I own…well, I think you all get the picture by now.
Segment 10:
Living on a Prayer
Summary:
Quatre meets Haruka in Virginia, and they travel to Saint Teresa's. When they arrive, they meet the mysterious girl named Hino Rei. She is hostile at first to her caretakers, and when she notices Haruka she seems to recognize her and attempts to attack her. Quatre calms her and asks her if she knows his aunt. She answers yes, and declares she cannot be trusted. Before he can ask more, Rei suddenly warns him that "they" are coming. Sure enough, a group of Leute attack the hospital and kill the two caregivers. Amazingly, Rei seems to regain some sanity and challenges Haruka, who transforms into an unknown Senshi and attacks the Leute, allowing the other two to escape. In the process, Saint Teresa's is destroyed, and the three begin the race cross-country to Denver, and their only hope to get back to the colonies.
In Istanbul, it was almost ten o'clock when Setsuna Meioh walked through the apartment door. She removed her jacket and the wide brimmed hat she wore, then set her keys on the kitchen table. The faint sound of music drifted in from the living room. Making her way inside, she smiled at the sight of the several candles on the coffee table and the man sitting on the couch staring at her. He was an older man, but attractive in a darkly exotic way. Obviously of Arabian descent, his hair, skin, and eyes were dark, his beard cut short, and his body tall and strong.
"You're home," he smiled, rising to embrace her and kiss her cheek.
"Rashid," she murmured, returning the hug. "I've missed you."
She had married the former leader of the Maganac Corps. five years ago. He had officially retired just prior to their union, but it was clear he was still a part of the group, as well as Quatre Winner's life (though he did not know Setsuna was Rashid's wife). Many had questioned the marriage. To unknowing eyes, Rashid was about thirteen years older, but the couple knew better. Rashid had been one of the few people Setsuna had trusted with her true identity and mission, and he had been honored to learn whom it was that he had married. Their relationship was not as passionate as others', but there was a deep, respectful love between the two of them.
"Master Quatre?" he asked, releasing her.
Setsuna looked reassuringly at him. "He's just fine. He has Rei, and Haruka has finally shown herself."
Rashid nodded. He was also aware of the status of the other lost citizens of Crystal Tokyo. Which was why he still regretted treating the brazen Haruka with such distrust prior to meeting Setsuna. "I am glad for that. Hopefully this won't change things between the two of them."
"Change is inevitable," Setsuna answered matter-of-factly. "And I don't doubt that Haruka is going to have a difficult time explaining everything to Quatre. But he's a forgiving, understanding person. He will love her no less for it."
"And Hino?" he asked.
She patted his shoulder. "It is as I said, my dear Rashid. Things are going as they should. She is with him, and no doubt will have to remain with him for some time."
A very long time, she mused.
"Hm," Rashid murmured, then put a hand on her shoulder. "You should get some rest."
"I will. I'm afraid I can only stay tonight though. I'm due on L1 tomorrow night. My flight leaves around 3:00 PM tomorrow," Setsuna replied. "But I'd like to see him first."
"Of course," her husband smiled. "He's in bed. Which is where I am headed also." He kissed her cheek again, then headed in the direction of their bedroom. Pausing, he turned to look at her again. "Setsuna?"
"Yes?"
"Are we getting close to the end of this?" he asked.
She smiled sadly. "No, Rashid. We are very far from the end. But…" Setsuna looked out the window. "Before it is over, I'm afraid I'll have to leave you."
He said nothing, but continued to study her beautiful form in the flickering candlelight. Shaking his head, he disappeared into the darkness of the bedroom.
Sighing, Setsuna walked in the opposite direction and carefully opened the door to another bedroom. Crossing the floor, she knelt down next to a bed. She smiled.
A narrow shaft of moonlight illuminated the face of the sleeping boy. Dark skin and hair, like his father's. But she knew that hidden beneath his smooth eyelids were the same ruby-red eyes she gazed on him with. The boy could not be more than four. A pale hand traced over the soft cheek, and he stirred, but did not awaken. Leaning over, she kissed his forehead, treasuring his presence. Her son, named for the angel he resembled.
