Chapter 13

"What was that all about?"

Reiming stood in the doorway of the room she and Trowa shared. Trowa smiled thinly and
guided her back into the room, where he was greeted by Hilde, who looked worried. "I heard
some of that," she said, after greeting Trowa, "but I didn't say anything because I didn't
want to make it worse than it already seemed to be. What was that?"

Trowa sighed. "You may want to hear for yourself," he said wearily. "Go down into the lounge."

After Hilde left, Reiming demanded, "So, what was going on?"

"The boys were drinking."

"NANI?! They ought to know better!"

"Shh shh. It's already being taken care of."

"Were the girls-"

"No, they weren't involved. In fact, Geoffry didn't drink. He was the only one."

"How bad was it?"

"Not so bad. They didn't seem too drunk; however, everyone, Duo in particular, is very
upset."

"They should be! Don't they know that they have a greater responsibility now?"

"Heero and I had a talk about this...and we don't think that they know that..."

Reiming shook her head slowly. "When...will they realize that...?"

"I don't know..."

"Excuse me?" and Noin stood in the doorway, looking worried. "Where is everyone?"

Reiming and Trowa looked at each wearily. "Lounge," they said simultaneously.

elsewhere...

"You're kidding!"

Riko stared at Clare, who had just finished telling her what had happened. "Oh wow, they're
busted..."

"Ya think? I've never seen so many pissed off parents in my life!" Clare muttered.
"You should have seen my parents. They were seeing red; I won't be surprised if I wake up
tomorrow and find out that I'm an only child."

"But at least Geoffry stayed out of it," Reena said.

Aelis snorted. "He should have. He would have had two angry parents plus two angry older
sisters to deal with." Then she frowned. "So...now everyone knows about you two?"

Reena shrugged helplessly. "I guess...Relena-sama, Dorothy-sama, and Meilai-sama didn't seem
upset at all, but Tousan..."

"Went on a rampage?"

Reena nodded miserably. "I hope Jerry's okay..."

downstairs...

"WHOAH! Back Zechs! Killing him isn't going to help...at least, wait until I'm done
with him!" Duo shouted as he and Wufei struggled to restrain a steaming Zechs, who had his
sights set on Jerry's throat.

Jerry in the meantime was hiding behind the other four boys, petrified. Zechs had always been
an imposing figure, but now, after he had been caught getting the other (underage) guys
alcohol, he clearly wasn't high on Zechs' list of favorite people.

Rayan glanced back at Jerry, who was literally cowering behind him. "He's toast..." he thought
grimly. "Then again, so are we..."

Zechs however was not dissuaded. Glaring at Jerry with smoldering eyes, he snarled, "Okay
boy, when did this happen?! Huh?! Since WHEN have you had my permission to propose to my
daughter?!"

"Propose?!" Duo sputtered, shocked, momentarily losing his grip on Zechs' arm.
Fortunately, Quatre jumped in to help.

Zechs was still railing at the young man. "If you think I'm going to let you marry my daughter,
you're mistaken, you low drunken-"

"Zechs!" and Noin stood in the doorway, along with Hilde.

At the sound of his wife's voice, Zechs subsided, but he still glared at Jerry. "You...Stay
away from my daughter," he growled, then shook off the arms of Duo, Wufei, and Quatre.

"What is going on down here?" a new voice said, and peeking over the shoulders of his
friends, Jerry groaned and sank back down. "Kaasan..."

Thomas also peeked at his mother. "Uh oh..."

twenty minutes later...

"...can't BELIEVE how incredibly STUPID..." (Duo)

"...have you forgotten EVERYTHING we've taught you?!" (Hilde)

"...NO honor WHATsoever..." (Wufei)

"...so ashamed of you..." (Quatre)

"...give me ONE good reason NOT to kill you..." (Dorothy)

"...you've shamed us all..." (Meilai)

"...I'm going to kill you!" (Zechs)

"ZECHS!" (Noin)

"Sorry Noin..." (Zechs)

(another) twenty minutes later...

