Heero's Apartment
Heero glanced from his computer down to his phone next to him. Seeing it was Duo's number, he went back to typing. He could deal with that later. Duo was probably looking for more information about what happened with his friend. Heero was busy trying to find out about another rebel group making the rounds on Earth. Even though the war had been over, the groups continued to pop up. So many still couldn't see that fighting was pointless. Even he had sent away his Gundam. Everyone had. He heard the low tone chirp again. A second ringing. Maybe it was important.
He picked it up with one hand but continued to have his eyes on his computer. He would invest in a hands free unit if he had people calling him all the time. Thankfully, he didn't. "Duo, what is it?"
"Whatever you're doing, set it aside, Heero. I got news."
Duo's news wasn't really going to throw Heero off his own goal of trying to track down the rebel group before their information disappeared. "Did you track down who hurt your friend?" Nothing so far. Damn. This group was good. Normally these new groups could be hacked in time before information went away.
"It's not about me. It's about you, Heero."
Hm. About him? "I am about to track down a leader to a rebel group I've been trying to find for two months. Is it important enough to stop that?"
"Yeah, but if you are doing that, I can call back I guess?"
"Do that." Heero hung up. Come on. "Crystalia." That code name. Did he finally find the leader?
Quatre Raberba Winner's Residence with the Maguanacs.
Quatre took a quick sip of tea as he continued to look at some information Noin was sharing with him. Since he was being cooperative with her, she was being cooperative back. It really wasn't anything big, but sometimes it was the little things that snuck by that were important. He heard his phone ring softly. He reached over to the side of his recliner he had been relaxing in as he studied the data. Glancing at the phone, he saw it was Duo's number. "Hello, Duo," he greeted him. "How are you doing?"
"Been better," he responded.
Ooh. That sound. "Did you find out who hurt your friend?" Quatre asked. Hopefully Duo kept it together and didn't go after them yet. The authorities could take care of it.
"Yeah, her name was Jewel," he answered. "Code name. Listen? I kind of need you to come meet me or at least get to a visual prompter. This should be done face to face, and I'll scan the letter to you too."
That sounded bad. "Okay." He wasn't near Duo at the moment at all, and without the use of a quick ride in a Gundam, it would take time to reach him. "I'll contact you via a prompter in a few minutes." He hung up the phone and headed downstairs to the bigger computer base area. He was thinking about going back up to the colonies again soon since, whether he was on Earth or in the colonies, he was about the same amount of help. He reached a visual prompter, called up Duo on it and saw his face.
The cheery-eyed man didn't look so cheery eyed. "Quatre. I got some news for you. You better brace yourself. First of all? I've been sitting here, thinking about this whole thing," he said. "Did you give all kinds of things for samples to your doctor? You know, the one in charge of the Gundam?"
"Oh? Yes, he checked everything thoroughly," Quatre said.
"Yeah. Yeah." Duo was repeating himself. "Alright? Well, hard news is never easy to hear. I'm guessing since me and Hilde learned it this way, you probably should too. I'm scanning something to you."
Quatre looked at the scanner next to the visual prompter. It was getting something on it. He read on down the line of the letter as it was scanned, bit by bit, suddenly starting to feel . . . weak. "No. Oh, no, no, no, no!" He couldn't keep looking and looked back at the visual prompter. "Are you serious, Duo?"
"Dead serious. Got it in the mail today," Duo said.
"But, I mean? It can't be confirmed, it's just a letter." Quatre was trying to keep his senses together.
"Yeah? A letter that said how and what tech they used to get Hilde pregnant, Quatre," Duo said. "She even added the place it could be found in. She won't go any deeper than that. Only reason I know is 'cause she turned against her masters I guess. I'm not going after her, but I bet her teammates will when they find out about this. She better run for cover." Duo continued to stare at him through the visual prompter. "Hey? That scan is done by now. You can't ignore it forever, Quatre."
But? "That woman, Jewel?" Quatre tried to keep the tremble out of his voice, but he had no idea how to handle this. Not this. "She said they 'fit' in somehow with us? I? I-I don't know anyone really."
Duo stroked his hair on the visual prompter. "It means someone we connected with. Someone we helped, sort of. She doesn't know yet, Quat, it's okay. Give it a little while if you need to. It takes time for them to pick it up."