Jabreel and Rashid. Her heart and soul and humanity.
She sighed again, then stood up.
Before it is over, I will leave you.
Wufei slowly turned the pages of a book, then paused when he saw Sally coming down the stairs with a heavy-looking duffel bag slung over her back. The two had taken Ami Mizuno to Sally's small house in Melbourne, Australia, a few days ago, partly to get her away from all of the stress of interrogation, partly so that they could catch their own breath. In the morning they would have to return to the US. Quatre, and the (apparently) two Senshi attempting to race across the country were having trouble remaining inconspicuous. Especially since nearly one hundred and twenty people were killed in the destruction of Saint Teresa's.
"Where are you going?" he asked, somewhat surprised at the turn of events.
"Volgograd," Sally answered shortly, then went to her desk and began saving files onto a disk.
"Volgograd?" Wufei pressed on. "I haven't heard anything about that. I thought we were going to Colorado."
"You're going to Colorado. I'm going to Volgograd," she repeated. "I've just received a phone call from a man who claims to be the brother of Anya Karikov. He's got information."
"And you're going alone," he raised an eyebrow cynically.
She sighed and looked up at him. "Look, somebody's got to stay with Amy. You're the only one I can trust not to put her through the Spanish Inquisition. Not to mention someone has to pick up Quatre."
Wufei stood up and crossed his arms. "I'm sure she'd rather you stay. I'll go to Volgograd and—"
"No," Sally snapped. "Damn it Wufei, what don't you understand? I'm going to Russia, you're going to the US with Amy."
He stared at her. "What's the matter with you? Have you lost all reason woman?"
Sally blinked in surprise. Since they'd become partners, Wufei had always addressed her by her name. The diminutive "woman" was reserved for those females in the world that really pissed him off.
"Look…I…" she put a hand to her forehead. "Wufei, even if we are partners, you still get it that I have superiority?"
He narrowed his eyes. "I've never forgotten. And to be honest, I was proud of it in the past. But now you tell me you plan to go to Volgograd alone, and meet some man who claims to be the brother of Anya Karikov and who claims to have information? I know you're not an overconfident person. And I know you're not suicidal. So tell me what the hell you're trying to do."
She stared at her computer screen. "Trying to protect you."
At her answer, Wufei was both touched and infuriated. He was too proud to admit the degree of sincerity in the bonds of trust, honor, and respect between Sally and himself. And this was proof of it. Yet, how dare she think he needed to be protected? In any instance, she was the one who needed his protection. In Kiel he was the one who fought off the majority of the Leute, wasn't he? But then again, without Sally's intervention, he wouldn't have stopped there. He probably would've killed Ami. Maybe, just maybe, he did need her to protect him. From himself. But nothing else.
"I don't need that, Sally," he muttered, turning his back to her.
"That's what Kino thought too!" she struggled to keep her voice down so as not to wake Ami, sleeping upstairs. "I sent her off alone, and she got killed."
"But she was a Senshi, a target…" Wufei reasoned, glancing back at her.
"And why should that matter? We're all targets Wufei. All of us that have had contact with the Senshi. I know the danger of doing this by myself. But better me than you. You're too good of a Preventor to risk," she answered, her voice calming again.
He turned around to face her. Her face was twisted in anguish, and her thumb and forefinger her pressed against her temples.
"So you're going to sacrifice yourself?" he asked softly.
She nodded. "If that's what's necessary, I will. And I want to know that you'll still be alive to save the world if that's what's necessary too."
Silently, Wufei did something he had never done before in his life. He reached out to Sally and embraced her tightly. Not even when he was married had he risked shattering his façade of egotism and coldness with such an act of affection.
"You'd better stay alive Po. If you don't, you will feel my vengeance," he threatened.
She smiled and patted his back. "Look after Amy, okay? I have a feeling she'll have a vengeance to exact too when she finds out I'm not here in the morning."
Wufei risked a small smile back. "Flight still leaves at the same time?"
Sally nodded then handed him a scrap of paper. "My cell number. If something goes wrong, call me. I'll be there ASAP."
