AN-Here's Chapter Two! It weighs in at 6200+ words before Authors Notes, so Enjoy! Betaed by the Amazing SakuraEternity, who made this readable and walked me through some sticky plot holes. Thanks a ton! Also, I forgot to mention in the previous chapter. Some elements of this story, mostly in regards to the Jareth/Goblins interaction, have been heavily influenced by Ru's Labyrinth world. The elements are used with permission with the full permission of the author. You should all go check out her stories, especially "Fall Out from the War" which is amazing!
Disclaimer-I own nothing. Anything not recognized as the property of Bandai or J.R. Rowling is most likely my creation. Please do not use them without permission.
Chapter Two
Petunia Dursley sighed as she closed the door behind herself, dropping the suitcase on the floor and groaning as she stretched out the kinks in her back.
The last few days had been from a version of hell she hadn't known existed; ending in the loss of her nephew to the very people she had tried her hardest to protect him from.
She chuckled at herself, despite the situation. No one besides herself, her husband, and her child who had been brought into the secret as soon as he was truly old enough to understand, would see the way they had been treating Harry as protecting, but it was the only thing that they could think of to do.
Lily and Petunia's parents had tried their hardest to convince her not to go, to talk to her and bribe her with things that they wouldn't normally give, in an effort to keep her from taking such a step away from the family. They didn't think that Witchcraft was evil, by any means, at least not then, but they knew that if Lily went away to learn something that no one else in the family could do, would put a wedge between them, no matter how much they tried.
Lily had waved off their concerns, determined to learn anything new that she could. She had always been like a sponge, soaking up everything and anything that she could get her hands on. It was simply too big of an opportunity for her to pass up.
And so she left.
Petunia waited anxiously for her sister to return each and every summer, though every time Lily came back stranger and stranger. The magic was one thing, Petunia even liked watching it on occasion, though she lost that glee when Lily turned her favorite locket into a frog for no reason other than she could.
It was when she started talking about the maniac that would eventually take her life that Petunia really got scared. She had begged, pleaded and cried until her eyes were red and puffy for days, for Lily to stay home that year. To not go back. Learning wasn't worth her life.
She could still remember the look on her sister's face, the smile that she always got when she thought Petunia was failing to grasp a subject that Lily herself found so easy, and, explained it one last time. "It's not about learning anymore, Tuney. There's so much more at stake than grades and being Head Girl. I have a part to play, and I cannot walk away. I wouldn't want to anyway." She had smiled, ran a hand down Petunia's hair, and walked through to the train that would take her away.
Petunia had never forgiven her for that. Through all the pain and suffering that followed: her parents being murdered in a 'terrorist' attack, that Lily tearfully explained was really an attack from her world because Lily had dared to go against Lord Voldemort, to Petunia's own wedding that was ruined because of yet another attack.
And losing Lily herself.
Petunia shook her head and pushed her hair back from her face, stepping around the suitcase and moving to wash the dishes that had been sitting in the sink for days.
With any luck, though he had gone away and joined Them for now, they wouldn't be able to hold him. Harry was smart, smarter than his mother had been at that age. No matter that he thought that they didn't know, he would see through whatever false promises and hopes they managed to give him.
That was what they had tried to do for years, after all. Being a servant in a house that wanted nothing more than to treat him like a prince, living in a room that was barely big enough to hold brooms, let alone a child, had been to show him how to look beyond the outside. Twisted, and probably didn't make much sense to a child, but he would see. He would see through the Wizards. It was a curse even in a mental monologue, a game, and when he finally broke free from them, they would be able to treat him like the child he was.
Until then, they would have to do everything they could to let their thoughts be known, trying to push him towards seeing the truth as soon as possible.
The little man in the stupid bowler hat may have laid down his rules for treatment of Harry, trying to turn him into some downtrodden hero ready to be saved, but magic didn't rule all.
She just waited for the day when it backfired on all involved. She would take her lumps, had resigned herself to a probable prison term years ago, but Harry would be free. Vernon and she would make damn sure of it if it was the last bloody thing that she ever did.