"IDIOT! STUPID BLIND IDIOT!" (Wufei)

"...What your Jiisan said..." (Quatre)

"Quatre, you'll have to do better than THAT..." (Dorothy)

"Oh...right," (Quatre)

"...irresponsible fool..." (Dorothy)

"...and I thought your FATHER was dumb..." (Hilde)

"Very funny..." (Duo)

"...WHEN will you GROW UP?!" (Meilai)

"...that's the last you'll ever see of your allowance!" (Quatre)

*Sweat drop* (Dorothy)

"...I don't believe this, this...STUPIDITY!" (Duo)

"...and stay away from my daughter!" (Zechs)

"ZECHS!" (Noin)

"Sorry sorry..." (Zechs)

Finally, many screaming fits and lengthy lectures later, all five boys were staring at the
floor, their faces bright red. Fortunately for them, an hour of yelling and lecturing and
ranting and raving was tough for even their parents, and the majority were starting to wind up.
Well, almost...

"...do you want to be disowned?!" (Wufei)

"Wufei, don't joke around with that..." (Meilai)

"Oh, right," (Wufei)

"...SHOCKED by your crude behavior..." (Dorothy)

"...stupid boys..." (Duo)

"Are you done?" (Zechs)

"Huh?" (Duo)

"Are you done yet?" (Zechs)

"Why?" (Duo)

"So I know when I can kill him," (Zechs)

"ZECHS MERQUISE!!!" (Noin)

*Sigh...* (Zechs)

And so after another hour, the boys were sent upstairs, completely humiliated and followed by
wisps of conversation such as:

"...when Lady Une hears this..."

"...better work hard to regain OUR trust..."

"...you guys are SCREWED-"

"Duo!"

"Sorry..."

ten minutes later...

"Ugh...Man, I've got a killer headache..." Jerry groaned, collapsing on his bed.

"Yeah...no kidding," Rayan muttered, splashing water on his face. "Geez, how long were
they at it?"

Thomas sighed and glanced at his watch. "Two...whole...hours..."

"We were lucky...Last time, we got a four hour lecture for a week," Wuten muttered.

"What the heck did you guys do?!" Thomas asked wearily.

"Stole some mobile suits and went out for a ride," Wuli admitted.

The other boys stared. "Learn something new about you guys everyday..." Jerry muttered, his
eyes closed and one arm flung over his face.

"Speaking of learning something new..." Rayan started, and all the others asked
simultaneously, "Since WHEN were you ENGAGED to REENA?!"

"Yeah, you didn't even tell me! And I know how hard it is for you to keep your mouth
shut..." Thomas wondered.

"You guys...I don't need this tonight..."

"May as well get it over with," Wuten said logically.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, to start, Zechs Jiisan will make your life hell from now on..." Wuli started.

"...our sisters will pester you for details..." Rayan continued.

"...our parents certainly aren't going to forgive us anytime soon..." Thomas threw in.

"...and besides, we're all nosy people," someone finished.

"Geoffry?"

The youngest teenager smiled thinly. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, why not?" Rayan said wearily, waving to him. "We're all too thrashed to say
otherwise."

Smirking, the long-haired boy entered the room and shut the door. "I would say I told you so,
but I don't think you'd appreciate that."

Thomas glared at him. "If it weren't for the fact I'm too beat to get up, I'd kill you..." he
growled.

"So, back to the engagement..." Wuli urged.

Jerry sighed half-heartedly. "I dunno..." he said tiredly. "I guess I kinda decided that I
just loved her so much that I wanted to marry her, so that's what I did. I went and got the
ring one day, and then proposed to her the first evening we arrived here."

Wuten stared. "But...I would understand if we hadn't known about Operation: Firestorm and you
had proposed then, but WHY now? Don't you realize we could all die? Do you want to weigh
down Reena with a committment like that?"

Jerry smiled bitterly. "Of course I knew. Afterwards, I felt stupid and selfish that I
wished she had just turned me down. But I couldn't back out of it-"

"Wait a minute. Do you love my sister or not?" Geoffry demanded, his eyes narrowed.

"Of course I do! But I don't know if I did the right thing..."

"Oh."

Finally, Thomas stretched and yawned. "Well, hate to say this guys," he said, "but our lives
just got a heck lot more complicated. Congratulation, minna-san, our lives as we know it are
over."

elsewhere...

"Hear that?"

"Yeah."

Wufei sighed and discreetly started walking down the hallway, where he had been listening in to
the conversation inside. "They finally got the big picture," he muttered.

Walking next to him, Duo nodded. "About time," he said grimly. "About time..."

Chapter 14

"Zzzz-OOF! Wha-hey, what's your problem?"

