NEW CHAPTER! Yaay!
I apologize for the long delay, but here is the next chapter to MM, and hopefully, I'll get the next chapter out sooner than this one. It all depends on how nicely my university classes treat me. (sigh) Stupid homework. It only gets worse the higher up in the education system you get.
Enjoy!
"Is she here?"
"No, it looks like they've left for now."
"Good," Noin let out a sigh of relief, joining Une at the bottom of the steps as they entered the club from their upstairs loft.
It was just after sunset, and a few of their workers were roaming about, straightening things up and preparing for another night. Dorothy and her little clique seemed to have abandoned the establishment for a while. They finally had some privacy.
"I wish I knew what was going on," Noin sighed heavily, laying comfortably with her head in Une's lap on one of the nearest couches. "How are we supposed to make any plans when we don't even know who's alive or not."
"Do you want me to try calling Catherine again?" Une offered, combing her long fingers through her purple hair.
"There's no need, I'm here."
The woman in question gave the battered doors of the club an amused glance before walking over to the couple. "Looks like things got wild in here last night," she remarked idly as Noin bolted upright.
"We tried reaching you!" Noin exclaimed. "Duo came raging in here, saying he killed Wufei, that Heero's as good as dead, and Middie and I are one step from finding those slayers and asking for help-"
The red-haired woman raised her hands to still her rant. "Are you serious about approaching them for help?" Catherine said solemnly.
Une eyed her guardedly then nodded, clearly deciding they could trust her with their secret ideas. "Yes, we want Dorothy gone, even if that means fraternizing with the enemy."
"Good," she smiled and sat down next to them, checking to make sure their employees were out of earshot. "Then let me explain some things. I am a slayer-"
"But, you work for Dorothy," Noin interrupted with confusion.
"-spy," Catherine continued, stilling her argument instantly. "It is my job during times of trouble, like this mess you started, to infiltrate myself with the enemy and keep a lookout for the slayers. You've actually met my brother, Trowa, the one that was tortured in the basement."
"You threw knives at him! What if you missed?"
"I didn't and I never will," she smiled easily. "But never the less, I did, and once again, that's part of the job description. Can't go blowing my cover because it's my own brother we're torturing. Anyway, I've been spying on Dorothy for a while now, ever since you first contacted her in Europe. We've been anticipating a situation like this, though not quite to this scale. We're in as much of a crisis as you are right now, because if Dorothy exposes the vampire world, we're exposed with it. Even though we keep vampires under control, and we also have some marginal supernatural abilities as well, normal human beings would still consider us murderers, so we would suffer as much as you. Imagine what they would do with someone like Quatre, with his fully developed empathic abilities."
"I never thought about it like that," Une mused aloud. "Though it does makes sense. But what about Heero and Wufei? If you're so close with Dorothy, then you know what happened last night with Duo."
"Yes I do, because I was there," Catherine replied with a frown. "I managed to keep Wufei alive, and my partners came before Duo killed Heero. Heero is with us, but Duo was correct in saying he is as good as dead."
"What do you mean by that?" Noin demanded with a hiss.
She raised her hands defensively again to ward off her anger. "Listen, I don't know exactly how to explain this, so I'll keep it simple. Heero has been turned human."
Noin and Une stared at her in silent shock, trying to comprehend what she said.
"But there's no way- he was Born-" Une struggled, mirroring her lover's bewildered expression.
"That's why I can't explain it," Catherine shrugged. "Just like we can't explain Duo either. Never in our written records is there anything on such powerful twice bitten vampires. Normally they don't last through the transformation, dying like a human, but if they're at least strong enough to survive it, they just go mad and kill themselves anyway. Duo survived, he hasn't killed himself yet, and he feeds off vampires instead of humans. Something in him made it possible for Heero to turn human, even though he was pureblooded."
"It all sounds so impossible..." Noin muttered under her breath. "But it's happening."
"If you are truly willing to commit to this," the red-haired woman pressed, standing back up. "Then you need to come with me now, while things are still quiet on the warfront. However, I must have your word that if I lead you to our hideout, that knowledge won't leave our confidences."
"Of course not, we want your help, don't we?" Une scoffed, then softened slightly. "I don't think we would put ourselves at this much risk just to betray your extension of aid in the disaster we created."
"Excellent, then follow me," Catherine smiled, beckoning as she walked towards the exit. She waited for a moment outside as they spoke briefly with one of the employees then lead the couple through the maze of alleyways. The Romafeller Palace complex loomed over them as Catherine ushered them through an emergency exit Irea had disabled.
