Private Shuttle
Middie looked at the shuttle. I can't believe this. It felt like her worst nightmare. At least Gin was being a supportive Uncle. She never even knew Finn. Gin was relaxing on the shuttle with her, trying to dab her face.
"You got blood on you again when you fell." He tried to gently wipe her cheek. "Sorry, One Song. I really am."
He had been. Middie knew that, still he couldn't stop it or say anything. He was under the thumb of both his mother and father. He told her if she had the chance, she should take the hit on his dad. But his mom? Oh no, she was off limits. Her hitting was for good. It just helped them determine the truth better. Sure. Meanwhile his father?
"How's the splint?" Gin looked at her hand that she didn't use for a gun.
Middie nodded. At least the enemy didn't see it. If he realized the finger on her other hand was broken, he probably wouldn't have given her the knife. Why did he do that? She didn't know but she didn't trust anyone trying to be friendly right now. It could just be a trap to get her comfortable. There was no reason anyone would go out of their way to rescue her. They would only go out of their way to kill her.
"Don't worry, real soon. They've got some kind of quarantine thing going on according to mom," he told her. "It's real hard to shut us out though. We'll get this Dorothy Catalonia."
We'll? Big talker, but Middie would probably be the one who had to fire. They had nothing to gain from me. It wasn't about that though. The present wasn't a thing to RTL. It wanted justice for the past, even if she hadn't done anything personally to children, she knew now why she was selected. "Do you have the pictures on you?"
"Yep. Made small ones too for the wallet," Gin said as he showed it to her. "I won't forget it. Dorothy Catalonia. Smug face." He showed it to her. She took it with her better hand. "Platinum blondie, just like you. A bad girl though, unlike you," he pointed out. He took out the second picture. "Catherine Bloom. If you see her, let me know right away."
Sure, so he can hide. Catherine Bloom. Catherine Bloom, No Name's sister. Catherine and No Name both lost their parents, and for a long time, each other in a raid. No Name would have been so young still, almost a baby.
Middie didn't want to believe it. No Name sounded so sincere when he was at her apartment, but he was No Name. A poker face. Reading him was impossible. Besides, once she had the information, it was easy to look it up. She could look it up right now. Catherine Bloom had fit the absolute bill. The right time. Lost a sibling and her parents during an air raid. Perfect case. Why wouldn't No Name be helping his sister? Just wait now. She handed the pictures back.
"I doubt we'll run into this Bloom girl, so don't worry," Gin said to her. "She's on Earth. All we gotta do is find and take care of Catalonia. We are going to bring her to justice."
Middie had played the 'stick 'em up, we're kidnapping game' before. Never worked out. Unless Catalonia went peacefully, they would have to shoot her to make RTL happy. It was the only good thing about having Gin's dad show up. She knew what was wrong, what was at stake, and what to do. It was the only thing good about him showing back up. Gin put the pictures back in his wallet.
"I hear it's pretty up there," Gin told her. "Maybe after all this is over, we should go up there. Mom would lend us the money to get started."
"Maybe," she muttered. Middie didn't know what to pick for her future right now. Gin was offering help, and so was his wretched mother. Her baby was Finn's, and that made it family to Gin's mother. While it made it family, 'Uncle' Gin wanted to take care of Middie strongly away from the family. Something she couldn't disagree with considering the options.
"We'll get this squared away first, then we'll decide," he told her. "Momma says you gotta be in permanently, either way. You're carrying Finn's baby."
"I know." A little rougher than she meant to be.
"Inheritance, shady family, you're in more trouble being separate," Gin said again. "Up there, we'll be free if you just want to live the same kind of life as before. If you want more, we have to stay down. Either way. August? That's not too far along."
"Fine."
"Maybe September? That pushing it?" Gin asked her.
"September is fine." Any day would be fine. "Any arrangements you want from flowers to guests to music." Middie Une didn't need to be involved in it. She wanted no part of it! That wasn't an option with Gin's family. Crime families didn't accept 'no' for an answer. Even though Gin said he'd just go to outer space and take care of her, his mom shut it down real quick. Whether they wanted part in business or to be separate, a wedding would happen. The heavy bruising on her face alone was a reminder from his mother. She wouldn't embarrass them.
"No part at all?" Gin asked again.
"No." Then, she tried to give him the nicest but fakest smile she could muster after all the hell. "Weddings aren't my thing but it's okay. I've been through worse." Much worse. "You know why I killed your dad."
"Yeah, I can guess." He tried to hold her good hand. "I'll never know what mom saw in him."
She knew. Gin said it once before while his mother was there at the mansion, and when Middie uttered the word 'money', she earned the ability to limp from that woman. Gin was okay. His family was not. His dad. His mom. What was the rest of his family like? She didn't want to think about it. "The colonies." Yeah. Gin was right, it did sound nicer. Living from day to day on minimum wage. It was a much better lifestyle than staying down there with his mother. She felt the shuttle starting to move. Goodbye a chance at a normal life.