It was seven in the morning, and Riko had just been rudely yanked out of her pleasant dream
and back into reality, thanks to a mountain of pillows that had been flung in her direction.
Rubbing her head, she sat up and glared at a snickering Clare, who had been in charge of her
rude awakening.

"Shh! The guy's are being roasted right now by Lady Une! Wanna listen?"

"Huh? How would you know?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Grinning, Clare gestured to a corner of the room, where the other girls were huddled. The two
of them walked over, and, craning her neck, Riko saw a small screen in Eva's lap. "What's
that?"

Sheepishly, Eva looked up. "Don't tell anyone that I've got this, please Riko?" she begged,
training both big blue eyes at her. Riko sighed. "You're more devious than you look, you
know that? Not only do you have that killer puppy dog look, but I'm guessing that you either
pilfered that from your parents' supply of various spy gadgets, or you made it."

"She made it," Giselle confirmed, turning back to look at Riko and shaking her head.
"The girl is a mechanical genius...How long did it take you again?"

"Two weeks," she said proudly. "I bought all the supplies at different places with my
own money, and then snuck out of bed at night and into my private workshop to make it. But it's
pretty cool, huh?"

"More than cool," Riko smiled, then leaned in closer.

elsewhere...

"I'm sure your respective parents have already expressed their...disappointment in you,
but I really must let you know how disappointed I am in you. In fact, I am more than
disappointed. I am angry that you were caught breaking a law, no matter how minor the law was,
and I am frustrated that you don't seem to comprehend the MAGNITUDE of the situation! Really,
has it not OCCURED to you that you five, along with the other three pilots, are literally our
only hope?! And yet, you still think that you can act so IRRESPONSIBLY? Come on now, tell me
what you think."

Silence.

Lady Une raised an eyebrow. When a grumpy Duo had knocked on her office door at 6:30 this
morning and told her about yesterday's events, she had almost lost her temper. After it had
been explained that the five had already been thoroughly lectured, screamed at, and humiliated
the night before, she had decided against going into an all-out fit of rage. However, she still
felt that it was her right to give them one more verbal bashing.

"Very well then, since there are no volunteers...Rayan, tell me how you could have
possibly been so irresponsible."

At the sound of his name, the youth had paled visibly. Frantically shooting panicked looks at
his fellow miscreants, who all pointedly ignored him, he finally cleared his throat.

"Um..."

"Smooth," Jerry muttered, then, "Ow!" as Rayan gave him a hard nudge.

"Jerry? Since your lips seem to be looser than those of your companions, why don't you
give it a try. And while you're at it, why don't you clear up some confusion as to what's going
on between you and Miss Reena Merquise?"

"Me? Er...well, you see-"

KNOCK KNOCK

Frowning, Lady Une stood up. "Come in."

At her invitation, the door opened, and Heero walked in. "Two things," he said simply. When
Lady Une gave him a confused look, he first took out a small monitor and turned it on.
Suddenly, the faces of six confused girls popped up on the monitor.

in the other room...

"Yikes!" Eva shrieked before quickly turning off the monitor.

"Uh-oh, I guess Tousan eventually caught on," Riko said meekly, turning red.

back in Lady Une's office...

"You were being spied on," Heero said, stating the obvious.

"Ooh...had to be our little Niichan," Thomas growled. "She's really just too smart and
resourceful for her age!"

"Second thing," Heero continued, ignoring the other boys. "Signs of rebellion are
occuring in all the colonies. This may be the beginning of the Neo-Rommefeller's attack."

Though Lady Une had been surprised to hear that, her face betrayed no emotion. Grimly, she
nodded. "Courtesy of our representative in the colonies?"

Heero nodded and pushed another button on the screen. This time, only one face appeared.
Clear blue eyes looked back Heero's cobalt and Lady Une's brown.

"Hello, Mother. It's been awhile," Mariemaia Khrushrenada said, smiling.

"Mariemaia. I'm glad to see you," Lady Une said. "How are you and your husband?"

"Safe, for now. I'm afraid that this will be my last report before I am forced to
compromise my position. Now that the Neo-Rommefeller has made its move, we will need to seek
refuge with you down on Earth."

"Of course. A secure transport-"

"-has already been arranged," Heero said flatly. "Get out of there now, Mariemaia."

Mariemaia nodded. "Acknowledged. See you soon," and she broke the connection.