"You guys own a place here, but you sneak in through the back door like thieves?" Noin remarked wryly, earning an equally dry look from Catherine.
"Yes, well it would seem pretty suspicious if we came in through the front lobby every day right before dawn covered in blood and carrying an arsenal of weapons," she replied caustically.
"True."
Une rolled her eyes behind her lover's back.
Catherine didn't falter when they reached the apartment, she threw open the doors and brought them in behind her.
"Catherine- oh," Trowa stopped midsentence, putting down the gun he had been loading and treating Noin and Une with a neutral expression. "That was quick."
The vampires felt a moment of extreme unease, most especially Noin, as they stood in front of someone they had tormented not too long ago. And he was armed. In his own territory.
"Has our two favorite people come out yet?" Catherine asked, ignoring the strained atmosphere as they sat down in the living room with Trowa.
"Not yet, Quatre says it's best we leave them be for now," he smiled indulgently.
"Leave who be?" Wufei greeted, less than enthusiastically and with really bad bed hair, stifling a yawn as he slunk into the kitchen. He reemerged with two steaming mugs of tea, then noticed their new guests. "What in the gods' names are -they- doing here!" Wufei was definitely awake now.
"We want to get rid of Dorothy as much as you do," Noin said earnestly.
Wufei replied with something scathing in Mandarin before stalking out of the room and Trowa let out a low whistle. "I haven't heard him use that phrase since that one night a female bartender tried giving him fashion advice, thinking he was a badly dressed woman."
"Really? That's impressive," Quatre chuckled as he entered the room, dropping lightly on the couch next to Trowa. "I was wondering what stirred up so much anger..."
"I don't blame the guy," Noin shrugged carelessly. "I fucked up."
"Eloquent way to word the situation," the empath replied baldly, raising an eyebrow and sharing a knowing glance with his lover and Catherine. "So, you're here to help us?"
"We're here to –get- help -from- you," Une rephrased delicately, well aware of the vulnerability they were opening themselves to.
"And I think you're full of shit," Wufei said crassly, returning with a much healthier looking Heero right behind him. "And you know what else I think of you-"
"Hush, Wufei. Hear them out."
The Chinese man stopped short, his onyx eyes smoldering with an angry fire as he faced Heero, but found his gaze matched squarely with the other's calm Prussian depths. He wanted to retort, to blow all the rage and frustration at the ones responsible for the mess they were in...though it seemed Heero knew something he didn't, and trusted them.
'Well, damn.'
The air in the room crackled with tension until Wufei finally conceded with silence, sitting in the nearest empty armchair and resigning himself to glowering darkly at the vampires.
"We don't have much time," Une continued reluctantly, feeling even more apprehensive then before. "Dorothy and her little entourage weren't at the club when we left, but who knows when she'll come back, or what she's planning on doing."
"Oh she'll come back," Heero replied flatly. "She made that her place of preference, since she betrayed her promise to you and cleared Midnight Masquerade out of any impure vampires. Dorothy may be out getting in a few kicks, but be sure she'll return before too long."
That didn't seem to please Noin and Une at all.
"Maybe..." Quatre murmured, his soft face thoughtful. "Maybe, if we can get there before she returns, we can plan some sort of aggressive sneak attack. Catch her of her guard. So far she's been one step ahead of us, beating us back easily, but she has yet to have the roles reversed."
"That's suicide!" Une gasped.
"We've done worse," Trowa shrugged indifferently. "As long as everything is thoroughly planned, extra variables considered, back up waiting for our call..."
"...and an extremely large amount of that fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants luck that we seem to be LACKING in lately," Wufei rumbled moodily, his glare not lessening in the slightest. "Then -hopefully- things will work out."
"You're not helping any."
He swiveled his scowl to Heero. "I'm being realistic here! YOU may understand what your mother's capable of, and everyone else here has a pretty general idea- but we're also facing DUO and WE BOTH know what the fuck he's capable of," he exploded, his half-healed voice quickly going hoarse and only amplifying the slipping restraint he had over his turbulent emotions. His angry visage was wilting faster than a flower out of water.
"We either do this, or we continue to be beaten down and let her win," Quatre said gently, though the resolve underneath was firm as he rubbed his chest at the pain he felt.
"Not much of a choice then, is there?" he replied, getting back on his feet and leaving the room. Heero watched him with a small frown clouding his features before following wordlessly.
Mmmmm...angsty-ness. Can't resist.
Reviews are very nice ways of encouragement.