"Right," he nodded, then wrote something down on a notepad and tore it off. Shoving it in her hand, his smile widened slightly. "Same to you."
The Preventor grinned and saluted to him, then shoved the disk into her jacket pocket, picked up her duffel, and walked out the door.
Relena sat on the balcony of her L4 residence, sipping tea and watching the lighting system slowly illuminate the colony's interior. The balcony overlooked a peaceful rose garden, and the only sound she could hear was that of the fountain below her. It was rare indeed that she would get a moment of serenity like this. Ever since Roderick Bailey's assassination weeks ago, she was being moved from colony to satellite to Earth and back again. Several times. Although she had no children, everyone feared that there was a Leute planning to cut open her chest over the television or Internet.
She had to admit, she was a ashamed to find out Heero had been right about the Leute. But she refused to believe that their salvation lied with a group of millennia old women with superpowers. And she refused to develop weapons. If what she'd heard was true, the Leute had lived on Earth and the colonies for centuries. Why shouldn't they want peace? Why couldn't diplomacy make any breakthroughs?
Because, Elijah Bailey, or Eljira ak Zhul, made it clear that they wanted revenge. For what? It wasn't the humans' fault that they'd mistaken the Leute for children and treated them as such. If anything, it was the Leute's fault for not making it clearer soon. But Relena knew that if they had, the fact that the Leute were not from Earth would frighten the humans and drive them to destruction.
Relena sighed. War. Always things seemed to end in war. Already, people were calling the tensions between the Leute and the humans the "Dawn War", though the last thing anyone wanted was another age of battles and suffering. And yet, she could see no way around it. It would have to be war, or massacre. The first she hated, the second she feared more than anything. Though she knew developing weapons would at least give humans a chance of survival, there was no way anyone could be sure that they could stand up to the Leute's military machinery. But always hopeful, she was sure that somehow she could achieve peace by just talking with the Leute.
"I don't think they're bad people, these Leute," she mused. "Just…confused."
Suddenly, she was aware of several successive thuds as half a dozen Leute landed from the sky onto the balcony railing. She blinked and stood up quickly.
They were indeed youthful, none more than twelve. The colors of their hair and eyes ranged from shock white to dark purple, and their eyes were all black. Two were armed with what looked like tommy guns, two with long swords, and two with a pair of glowing garrotes each. Uniformed in dark green jumpsuits, black gloves, and black boots, they were oddly intimidating for children.
"We're afraid you're mistaken, Vice President Relena Dorlian Peacecraft. It is you who are confused," they answered in unison.
"Wh-wh-what do you want from me?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. Slowly, she backed towards the sliding door to her room, but one of the Leute with rifles fired a shot near her right hand.
"Please do not move," they answered. "We need you to come with us."
"Like hell I will," she hissed. Had anyone been around, they would've been shocked at her use of the curse.
"It is not a request," they said, closing in on her. "You will come with us now."
Suddenly, one of the Leute screamed as a bullet ripped through its neck. Relena dived to avoid being hit by the bullet. Kneeling on the floor, she pressed her face to the balcony and heard the glass doors shatter. A split second later a shower of tiny shards fell over her.
More gunshots followed, and she was aware of someone jerking her to her feet. A voice from below was yelling at her.
"Jump!" it called.
She tried to look down, but the person holding her duck forward as the sound of a blade sliced through the air above. There was another gunshot and she raised her head to meet a pair of ocean blue eyes. Relena blinked in surprise.
"Milliardo?" she gasped. Her brother's long white hair brushed against her face as he thrust her against the balcony railing and dove sideways to avoid another sword sweep. Two Leute lay dead and another dying, but the remaining three, the two with swords and one with a garrote, were still fighting strong. A tall woman with short violet hair and angry gray eyes was balanced on the railing shooting at the Leute, but they're agility was beyond that of a human's and they avoided all shots.
"Noin? What's going on?" Relena cried. Noin swiftly kicked one of the Leute in the head as it approached, then dashed to the younger woman with the agility of a gymnast on a beam.