She had to get drug back in again. She tried to do it all correctly. A decent job. Her paintings. Nothing nefarious. No more spy work. Still, RTL dragged her back into the hell. A killer or not, she still had to end a young woman's life, the same age as hers. She still had to be No Name's enemy.
Then afterward, she had to be married into a crime family, pulling her own child into a dangerous life she never would have chose for it.
"Middie!"
Aye? That voice. That was rare. She knew it, but to hear it shout? She turned around and already saw No Name.
"Don't worry, we've already lifted off," Gin assured her. "There's no way someone like him is getting through to the colonies right now, not with this quarantine. It took beaucoup bucks to get through just for us. It's okay."
Middie felt him pat her back as she continued to stare below. No Name didn't look like he was out for blood. When he was at her apartment, he didn't seem like he was out for blood. He looked . . . hard to tell with him. Always hard to tell, and now too far away.
"One person and it's done," Gin assured her one more time. "One evil killer, one gun, and it's done, One Song. I promise." He held her hand.
It was no self-assurance.
Convenience Store Near Duo and Hilde's Place
"Are you done yet?" Catherine asked through the door.
"Not yet." Hilde looked at her pregnancy test. Duo never let up on her for a moment's peace, and she didn't want to stress him out any extra. Especially with all the others turning up pregnant, but so far, everyone was confirmed through hospitals.
It really was ridiculous, and she knew it. There was no way it would be anything but positive. Even Relena Peacecraft was now on the run because of her confirmation in the colonies. Still. Those had all been by blood, and by professionals.
It wouldn't hurt to just take a few minutes to see it for herself. These pregnancies were ruining lives, and just . . . exhausted every avenue. As soon as Trowa left from a tripped wire, she asked Catherine to come and buy a quick pregnancy test just down the block. It was her main purpose to get Duo to see his brother's in the first place, hoping somehow Trowa would have to leave. Once her luck was made, she wasted no time in dragging out Catherine and heading out.
They brought their phones and she was in the bathroom of the convenience store, not wanting to leave a trace of evidence to make Duo question good or bad.
And . . .
Catherine knocked on the door again. "Trowa won't take long, he won't risk us being out like this because he had promised to watch you. I really shouldn't even be here. Hilde?"
Hilde opened the door to look at her big bouncing red curls. "Catherine. Get me another test." She had to be double sure. Catherine went to pay for another test and gave it to her. Hilde took it one more time. She checked the expiration date on them.
She came back out the door and looked at her.
"Hilde?" Catherine questioned. "What is it?"
Hilde didn't answer at first.
Catherine gasped, holding her hand to her face. "That's impossible though, isn't it? Everyone else is."
Hilde went back into the bathroom and pitched them into the trash before coming back with a smile. "It's just what you'd expect!" She slapped on a smile and sighed. "I'm so relieved. Sometimes, a girl just wants to see for herself." Yet, Catherine caught that undertone. Hilde headed back straight to the apartment, Catherine right behind her.
Hilde didn't understand but she had to see Duo. If this was the case. If this was real?
Then somehow, a whole force that could overtake all the hospitals and evidence was overtaking her life, even in the colonies. Her last trip to the hospital with her fever, even they confirmed she was pregnant, but two of those cheap tests said otherwise.
Until she knew what was going on, she wasn't going to risk telling Duo over the phone or saying anything out loud. Not until they were safe and alone back at home.
When Duo arrived back home, he wasn't in the greatest mood. One of his brothers was terrible and dead. The other was just terrible, his biological father was dead, he was shot at and to top it all off? He found Middie Une, and Trowa didn't make it to her before she left Earth.
There was a quarantine right now too. Getting through wouldn't be easy.
Yeah. Duo needed some good news. "Hey? So?" She shrugged her shoulders and gave him a little smile and a pat on the shoulder. "If it makes you feel better, I'm not pregnant."
Of course, his body shot straight up. "What do you mean?"
"Duo? How much power do you think the ones that are getting us all pregnant have?" Hilde asked first. "I mean, getting five women pregnant in one go, during one tonsillectomy surgery, is pretty impressive."
Duo didn't know how to answer that at first. "It's some kind of contraption, guarantees pregnancy the first time. The inventor must work inside RTL. That's Quatre's theory."
"If that were the case," Hilde pressed, "then are there guaranteed studies of it?"
"Quatre's heard of it." Now Duo was starting to look at her funny. "Out with it Hilde, what do you mean you aren't pregnant?"
"Duo. I don't think you . . ." No, that wasn't the way to put it. "They want to make you suffer. They want you and the pilots to feel the loss of innocence in your lives, and RTL thinks losing a friend that bore your child would be fair." Hilde didn't know how else to say it. "If we're killed before we even get big enough to justify physically than we were pregnant, than it kind of works."