Sighing, Lady Une ran a hand through her hair. "It's really too bad. Mariemaia was perhaps our
best source to the Neo-Rommefeller's habits. However, I guess it's time to move on to the
second part of Operation: Firestorm," and she turned her gaze back to the five pilots. She
locked stares with them for a minute, then smiled thinly. "Do you understand now?" she said
gently.

The five stared right back, all traces of who they previously were gone. "We understand," Wuten
said firmly. "We won't let you down."

"The Neo-Rommefeller's plan so far seems simple," Heero began. "Take over the colonies,
then begin a war of attrition against the Earth. Fortunately, ever since the Mariemaia
incident and the Reiming/Meilai incident, the Preventers have made it a point to keep hidden
weapons available. Unfortunately, all Preventer headquarters have this stockpile, even though
the majority of the weapons, including the blueprints of the Gundams and the Gundams themselves
remain here on Earth, and the Neo-Rommefeller will certainly make use of the weapons of the
smaller Preventer headquarters on each of the colonies. We also know that they have been
secretly manufacturing weapons of their own. However, we can only guess at how extensive their
weaponry is. Therefore, the first things we are going to do are destroy the weapons on the
colonies, evacuate as many Preventers as possible, and prepare ourselves for war."

"Wait, are we just going to give up on the colonies?!" Rayan demanded, thinking of his
many aunts scattered across space.

"There is no choice. Clinging to the colonies would only weaken us. We have no hold
over them. It is better to centralize our forces here. The Neo-Rommefeller has stationed
itself in the colonies, and until we know where they are, it is impossible to fight them. Once
they reveal themselves, then it will be possible to fight them, and we can win back the colonies
one by one."

"But...but.."

"Easy, Rayan," Wuli said. "Heero-sama is right. More lives would be lost if we took
such a hopeless stand."

"Okay then, so where do we come in?" Thomas asked.

"You five, along with the other three, will prepare yourselves and wait for them to
make the first move. Once they do, you will be given further instructions. However, during
this time, I want all eight of you to attempt to locate the separate Neo-Rommefeller factions
on each of the colonies. Try to find their databases and hack into them. If you manage to
do that, you can familiarize yourselves with your enemy."

"What about the other three pilots?" Jerry asked.

"They are being briefed by Duo and Wufei as of now. You eight will meet in the main
computer room in ten minutes."

elsewhere...

"Eva, I really don't want to know how you managed to escape your Uncle Heero's detection
system for so long..." Duo muttered, his sheepish daughter standing in front of him. He
stared at the monitor she had handed over and shook his head. "You're like your mother. Too
smart and too ambitious for your own good."

"Er...sorry?"

Duo laughed and pat his daughter on the head. "Well, I guess you just got a good mix of genes,"
and he stooped down and tapped her nose. "Now, I'm going to be hanging on to THIS little
creation of yours, and don't let me catch you again, you hear?"

"Yes Daddy."

Straightening, Duo turned his attention back to the other five girls. "And do you all understand
what I've told you? Aelis? Giselle?"

"Yes, Duo-jiisan."

Duo nodded. "Good good. See you in the main computer room in ten, then," and started out. On
his way out, he noticed Clare's sick looking expression, and sighed. "Come on Clare, don't
be so sad. It's not healthy."

"It's not exactly healthy to go fight in a war either," she muttered sullenly, staring
at her feet.

Duo smiled grimly. "Ah...you have your mother's razor sharp wit there now, only you don't
bother to even try to hide your hatred of war. Well, I never really was so great at pep talks,
but try to relax a little, 'kay? Worrying and being angry won't make this thing blow over any
quicker."

After Duo left, Reena went up and squeezed Clare's arm. "I know how you feel, Clare," she said
gently. "After all, I'm in love with the other Maxwell-"

"WHY does everyone think I like Thomas?!" she howled furiously as the other girls
laughed. "Arg! He's annoying and loud and rude and...oh, never mind!"

"What is it Clare? Is he cute and funny and handsome too?" Giselle teased, trying to
lighten the mood a little.

"Come on ladies, tease Clare later, or at least save some for us when we get back,
okay?" Aelis said, pointedly looking at her watch.

Giselle got the hint. "Okay Aelis. Let's go."

Chapter 15

"Took you long enough," Wuten said snidely, glaring at Aelis and Giselle as they
walked into the room.

"At least we didn't go on some drinking binge, then get chewed out by both our parents
AND Lady Une," Giselle shot back.