Quatre looked to the base of the visual prompter. Odd. He felt like he was about to see the dead body of someone he knew, even though this wasn't death. It was life. It was life created between him and a woman that he didn't know yet. Not until he turned his head.
Just a few more seconds. A few more seconds to live in the bliss of not knowing. Although, even that wasn't really bliss. He knew, he just didn't know who. Knowing he couldn't keep it away forever, he turned to look at the scan.
He looked back at Duo. "It was the shortest conversations."
"Meaningful. They want it to be meaningful," Duo said on the visual prompter. "The short conversations must have been meaningful."
"To who?" Them? He stared at the scan again. "I don't know the other two names. Middie Une and Mei-Lin Wang?" The ones carrying Trowa and Wufei's unborn. "Duo? What do I?"
"I don't know," Duo said. "I'm calling up you guys, gonna go eat some pizza and chill with Hilde. I guess, just go on living?"
"Yeah, but I can't just go march over to Catalonia's with pizza and watch something!" He flipped out a little, his hands tightening against the base of the visual prompter. "I'll call you later, Duo."
"Take your time, Quat-"
He shut it off. He hung there, leaning against the counter that held the prompter. He took his time with his breathing. He had grown used to war, and never knew when someone he loved would end up getting crushed by someone. But this? This was different. "I am responsible for a life." With a woman he barely even knew. "I have to pull it together." Quatre's responsibility lied on Dorothy Catalonia, and telling her.
For half an hour he leaned against that counter, thinking. Would he leave it with her? Would that be too dangerous? Wouldn't that be wrong? Didn't a child deserve it's father? Would she be able to have it safely with the Winner's space genes? "The reason all my sisters and I were artificially born." Ooh.
The Winner clan basically started in the colonies, and according to his father, they were all still genetically dispositioned not to . . . "Okay, but she's not in the colonies, she's on Earth. So that would?" If it were that simple, couldn't his mother have had him and his sisters naturally on Earth instead of artificially?
Duo was wrong. He didn't have much time to reveal what was going on. At this rate? There was a good chance. "Testing, we'll need testing, to figure it out." Should she have it and come live in the estate in the colonies with him? If she survived? Would she agree to that? Should they stay on Earth? Should they go to the colonies? Having this child could practically terminate her life, no one could do it that way with the Winner genes. Everything was artificial.
Was this their plan the whole time? Quatre just didn't know enough about his own families corrupted genes. The Winner family never talked about it much. Wait, the baby has the genes, not her! He just put that together after this long? Oh. He really wasn't doing well.
"Master Quatre." Rasid came down. "You've been gone some time from your spot. I was worried."
Quatre didn't move much. Just gestured to the scan on screen.
"Master Quatre, is that true?!"
"According to the source." Quatre felt himself getting propped off the counter. That was probably a better idea. "Thanks, Rasid."
"Come. Come upstairs, you need to relax now, Master Quatre," Rasid said as they both slowly went back upstairs.
The Circus
Trowa moved toward his computer area in his tent again. He'd just finished his last act for the night, but he got the message, vibrating, that Duo tried to contact him. He only texted him one thing. Visual prompter.
"Trowa, are you going to bed soon?" Catherine asked from the side. "Did you want to catch a late supper?"
"Not right now, Cathy." He set up the visual prompter and turned it on. He saw Duo on the screen. "Duo."
"Hey, Trowa. So, I gave Quatre the news too. He took it about as well as I expected." Duo stared right at him. "I'm sending you a scan of a letter that I got. It's about you. It's about all us former Gundam pilots."
"Oh, I don't like the way he is acting," Catherine said, admittedly a little worried.
"Send the scan, Duo," Trowa insisted.
"Fine, but before I do? Go back to how you used to steel yourself against real bad news," Duo warned him.
What did Duo have? Trowa nodded. He watched as an image started to show up little by little. The sender was someone named Jewel. She was responsible for what happened to Hilde. She also knew about . . .
Catherine literally yelled as she started to read the scan. She turned away, unable to see the rest. Trowa didn't want to either. He looked back at the visual prompter. "So I'm going to be a father?"
