooms so that he could have your full attention. If he weren't our cousin I'd think he really did have a thing for you. Though come to think of it we McMasters are Romans." Paris said with a disgusted look on his face referring to the fact that in ancient times marrying even your sister wasn't considered a bad thing, more like conserving the greatness of the line. The fact that he could think that of someone he was related to was down right sickening. "God bad mental images."
"Don't make me sick." Rome said making a face though she didn't comment that she shared his view that it was entirely possible. As disgusting a thought as it was. "Any way after that I just had a feeling in my gut that it was him so I kept playing along and digging deeper for proof. Our darling cousin has been screwing up big time though I think grandfather has no idea just how badly. He's been using company money on stupid get rich quick projects, most that have crashed and burned after sucking up all the cash. Once grandfather does find out you can bet Cecil will be out of the company and maybe even the family in disgrace. In other words Cecil could be in a lot of trouble and stand to lose everything."
"And there is the fact that with that idiot out of the running the question of who would inherit the company when grandfather retires would come up and the fight would be on." Paris said with a shake of his head at the mess they were apparently in. It was bad enough to have Cecil in the family but if he was desperate there was no telling what he was capable of pulling. As it was he was planning on slowly killing the son of a bitch inch by inch for threatening his family and friends who were as much family as Rome. "With Cecil out of the running that would leave him with Julian and us to chose from and since the old man would rather dance naked in Times Square then be in the same room with me odds are he isn't going to leave it to me, As for Julian he's not a businessman and Grandfather knows it which leaves you..the one he wanted in the first place before you made the bad personal choice of loving that Japanese witch's bastard son." Paris said in a pretty damn good impression of his grandfather edged with bitterness.
"More like my husband that he'd personally picked out." Rome said with a small smile as she reached out to squeeze his shoulder. "And Cecil has made sure or is trying to make sure that neither of us are around as possible heirs and we need to get out since there's one more person in his way." Rome said watching her brother lose color as they said his name together. "Julian."
"That bastard..Julian wouldn't stand a..Sue Ling..we don't have to worry about him so long as she has him." Paris said though he was thinking how easy it could be to blow them up which was a situation not even Sue Ling could fight her way out of. "Lets go!" Paris said before taking his sister's hand and soon they were running down the hallway he'd been heading down intent on getting out so that they could keep their cousin safe from harm.
Meanwhile at Preventers
"No..no it can't be..Cecil." Was all their grandfather could manage as he watched his grandchildren run down a hallway trying to out run a madman they believed was none other then their cousin, their blood. "No."
"Was that who is there with them?" Quatre asked quietly as he looked over Asia's shoulder who was watching a diagram of the position of the players involved. The purple dot was Rome and the green dot was the figure Asia had been tracking as a possible suspect. Remembering how close he'd come to being seriously ill from those almonds Quatre felt his hands turned to fists. "Is that green dot Cecil?"
"Yes." Asia said with a nod of her blue head, her bottom lip caught in her teeth, knowing that Rome was hanging on by a thread and that soon she'd collapse and possibly die from blood loss. It had been hard to make out exactly where the bullet had gone through but the area..things didn't look good. "We had a ring made up identical to the family ring he always wears and had them switched. The fake has a tracking device in it like the necklace you guys gave Paris when you wanted to track him with Rome."
"Damn him..damn him to Hell." Julian said with a rage that was stunning and looking over at him no one would ever doubt that he was related to the Perfect Soldier. The anger and blinding hatred there in those dark depths was terrifying, especially given his usual happy go lucky nature that he'd exhibited so far. "I'll kill him for this..I'll kill the son of a bitch and tear him into pieces."
"If they don't do it first." Sue Ling said as she placed a restraining hand on Julian's shoulder to calm him down. "And if they don't we certainly will."
"We'll all take turns." Duo said with an equally dark look on his face making him appear to be as dark as the nickname he'd given himself during the war. He would be Cecil's God of Death if given the chance.
Slightly apart from the group was Milliardo and Relena who were watching the screen as though their lives depended upon it. With her arms wrapped around her brother's waist tight enough to cut of circulation Relena was as white as a sheet with her head on her brother's shoulder as she watched with silent tears streaming from her eyes as she watched the two run, Noin's blood being left behind them though Paris didn't notice and Rome didn't draw attention to it if she even felt or noticed it anymore. Milliardo had one arm around her waist and the other lay limp at his side clenched into a hard fist as he watched silently as the person he loved most bled to death in front of him.