Duo just gawked at her. "Hilde Schbeiker, out with it."
"I think that technology isn't quite up to speed. I ran off with Catherine while you were gone," she admitted. Before he could yell, she continued, "and I scored a negative on two cheap pregnancy tests."
Duo stopped. "What?" Anger. Boiling. "You promised you wouldn't do much while I was gone."
"I crossed my fingers," Hilde covered. "You thought it meant for good luck I guess." Yeah. Deceiving. "It was worth it to me, Duo, but I didn't want to worry you. It's just that all of the testing was done at the hospitals except one. We all thought they were making us pregnant, but what if they are faking all of that too? What if it really is just the feelings they want to stir?"
Except one though. "That was a cheap test. The first test, Hilde," Duo pointed out. "What? You think Revenge of the Lost actually snuck into our place and replace your test with an expired or jinxed one?" He almost chuckled, but he saw her expression.
"There's a lot of people in it," she said. "If they are in the colonies too. I know it sounds ridiculous, but, I didn't even want to say anything out loud in the convenient store. Maybe they are even watching us here. Even now."
"Oh, man." Holy crap. "They were watching us that closely at home?" Replacing a pregnancy test?
"Yeah, and. Well, I went home with it and used it right away in the colony," Hilde said. "So, I don't think they snuck into our place per say. I think they reasoned where I'd get it. My favorite store I shopped at for us. So, I mean, they couldn't be that powerful. Right? Could they have replaced the tests at the time they knew I needed to buy one? If so, that's . . . that's a lot power, Duo, but I don't see any other way."
"Damn it! Yeah, that is power, but money makes power strong. Real strong. Heero and Wufei was right this whole time!"
"Maybe," Hilde agree. "Maybe they really were doing something though. An old-fashioned random test at a random spot that nobody could possibly set up is the only way to know the truth. For all we know, maybe I was just a glitch?"
Ugh. "Okay." He smiled. "Well, at least my butts out of the fire." Hm. "I need to let the guys know too." Hilde was right. RTL didn't have to sacrifice unborns to make them pay. They just had to make them think so.
So close together. Using the same tonsillectomy excuse. Making sure the hospital was the one with the positive testing. Confiscating every single surgery, like something happened in it. Damn!
Instead of hiding the fact they were using some advanced technology . . . they might be hiding the fact they weren't! So far, not one pilot had found any kind of footage. Except, maybe? "Great news, Hilde, but I need to make an important call first, before we go much further."
New Long Colony
Wufei sat in a chair, deciding on what to do when his phone rang. "Duo Maxwell." He learned some time ago to not ignore his calls. Not like this time it was going to be-
"Hilde took a test and she's negative for pregnancy."
Okay, nevermind what he previously thought. "What?"
"Hilde took a test when I left her alone with Trowa. I tripped Trowa's wire at Middle Une's and – we'll get into that later – anyhow, she took the time to buy a cheap test and take it. Negative."
Negative? "The doctors. The nurses. Hospital staff." They couldn't all be in on it.
"Wufei, Hilde thinks maybe that technology that helped get them pregnant, might not have happened. We all psychologically and emotionally suffer if the women and unborn die, whether the unborn are real or not."
Agh! "I was right in the first place, Maxwell!" He was ready to throttle Duo. All this trouble with his colony to bring Mei-Lin there and for what?
"Look, they might not all be fake. Hilde could be a glitch," Duo pointed out, "but Mei-Lin was released from jail, right?"
Hm? "Yes, she's here with me. No longer in prison, or on her colony." Damn. He had to get a cheap test and do the same thing to know for sure.
"She got out 'cause of proof, right? Does she have any footage of the surgery? Is it in her proof?"
Wufei didn't even think about that, he'd been focused on getting her out. "Woman," Wufei addressed her from in front of him. "Do you have any surgery videos in proof of your innocence?"
"With my should-have-been husband," she said.
Oh. "It's with the one she should have married, Duo."
"You got to go get it and see it. We gotta know for sure what's on it."
"Sure, after I get her a test," Wufei insisted.
"Look, it's early days, Wufei. There's a reason Hilde didn't want me to know about the tests. They could be wrong. Especially in the colonies, I don't know how that all works out, or if they have the exact same tests. Space is different in nearly everything."
"I get it." It might be different. "If there is a visual of it happening, I would be more satisfied." Still. If she wasn't pregnant, life would be so much better again. As annoying as it was, he had to contact Li Zhang.
Awkward. They had said all they needed to say, and now he had to waste time speaking to him again. When he answered, it wasn't kindly. He made his request though and soon had a download waiting on his phone. Two downloads waiting on his phone. He sent him the one of the murder as well. Hm.
He hit play.