"It was not a binge!"

"Oh yes it was!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"And would the people here who's IQ's are LARGER than their shoe size please listen
up?!" cut in Thomas, rolling his eyes. "Sheesh...what's the world coming to, when I of all
people have to break up some fight? Isn't it usually ME that causes the fights?"

"At least you have the courage to admit it," Geoffry murmured, snickering.

"Why thank yo-Hey!"

"If you're all about done, could we please start listening now?"

"Oh...sorry Heero-jiisan..."

Heero cast a baleful eye over the sheepish teenagers and groaned inwardly. "At this rate, it'll
be a miracle if they survive their first real battle," he thought. "The original Gundam pilots
and I...well, perhaps with the exception of Duo, only survived the war because we weren't being
ridiculous and foolish...Were we wrong? Do our offspring truly even have the ABILITY to
accomplish the task before them?"

"Earth to Heero! You in there?" Duo bellowed, laughing. "What's this, are we getting
so old that we space out all the time? Haha, Heero's over the hill; Heero's over the hi-OW!"

"I'm not so over the hill that I still can't get you to shut up," Heero said calmly,
keeping a firm grip on Duo's braid. "And I'm sure we all know what a hard task that can be."

"Yeow! Okay okay, you win! Just don't touch the hair!" Duo howled as everyone else
laughed. Smirking to himself, Heero finally let go.

As Duo nursed his injured hair, Heero began his talk. "As I was saying, the Neo-Rommefeller
has begun their attack. The Preventer Headquarters on the colonies have all been overrun, and
several hundred tons worth of weapons confiscated, including some mobile suits. There have
been some small skirmishes here on Earth as well; however, those were eliminated without much
trouble."

"And as I was about to say before some certain person decided to mutilate my beautiful
hair, I, along with the other pilots, have managed to hack into some of the databases of the
Neo-Rommefeller's stations on various colonies, and even a few on Earth. Therefore, you guys
have your first mission: Get to these stations, download key items of information, then get the
heck outta there as fast as your little legs can carry ya. Oh...and try not to get caught,
'cause that would be bad," Duo finished cheerfully.

Everyone else in the room groaned at the last part. "Yes, Dad, I think we all know THAT little
detail by now," Jerry sighed.

"So who wants to go first?" Wufei said as he entered the room, followed by the other
gundam pilots along with Noin, Hilde, Reiming, and Meilai. "It's better if one or two of you
go first; test them out a little. Remember, they're expecting you."

The new pilots stared at each other. "Er...how about 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'?" Jerry suggested.

Sweatdrops all around.

"Jerry...I don't know if you're going to even live long enough to become my brother-in-
law..." Aelis groaned.

"Ditto," Geoffry added.

"Fine, then I'll go," Giselle spoke up. Turning to Aelis, she asked, "Wanna go with me?"

Aelis shrugged. "Why not?"

Wufei nodded. "Okay, that's one team. Why don't we have another one? Thomas? Geoffry? How
about you two?"

"Okay."

"Very well. Now, Aelis and Giselle will target the weapons base in the Middle East area,
and Thomas and Geoffry will go for the supply station on colong Z5203. Take a few minutes to
go over the statistics of the two places, and prepare to leave in thirty minutes. Any
questions?"

"Yeah, what happens if we get caught?"

More sweatdrops. "Thomas...please, just shut up now, okay? Save the little dignity that you
still have," Geoffry muttered, hiding his face.

later...

"Aelis, are you SURE that you can do this?" Reena asked for the umpteenth time as she
followed her sister around the Preventer Headquarters. "What if you get lost? What if you get
caught? Oh my God, what if-"

"Reena! Please! You're not making this any easier!" Aelis said impatiently as she
skimmed over the papers in her hand and tried to zip up her flight suit at the same time.
"Nothing is going to happen, so relax!"

"But what if-"

"Reena! Nothing...Is...Going...To...HAPPEN!"

"Okay, fine then..." Reena sulked, hurt. Then she sniffled. "But...but..."

"Stop acting like such a baby!" Aelis finally exploded, losing her temper. "Look, I
KNOW that this is amazingly dangerous. But I have to do this, so just...leave me alone!"

Reena looked like she had been slapped. Turning around, she ran down the hallway, sobbing.
Aelis watched her twin leave, then smacked herself on the head. "Aelis, you idiot!" she scolded
herself, sighing. "You're letting this mission totally mess you up! Reena...I'm sorry..." she
murmured to her sister's retreating form, then turned around back towards the hangar.