"We're saving you Miss Relena. Come on," she grabbed her wrist, then suddenly the two were falling the three stories from the balcony. Relena felt Noin's hand leave her wrist but before she could panic she had landed in a pair of strong arms.
"Heero?" she blinked. Sure enough, the perfect soldier had once again been there to save her. A few feet away, Noin had landed in a perfectly executed crouch and slowly rose to her feet. Heero set Relena down then nodded at the purple-haired woman. Noin glanced at the two of them then back up at the balcony.
She cupped her hands to her mouth. "ZECHS! GET OUT OF THERE!" she called.
There was a flash of white hair as Relena's brother flew over the railing of the balcony and landed next to Noin.
"Come on," he said.
The four dashed through the gardens to a small man made lake. Noin turned her head and looked back. The Leute were gone.
"Coast is clear. Let's rest a minute," she said. Both she and the two men had hardly broken a sweat, but it had been difficult for Relena to run the good two miles to the lake barefoot. The vice president looked at her gratefully and sat down on the lakes edge, soaking her feet in the water that turned red around them. It had been poor planning indeed not to grab a pair of shoes or at least slippers before the run.
"Thank you," she answered finally, looking up at her saviors. "All three of you. But…how did you they were going to attack me?"
"We didn't," Zechs answered simply. "A couple of weeks ago, the three of us met in Osaka to discuss Bailey's murder. It wasn't difficult to figure out that you would probably be a target as well, and we decided that at least one of us should start keeping an eye on you at all times. All three of us just happened to be here on L4 at the same time."
"And of course it's when you're most protected, they decide to attack," Noin rolled her eyes.
Relena laughed slightly. "Well, at least you were there."
"Yes," Noin smiled. "And by the way Relena, thank you for the beautiful anniversary present." She glanced lovingly at Zechs. The two had celebrated their ten-year wedding anniversary in January. Funny how Relena, her sister-in-law, was the only one who still called her "Noin", her maiden name. Everyone else simply called her Lucrezia, or Madame Marquise. But the name had stuck, just like Noin still called Relena "Miss Relena."
"You're welcome. And your children are well? It's been ages since I've seen them. How old are they?" she asked.
"Apollo is almost eight now. Daian is five, and Io is two. They're staying with my mother on Earth," Noin's eyes sparkled. "Io looks just like you, Miss Relena."
Zechs and Heero looked at each other. Relena and Noin were two of the most powerful women they'd ever met. But since the war had ended, both had settled back into their genders and with the birth of the three Marquise children, the maternal sides of them did have tendency to rear their ugly heads.
"But anyways," Noin brushed a hair from her face. "Now that all of this has happened, we're hoping you'll reconsider developing military weapons."
Relena bit her lip and frowned. "You know I can't do that."
"I told you before, Relena," Heero said, locking eyes with her. "If you don't provide some sort of defense for the people, you're going to get a massacre. Diplomacy is not going to work in this instance."
"We didn't give them a chance!" she snapped. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but back there on the balcony, all that was exhibited was a "shoot first, ask questions later" attitude! It's no wonder they—"
"Relena, we're a "shoot first, ask questions later" kind of society," Zechs cut in. "Why else do you think the Leute want revenge? They have not been treated kindly in the past."
"But we can start treating them kindly now!" Relena answered stubbornly.
Noin shook her head. "Miss Relena, anything like that would be too little too late." She stood up. "If you refuse to sanction weapon development, we'll have to find someone to do it illegally for us."
The vice president's eyes widened in shock. Zechs grinned slightly. "Don't be afraid Relena. One of us will still always be here to protect you. But if we're about to become criminals, don't expect us to show ourselves."
She bit her lip and looked at Heero. "Is that what you think too? Heero?"
He narrowed his eyes and turned away. "You know what I think Relena."
She did not bother to call out to them as the three people she loved most walked away and left her on the shores of the lake.