Petunia finished the last dish, sitting it on the drying rack, and toweled off her hands, turning to face Vernon and Dudley as they came in with the last of the luggage. Dudley was a little too large for her liking, yet another side effect of association with Them, and he wiped the sweat that had accumulated off his brow from a short walk to and from the car.
"Mum?" He looked at her, still the sweet little boy who had loved playing with his cousin when he was a toddler, eagerly sharing all of his toys until They came again, and she could see that concern buried deep in his eyes. When Harry wasn't around, it was always easier to let real feelings out. "Will Harry be okay? They won't hurt him will they?"
Vernon placed a heavy hand on his son's shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly. Out of all of them, Vernon felt the mistreatment of Harry the most. He always said that Harry looked just like the child he had lost when he himself was just a teenager, the child whose grave he visited every Sunday without fail.
"They will, Son, they'll hurt him more than he could ever guess. But when he's ready to come back to us, we'll make sure they'll never get their hands on him again." The words were said fiercely, and Petunia shuddered at the look in her husband's eyes. That was the man that she had married, the man who would do anything to protect his family and those he cared about.
Even that wasted lump of space that was his sister, Marge. Petunia's lip curled at the mere mention of that overfed, over spoiled, bitch that she was forced to entertain in her house five or six times a year.
But she pushed the thought to the back of her brain. Marjorie would get what was coming to her, and Petunia would be there to see it, but it wasn't now, and Petunia had other things to worry about.
"Okay you two, get unpacking. And Vernon, for Christ's sake, take all those boards down! Why you thought that would keep them out, I'll never understand." She waved her hands and shooed the two on their way, beginning to set the house to right, shooting a dirty look at her husband whenever she felt like it.
Wizards or not, there was no reason that they should have left the house the way that it was.
While his family set their house to rights, Harry Potter was being taken down to a vault that he never knew existed. Harry had the feeling that the Goblin who was escorting him, wasn't too happy with the job he had been assigned.
"So, um," Harry didn't know exactly what to say to a goblin. He had never had much luck with talking to normal people, let alone someone who belonged to a world so different from what he was used to, but he didn't want to sit in silence. Silence made him squirm. "Do only Goblins work here?" It was a stupid question, and the Goblin gave him a look that told him as much.
"No. We have several Human sectors as well."
Silence reigned again, and Harry got in the cart without another word, shivering from the tension that was in the air. Something about him upset the Goblin, and Harry didn't know what to do to fix it. He didn't like people being upset with him, especially when he didn't know what he'd done wrong. He resisted the urge to cross his arms and shiver, focusing his eyes on the scenery that was rushing past him.
They must be hundreds of feet underground, he watched as the smooth stone walls of the upper bank turned into the rugged, chopped stone that only came from hand digging a tunnel.
How long had it taken the Goblins to build this? Had they used magic? Or had they hand dug them like the dwarves in Tolkien's novels? Harry had taken those books to read over the summer from the school library, and devoured them over and over. They had been hard to read at first, full of big words that he wasn't sure he knew the meaning of, but by the time this whole Wizarding World thing started, the characters were the best friends he could ever have. Harry amused himself by imagining how the Fellowship would have taken his new surroundings.
"I'm not upset with you." The words from the goblin came out of nowhere, and Harry was pulled from his happy fantasies with an almost painful jolt. Griphook was looking back at him, with a look that could have passed for a long lost cousin of concern, on his face. The cart had come to a stop without the boy wizard knowing it, and he awkwardly climbed out of it, keeping his eye on the strange creature that got out after him. "I just don't appreciate being sent to do a trainee's job. It has nothing to do with you. Now let's get your vault open." Harry nodded, handing over his key and wishing that they hadn't left Hagrid in the bank proper above, following another goblin to pick up a package that had not been placed in a vault.
He gathered his money awkwardly, ever aware of the deep look that he was getting from the goblin standing behind him, and was never more happy than to get away from the creature, rejoining the large man, and leaving the bank hurriedly. Hagrid looked down at him with a funny look on his face.
"Didn' ya enjoy tha cart?" he looked green; "Most students love it."
Harry nodded and smiled, but kept his question until they were far enough from the bank that he didn't think they would be overheard.