On the way there, she ran into Giselle. "Hey, what's the matter Aelis?"

"Nothing...just being a total jerk to my sister," Aelis sighed, shaking her head.

"You? How? That's definitely not the Aelis I know!" Giselle frowned, falling into
step beside the other girl.

"I dunno...I guess this mission's just making me nervous, so I kinda blew up at her.
As far as I know, she's proabably in her room right now, sobbing."

"Oh ouch...Um, I'm sorry..."

Aelis laughed dryly. "Hey, it's not like it's your fault or anything. What can I say, I guess
I'm just a cast-iron bitch-"

"Aelis! Stop insulting yourself!"

"Yeah...guess you're right..." Aelis finished, and the two girls finally entered the
hangar. "Hi everyone," they greeted.

"Yo, Giselle, Aelis, wassup? Ready for our first mission?" Thomas asked cheerfully,
waving them over. Then he went back to admiring his flight suit. "Man...I look GOOD!" he
said smugly, then called over to Geoffry, "Hey! Do we look great or what?"

Geoffry rolled his eyes from his position at a console, where he was running a check on
Heavyarms. "Leave it to Thomas to be admiring himself at a time like this," he muttered, then
raised his head to acknowledge the two girls before finishing up. "All done!" he said, brushing
off his hands. "Heavyarms, are you ready?"

Meanwhile, the other pilots had all gotten into their suits. Giselle leaned over and waved to
Aelis. "You ready?" she called.

"As much as I'll ever be! Let's go!"

And four mobile suits took off.

sometime later...

Geoffry ran down a hallway quickly, several disks in hand. "Thomas? You there?" he hissed.

Back in Wing, Thomas spoke into the microphone. "Yeah, is everything okay in there?"

"So far so good. I've got some information, and I'm getting out of here as I speak.
You? Have you dealt with the security yet?"

"Yeah. The videocameras show images from last week; no one's gonna see some blond kid
running down the hall, and the guards all have a 'break' right now; I just hope they don't
realize that incidentally, ALL the guards are on break right now."

"What?! Break?! In what way?"

"Hey, relax! It's nothing bad. All the guards just got memos that they're on leave
right now, and to be back in a few hours. Sheesh, what did you think I meant, I took them all
out? Oh please."

"Well you never know with you!" Geoffry muttered as he sprinted around the final corner.
"Come on, let's get out of here!"

As the two suits quickly left the colony and entered space, Thomas crowed, "Mission...complete!"

Geoffry couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, we did pretty good...I wonder how the girls are doing?"

elsewhere?

Aelis and Giselle sprinted down the hall, being chased by several guards. "Great! Why do the
GUYS get some easy supply base, while we get to go to this fortress?!" Giselle panted, dodging
the bullets.

"Well, at least we got what we needed!" Aelis gasped, her head ducked low. "Don't you
remember that Heero-sama had warned us that this place was very closely guarded, and that the
chances of us completely escaping detection were slim to none?"

"So why the heck did he send us here?!"

"Hey, it's okay, we got what we needed, right?" Aelis winked, flashing several disks.
"And besides, there're our suits!"

Sure enough, the girls made it to their mobile suits in plenty of time before their pursuers and
jumped in. "See you!" Giselle called out cheerfully before firing several of her missiles at
once. "Come on Aelis, let's split!"

"Agreed," Aelis said as she wreaked havoc with her whip.

Back at the ruined station, a guard reported to a man on a screen. "Sir, I regret to inform you
that two gundam pilots sneaked into the station. 40% of our facility has been destroyed, and
there are 80 casualties."

The man seemed nonplussed. "Did you see who they were?"

"Yes and no sir. One image was too blurred, but the other is quite clear. I'll send
them over right now," and two images popped up. One was of a figure in mid-flip; it was nearly
impossible to see the face, but the other was of a striking girl with tousled ponytails and
flashing blue eyes. The man smiled. "It's quite alright; I already expected them to come,"
he said to the soldier as he studied the images. "Carry on with your duties."

"And you," he murmured after the connection had been cut, "I know who you are...You
look almost exactly like your aunt, but you have your father's eyes and from what I hear, your
mother's personality..." The man smiled. "Miss Aelis Merquise, I will be looking forward to
hearing from you again soon..."