Back to the Warehouse
Running along Paris and Rome entered into a large storage room and scanning the area Rome's eyes caught on the opposite wall where she could see a large garbage disposal area. Odds were that past those leather straps was a pipe or hole that would carry the junk being disposed of outside into a garbage disposal or to a bin near an exit for easy disposal. Of course there was always the chance that it lead to a furnace but her money was on that being a no given that this place seemed to be full of this and that making her think this was more for storage and why incinerate the merchandise. Besides if this was one of her family's warehouses which she'd bet it was then there was no way it was a furnace disposal. Her grandfather was the king of waste not want not and anything he couldn't sell he either tried to improve, held on to it in case it could be sold at another time or donated to charity for the less fortunate. Which meant that it was their best way out. Calling her brother's attention to it the two agreed with Rome's thoughts and figured it was their best chance. Running the length of the room to get to it they were forced to dive behind boxes halfway through when they came under fire. Trapped behind the small group of piled boxes with their family logo on their sides the two were stuck and stuck tight.
"Damn it to hell." Paris said after he'd managed to get a sense of how many they were dealing with. "There's half a dozen of them at least over there and ten to one they're armed a lot better then we are. We move from here they're going to compare it to shooting fish in a barrel. We've got junk all around us which will slow them up boxing us in but not for f#kin long. We're pretty screwed, Rome."
"No, not quite." Rome said as she looked from her brother to the possible ay to freedom and safety. Pressing her hand to her stomach briefly Rome was glad it had gone numb though in reality that was a really bad sign and she knew it. "There's a way. If they have something to draw their fire it would be possible to get there before they had a chance to get off more then a couple of shots in that direction."
"Yeah but its us they want, we don't have anything that could draw their attention that well and long enough that we could reach it." Paris disagreed doing the calculations in his head. "There's no way it would work without getting us both dead on the run and I'll be damned if that's how Cecil is taking me down."
"You're right, both of us could never make it..but one of us could." Rome said looking at her brother and seeing her brother about to launch into a hell no you aren't sacrificing yourself speech Rome lifted up her shirt to reveal her shirt soaked in her blood to her brother's horror. "The bullet went straight through and must have missed nearly everything vital there otherwise I'd have been dead long before I found you. The only thing that kept me on my feet this long was knowing that you and Julian were in danger and that I had to find you. I don't have it in me to last much longer but I can last long enough to get them shooting at me and giving you a window to get the hell out of here."
"No..not you too." Paris said in a voice thick with emotion, reaching out with a look in his eyes that was reminiscent of a little lost boy. 'I can't lose you too. I've already lost mom and dad I won't lose you too."
"You wont lose me..you just won't be able to see me for a while till you get your ass to hell with the rest of us bad asses." Rome said choking up herself at the look on her brother's face. "I'm done for, Paris and we both have seen death enough to know it when we see it. But you need to live Paris, you need to live to warn Julian and grandfather to what's going on. You need to make sure that Cecil pays for this and doesn't get away with what he's doing. And you need to live happily ever after with your blonde princess like you were meant to." Rome said as the first tears started to roll down her cheeks. "I want you to live and be happy for me...to live the life I can't."
"Oh God, Rome." Paris said as he pulled her against him gently, cradling her as gently as he could against him even though she winced as her blood transferred onto his chest. "I can't. I can't live without you."
"Yes you can, I know you can." Rome said as she reached up to stroke her brother's hair. "I know you better then anyone else and I know how strong you are. You can do this and I know you'll have a wonderful life if you just let yourself be happy. I love you and I am so proud of the way you've grown up and the man you've become. I know that you'll continue to make all of us proud and take good care of everyone. I need you to live to take care of Relena and Julian and Asia and everyone. They need you as much as you need me and they're going to need you more now. I need you to live so that you can tell Zechs why I left him and that I never stopped loving him. I need you to tell Julian he can blow my life savings on his damn arcades in his buildings." Rome said with a watery chuckle. "I need you to live, Paris. I need to die knowing that I didn't fail giving you the life I wanted for you."
Crying without shame with his face buried in his sister's neck Paris finally pulled away and slowly nodded his head in understanding. Wiping his hands in front of his eyes Paris met her eyes with pain and determination in his eyes. "I'll make you proud, I'll do what you said."
"I know you will." Rome said with a watery smile as she moved to a half crouch. "Now on the count of three I'm heading straight for them and your heading for that exit. No looking back or trying to come back for me, promise? On mom and dad's grave that you wont try to save me?"
"I swear." Paris said as he got to a crouch facing the exit. "I love you, Rome."
"I love you too, Paris. More then you can ever know. Three..two..one." Rome said calmly and at one jumped over the boxes and guns blazing did her best to shoot as many of the men as possible while her brother sprinted for the finish line with everything he had.
To be continued
Well I bet you're all ready to kill me now right? Well stay tuned for the next chapter and I hope that you'll review because the more reviews I get the sooner I'll get the next chapter so that you can have your answers as to what will happen to the siblings and who will live and who will die as Cecil enters the picture as does a figure from Rome's past.