"Hagrid, Can goblins read minds?" Hagrid blinked at him, once, twice, a third time, before erupting into raucous laughter, ending up bent over in the middle of the street with his hands on his knees. Harry glared at the large man, not happy that his question had been laughed at. It wasn't his fault he didn't know anything! He had never even heard of the Wizarding World, he wasn't going to know everything there was to know.
"'m Sorry about tha' 'arry, but Goblins' aren't telepathic, no one is. That's just a muggle myth." Harry frowned.
Then how had Griphook known what Harry was thinking? In almost exact words at that? He said as much to Hagrid, who gave him a measuring look, before smiling.
"Why 'arry, I think ya may be a bit of a' empath. Don' worry, Dumbledore will teach ya' ta control tha'" Harry followed Hagrid meekly, though his brain was whirring at a million miles a minute, adding one more thing to his list of 'things not quite right here'. Harry was sure that there were a million reasons for the incident, even if Telepathy wasn't part of it.
Why would Hagrid automatically jump to empathy?
Both were so lost in their thoughts that they missed the eyes that stared unblinkingly at their backs. The mismatched eyes were shining, a crystal twirling through his fingers. He smiled, and sent the crystal from his hand, watching it float unseen past the mortals in the busy street, to slip into the young boys' pocket.
"When you're ready...Harry."
He turned and went back into his only mortal establishment, humming a song.
"Though we're strangers 'til now, We're choosing the path Between the stars. I'll leave my love
Between the stars." He had sung it for Sarah, he barely held back the shudder from thinking about her, but he felt that it fit much better for Harry.
His Harry.
The goblin holding the door open for him snickered, and Jareth shot him a look. He only got a blank stare back in return, and Jareth cursed as he walked away.
Now that they knew he wasn't invulnerable, they had been insufferable.
*Gringotts Bank
Five Minutes Previous*
As soon as Harry Potter walked away, Griphook was almost bolting for Ragnorak's office. At first he'd been extremely insulted that a warrior of his stature had been assigned to escort meddlesome wizards to their vaults, now he was glad he'd been the one to have the honor of seeing him first.
He took the corner at a dead run, ignoring the goblins who dove out of his way and hollered curses at his back, though one particular one about his mother and an aardvark had him turning his head and cursing back as he turned it, and that was his fatal mistake.
SLAM!
His teeth jarred as he slammed into something as unmovable as the rock that made up the tunnels underneath them, and he sprawled on his back like a sack of potatoes, blinking up at the shape that was surrounded by light.
Ragnorak, the Head of Gringotts and number Two Goblin on the High Council, stood over him, a scowl on his face.
"Griphook! What in Labyrinth's name do you think you were doing? Running through a reputable establishment like you were nothing but a hobgoblin! I see I wasn't mistaken in my assessment of your...skills." Ragnorak's voice was venom, and Griphook fought not to cringe back. He had seen others become the victim of the bankers rage, but he had never felt its fury.
And he hoped never to again.
"And now because of you, we won't be able to find the King's Mate as soon as we would have! He's probably already left the building, and who knows where he is now!"
Griphook blinked.
"I know who he is." It came out unbidden, and fairly untruthfully. He had his suspicions, yes, but he didn't know anything for concrete fact. He was just making a guess based on the situation he'd found himself in.
Ragnorak's mouth snapped shut with an almost audible click, and he stared down at his underling.
"What?" Griphook shook his head to clear the fuzziness and stood up, telling himself that he had not swayed as he did.
"That's why I was coming to see you, Uncle." Ragnorak's eyes narrowed, but he stayed silent. "When I took Harry Potter down to his vault, that he knew nothing about by the way, I felt...something." He had never felt it before, so he wasn't quite sure how to describe it to someone who hadn't felt it. "He thought I was upset with him, and I...didn't want him to think that…" He slanted his eyes down, knowing that made him sound weak.
They were goblins; they didn't fear mortals or care how they looked at them, and for him to admit that to Ragnorak of all Goblins, it was a disgrace!
Too his everlasting surprise, Ragnorak just laughed, and laughed heartily!