"It seems so, yeah," Duo answered. "You know the woman in question?"
Trowa hadn't looked at the woman in question yet. "Why?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Duo answered. "That Jewel said her goals were different. That her group had been taken over and she doesn't know their intentions." He sighed. "So look and tell me how you know her. Were all supposed to know them somehow."
"Fit." Yes, Trowa saw that word.
"Trowa?" Catherine looked at him, full of compassion and worry. "Are you okay?"
Trowa nodded, although he didn't really know. He didn't know what the next step would even be, except to see who he'd been assigned. Who this rebel group thought fit him.
"Whatever you do, don't warn the doctors," Duo said to him. "There's only one person who had that much on me, and it sounds like on Quatre."
The doctors? Were they involved? Was everything stolen by this group? Trowa looked at the scan.
"So you know her?" Duo asked.
"Trowa?" Catherine asked too. "Trowa, do you know her?"
"That." That is who they picked? Trowa looked back at the visual prompter. This wouldn't be taken well by Catherine at all. "She was a spy who got my allies killed when I was younger." As predicted, he heard his sister losing it. She even ran out of the dressing room.
"Aw, Man, a spy?" Duo asked. "That's the worse so far. A spy is carrying your child, Trowa. Sorry."
"What do I do?" Trowa asked Duo.
"Come to terms with it. Go see her. Hope she turned a new leaf?" Duo recommended. "Good luck, Trowa."
That was it. That was all Duo could offer. "Nothing else?"
"Nothing else," Duo shook his head. "Time for you to deal in your way. I've still got to talk to Heero and Wufei. Over and out."
Middie Une. The spy. The spy that had been his age, that he had let go.
He typed into the computer. That name. He never thought he'd have to type it out. With his skill, it didn't take long. She was days away from the Circus location. That was probably a good thing. He himself didn't know how to handle everything yet. Speaking of which, he looked back at the list. Quatre and Dorothy Catalonia. That wasn't good on his friend either. Alone time was called for. To contemplate. To understand what it all meant.
"If she's evil, take it."
Trowa looked outside his tent. His sister had come back to say it. "Catherine."
"If she was a spy and she was evil, then she'd be a terrible mother anyhow!" Catherine begged him. "Trowa."
Catherine hated war so much. It had taken her whole family away. This wouldn't be easy on her.
A0206- The Long Clan's Colony
Wufei was pulling on some of the slack Heero had extended his way. They had been trying to pull in on this rebel group on Earth and Hero just got the codename of the leader. They were getting closer. As he made headway though, he heard his phone go off. He looked at who it had been. Duo? He didn't have anything to contribute to his cause. He heard it ring a second time though so he picked it up. "Wufei."
"Visual prompter. Face to face. Not saying anything else."
Vague. He moved over slightly to dial Duo over the visual prompter. He could see Duo's face in front of him. "What is it?"
"I'm sending you a scan," Duo said. "I did this for Quatre and Trowa. I think it's fair we all learn the same way. The fairest thing I can do. It's about you, so pay attention."
Wufei moved his gaze toward the scanning computer. He started to watch it come in. A rebel known as Jewel? "This has to do with the rebel group I am chasing down." Interesting. No, not interesting. "Is this letter real?"
"Everything matched up for Hilde," Duo answered. "You know the woman? Were all supposed to 'fit'. That's the wording."
Wufei stared at the name. He tried to think about it, but clearly. "I don't know this woman, or she made a low enough impression I never kept her name in my memory."
"Oh? Weird," Duo answered back. "Anyhow? Good to see you taking it well. A little unexpected."
Wufei didn't say much. He would naturally have had a child in his life with Nataku at some point. If she had lived. Wait. "Mei-Lin." Familiar in sound to the name his wife had been born with. It was not the name she preferred though, and it was not the name he had called her after that day. She had been Nataku. Wufei moved to his free computer and started to type in her name.
"Ooh, that was a hell of a grunt," Duo said from the visual prompter. "You suddenly remember her? You okay, Wufei?"
"I don't know the woman!" Wufei declared as he stared at what his computer displayed. "They just made it her because . . ." Because of her situation. The Zhang colony was similar to the Long colony, yet they never crossed paths. "She was jailed not long ago for finding a dead man in her home, and announcing she was pregnant at her marriage ceremony." Marriage. The name. That was it. They connected him to this strange woman for nothing but this?