As the ocean passed by below her, Ami typed slowly on her computer. Actually, it was Sally's computer. She had awoken that morning to find her friend gone, and she had left only a brief note behind explaining that she was going to Russia and that she should stay with Wufei. Sally had also granted Ami access to her computer, telling her to take care of it and that it just happened to have extra firewalls in case she should go back into her med school habit of hacking. She couldn't help but smile at that
Wufei sat across the plane from her. It was a small aircraft. Only about fifteen feet long, it was piloted by a Preventor specializing in transportation and could carry up to four passengers. However, Ami and Wufei were the only ones on board.
"Remind me again, where are we going?" she asked softly, looking over at him.
He didn't look up. "Denver. From there we'll need to get a car and try to meet up with Quatre."
"Did he…find Rei?" Ami murmured.
"Yeah. But her hospital was destroyed when they escaped," Wufei answered.
"Destroyed? How?"
He glanced up at her, clearly annoyed. "There was a freak earthquake."
"Earthquake?" Ami gasped. She clenched her fists and began muttering to herself. "There's no way…she wouldn't have…damn it Haruka…"
Wufei stared at her. He could barely make out the words she spoke. But one stuck out. Haruka. The name of Quatre's aunt. He thought back quickly. Had Haruka gone with him to Saint Teresa's? Yes. He remembered now. Of course she would, she went everywhere with her nephew. But how could Ami know…?
"What did you say?" he asked, crossing the plane and standing in front of her.
She blinked and looked away. "Nothing…just thinking out loud…"
His hand closed over her shoulder tightly. "Don't lie to me Amy. I promised Sally I wouldn't question you too hard, so tell me the truth. How do you know the name of Quatre's aunt?"
She looked up at him. He expected her to start crying again, or to faint like she had in Kiel. But she did the exact opposite. She got to her feet and pulled free of his grasp.
"Keep your hands off me," she ordered with a trembling voice.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Why the hell do you think you're so powerful? What makes you think you have the right to ask me all these things? Despite what you may think, I am a human being! Treat me like one!" she snapped.
"I am treating you like a human being, woman. If not, I would've left you with the inquisitors," he growled. "But I do not have to show you respect until you have done something worthy of it."
She stared back at him angrily, but it was clear she was close to tears again. But tears of fury, not fear.
"It's true you've given us the information we've requested. But we know you only cooperate because you're terrified that we'll kill you at any given second," he went on. "And why shouldn't we? You're nearly fifteen hundred years old and supposed to have great powers, but what have you shown? You hide and expect people to protect you when it's nearly fifteen hundred years old and supposed to have great powers, but what have you shown? You hide and expect people to protect you when it's you that should be protecting the weak."
"How dare you?" Ami whispered. "How dare you say that? Did it ever occur to you that perhaps power does not last forever? That the most I can do is to lower a room temperature by about five degrees?"
She could no longer hold the tears back, and they fell steaming over her face.
"You have no clue how much I wish I could still protect people! How much I want to be useful! I had to watch everything I loved shatter and get buried and forgotten in the sands of time. I couldn't even risk falling in love. Do you know why? Because even if I did find someone, and managed to raise a family, they would all grow old and die in front of me while I remained like this!" She clenched her fists. "I'm going to look just like this until the day I die. And no one will believe me if I try to tell them about the past, if I try to warn them about the future. In the world's eyes, I'm eternally an up-and-coming young doctor with tons of promise, but no accomplishments, no meaning." She paused to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Maybe you should've killed me, Wufei."
Her tirade finished, she sank back down into the seat and stared straight ahead. Wufei stared at her in surprise. In about a minute, she had made him second-guess all of his opinions about her. And for a split second, he could see the frustration of the brilliant, powerful woman she used to be struggling to break through the frozen over surface.
"I'm…sorry," he said finally. "I didn't know."
Ami swallowed hard. "No, I should be sorry. I shouldn't have gone off like that. Please," she looked up at him, blue eyes wide. "Please forgive me."
"…Of course," he answered. Trying to ease the awkward moment, he touched her shoulder, much gentler this time.
Damn it Chang…he thought to himself. Much more of this and people will start to think you're going weak.
He looked at Ami again. Perhaps his definition of "weak" was changing.