"I figure you'll be big at the tavern later tonight, nephew. You're the first goblin to feel that connection in two thousand years." He hit Griphook's shoulder, hard enough to send him shaking forward, and turned around, still laughing uproariously, heading towards his office. "The King is going to love this!"
Three minutes later, Jareth the Goblin King was walking out of the Head Goblin's office, ignoring all his subjects that gathered around to talk to him.
"He was headed out of the bank, Sire." Ragnorak was on the King's heels. "We're putting out Goblins to stop him when they find him. He nee..." Jareth raised a hand a Ragnorak immediately stopped talking, waiting.
"No. From what you've told me, he's a child who has just been introduced to a world he has never known of. The last thing I want to do is tell him who he is, and take away what's left of his childhood. No, we'll watch, and we'll wait. When he's ready, I'll know." He pulled a crystal out of his hand and continued on his way, twirling it in his hands, "He'll find me."
The Former Gundam Pilots stared at each other as they waited in Conference Room 6 for Lady Une to make an appearance at their weekly briefing, stacks of files of varying heights in front of each of them. Duo was spinning in a slow circle, pushing his chair around with his foot.
Quatre was rolling his eyes at his fellow partner, thumbing through a black ringed binder with the Winner Incorporated logo emblazoned on the front. Ever since the blond had accepted his role as head of his Father's Company, he had taken to the role like a Duck to water, and it was a scarce occasion where he was found without something to do with his company on his person, even during top secret Preventors meetings. It drove Lady Une to distraction, but she never dared say a word. Not only could she not afford to lose one of her top agents, the only ones that she could send on most of the missions that the Preventors handled these days, but she couldn't afford to turn the head of the largest, most influential and not to mention wealthiest corporation in the ESUN against her and the organization.
No one in their right mind would attempt it.
Especially since WEI was now the only provider of weapons and small arms to the Police and Preventors forces around the globe, at a very substantial discount.
It was a very nice arrangement for all involved.
Trowa was sitting in a corner, a very clear distance between himself and the rest of the pilots. While he was still a brother, and they would protect him to the death, not one of them trusted him like they once had. Spy or not, instrumental to the end of Mariemeia's short reign of terror or not, he had still worked against them. For a group as tight knit as the Gundam Pilots, who relied on each other to stay one step ahead of the game and stay alive, betrayal was inexcusable. They had forgiven Wufei, almost without question, but Trowa was a different matter. Trowa had no memories, no upbringing to decide how he acted; it was inexcusable that he had acted like he had. Especially without consulting any of them first.
He didn't blame them. He knew he would have reacted the same way if it had been one of them in his position. It was a common thread that bound them together, even now. The former clown gave Wufei a smile as the youngest of the pilots turned and looked at him, the hair hanging around his face making him look younger than he was. They had all been surprised, when after the war a birth certificate had been dug out for the Chinese pilot, held in the main records building in the Former Chinese Republic, a birth certificate that clearly put Chang Wufei at almost two years younger than he passed himself off as, only having turned fourteen half way through the war. It still surprised them all that he had managed to do the things he had, accomplished what he had, when he was so young.
"How was your last miss...assignment?" Trowa smiled wider as Wufei frowned and shook his head, cursing the fact that Une had threatened them all with three months of desk duty if they didn't attempt to get their heads out of war mode. Apparently after five years, she had gotten tired of them acting like they were still in the middle of the Eve Wars.
"Wasn't too bad. Simple in and out. Even the rooks that were with me weren't too much of a hindrance. Though Stevenson still hasn't learned anything." Both pilots rolled their eyes at the mention of one of the worst recruits they'd seen come through the organization since it was founded. The forty year old ex-cop didn't think he had anything to learn from Five ex-Terrorists that were half his age.
He would be surprised when he was brought in for his post mission review. But then again he always was.
"What about you? Duo drive you insane?" The again was left unsaid, but Wufei shook his head, a feral smile on his face. "Oh? Something interesting happen?" Lately they had all been sent on missions, assignments, that were far below their abilities it was almost laughable, and from what he remembered Duo and Wufei's last mission had been a salvage detail, punishment for a previous stunt they had pulled.
Or Wufei had pulled as it were.