"Wufei? You okay?"
"It's not Nataku," Wufei said. "It would have been better if I had known her."
"Um?" Duo sounded confused. "Right. You work it out on your own. I got one last call to make."
"Okay, look at what you've been up to." Heero was finally making some headway. When serious things started, it was the best time to catch slip-ups. The rebels were starting to advance, to move plans. He had finally located the missing suits they must have had. Now, what were they trying to accomplish? There was a man who'd been kidnapped by them, but nothing else telling. According to this new data, this Crystalia had started the group a long time ago. It wasn't just a rebel faction that started, it had been around for over a decade and a half. No wonder it was so good at covering its tracks.
Heero heard his phone chirp again. Duo's news. It was supposed to be important, he'd better take it. He picked up the phone and answered it.
"Not so busy now there, Hot Shot?" Duo asked him. "This is serious, Heero. I went ahead and told everyone else so you could get done what needed to get done. I need to get this done though, so I can finally go in and live my life for the night."
"I'm listening," Heero said, slightly typing on the computer. What had they been doing?
"Visual prompter. This is a face-to face thing as I scan you a thing, thing. After that, you deal with it however you want."
Fine. Heero scooted over the visual prompter. Duo's face was on it.
"Alright, Heero. Prepare yourself."
"I am always prepared." He could handle anything that he had to deal with.
"Okay then. I'm sending you a scan now, of a letter someone sent me tonight. After this? You might consider giving her a call."
Giving who a call? Heero watched the scan come through. It was from a woman named Jewel. He knew that coding, that was the group he was finding information on right now. Her group had been taken over. She had been responsible for Hilde's pregnancy. So, his friend hadn't been lying to him.
Heero looked back at Duo. His eyes were a little wider now. "Is this real?"
"Everything matched up for me," Duo said. "Might want to ask Relena if she had surgery not too long ago."
Heero looked back at the scan again. He looked back at Duo.
He turned off the visual prompter.
He sat.
He thought.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at his computer. At the name of the rebel group he'd been following.
Revenge of The Lost.
Zhang Colony
"Mei-Lin."
Mei-Lin looked up toward Li, her husband to-be from her prison bars. He wouldn't come to greet her for anything. She watched as the cage was unlocked.
"Someone sent us proof of your innocence, all around." There was true concern now from his eyes. "You were correct, and you stayed true to your beliefs this entire time." He bent his head slightly. "The Zhang and Wang family is proud of you, every one of us."
She looked toward him. She was freed? "What proof was found?"
"Everything, Mei-Lin," he said. "Everything. From the man in your home being killed while you were sleeping, to the footage of the hospital. We were sent everything anonymously." Finally, he broke a smile toward her. "You will make a fine wife, your integrity remained high throughout this whole ordeal." He hugged her. "Everything will be fine. You will still be my wife. Another date is being set as we speak. I will raise the child as if it were mine since the father is unknown. It will be a proud Zhang."
She nodded and hugged him back. A strange action she wasn't used to with him, but one she would have to get used to.
"Everything is settled from last time, the marriage should not take long," he assured her. "Maybe even as little as tomorrow, to get rid of this awful sting that had to happen. No one understands why this happened, I'm sorry."
Mei-Lin nodded. She had no idea either, but as long as she could be welcomed by the colony again, she would be happy. Except? "Relena Dorlain," she said to Li. "She wanted me off of the colony, since I couldn't identify the father."
"Only the people of Earth concern themselves with that nonsense. It's doubtful that there will be trouble," Li assured her. "You will give birth naturally here. It's better to be at home for this change in our lives."
A slight nod. She wasn't so sure about that, but she would not be able to leave on her own. Most likely, it would be fine. Most families didn't have problems in space anymore. Few rarely did. "Does anyone know why?" Why it happened?
"Not yet," Li said. "We will handle it as the time comes. If the Zhang find who is responsible? We will make them pay. I make this promise to you."
Such respect now for his future wife. She could have used it earlier. A proper Zhang, but not a proper man who would defend his wife first, when push came to shove.
She would remember that.