The Asian pilot just smiled again, leaning back in his seat and crossed his arms. By this point, they had caught the attention of the other pilots, who were watching the exchange with narrowed eyes and some confusion. While they still acknowledged Trowa, even involved him sometimes with things outside of work, talking and discussing work issues was not something they did on a regular basis anymore unless it was required. Personally, they may trust him, but not with work. It was rare that he was trusted to work with any of them on an assignment, unless his particular skill set was required.
Wufei ignored them, turning his back on the rest of the room and focusing his full attention on the Heavyarms Pilot, a very clear indication that while they might not trust Trowa, he did. Wufei had never understood why they forgave him without a second thought, but Trowa they didn't. At least Trowa had had reasons. All Wufei was running on was his desire to keep fighting. All he knew was Fighting. Fighting for Honor, Fighting for Justice. Just fighting. If they didn't trust someone, it should be him.
"Well, while we were digging through that ruin of a building," His face gave away what he thought of that particular job, "some of the local gangs had gotten their hands on a few guns. Nothing major. I handled it until Duo came out with his new library." He shot a smug look at the braided pilot, who just blew a raspberry and continued twirling his chair around. Until Heero, who until now had been focused entirely on his ever present laptop, reached out and snagged his braid, stopping the motion that was making half the room dizzy. "They should think twice about firing weapons they don't know how to handle. Amateurs." The rest of the room went back to whatever they were doing, except Duo who sat in his chair pouting like someone had killed his favorite puppy.
And Quatre, who had put his folder down and was looking at Wufei with a shocked look on his face.
"On L4? Gangs, with weapons, on L4?" His voice was outraged, at the thought that his home colony, that he had fought so hard to keep free of the influences that had overrun the other colonies, had fallen victim to those influences without him noticing. As the oldest of the pilots, he took too much on his shoulders, and that sometimes led to things being overlooked. Like the fact that his colony had had the undesirable elements since before the war started, they were just more well hidden. The other pilots shared a look over his head, a good natured eye roll for their self-proclaimed mother hen.
"Yes Quatre, a gang with weapons on L4. You should know that, we sent you a report before we came back, since it is your colony and all." Wufei's voice was bland and the sarcasm nearly dripped from it, getting him a sharp look and a scowl in return.
'I'll have you know Chan..." The door to the conference room opened, and all five men turned their attention to her, though none of them moved to salute. She rolled her eyes, but by this point, Lady Anne Une, once Colonel in the Oz force, and an aide to Treize Kushrenada himself, was well used to not getting the proper respect from these five when they weren't in the public's eye.
"Sorry I'm late, Gentleman, Ms. Relena" there was a room wide wince, "had to be intercepted from entering the building again. You would think running the government would be enough for her, but now, she thinks she has to run us too." Une sat down, taking her place at the head of the table, and began to pass out files to each pilot, accepting the ones that they handed over in return. She would look over them when she got a chance, but with few exceptions, she trusted her once enemies work without question. They may sometimes not follow procedure to the letter, but no one could say they didn't get results.
Usually with pretty explosions to go along with said results.
"Now." She looked at the table again, folding her hands in front of her and eyeing everyone in the room. She knew that the news she had to deliver, and Sally's proof that would no doubt be needed, would not sit well in the room. Une had no doubt that something would happen after this meeting, something Earth shattering, but she had no idea what they would demand. This group was tight knit, and for one of their own to be out there, and not know, it was going to be… hellish was the only word that she could think of to encompass the weeks to come. "I know that I called this meeting earlier than I usually do, but I have some...shocking news. Sally has finished going over the files that Death and Dragon brought back." Both rolled their eyes.
They already had numbers; they didn't need tacky code names to go on top of it!
"As I was saying!" She gave both men dark looks that were promptly ignored, and kept going. She wanted to get this out and get out of the room as soon as possible. "The Files that Death dug out of the Doctors Office, a Doctor Michaels by all accounts, have produced some…interesting facts. Facts concerning the five of you, from what Sally tells me."
Silence reigned in the room for a few precious moments, before Duo broke that silence, as usual.
"What do you mean, concerning us? From the Dates I saw on the way back, we would have been, what," He looked around at the rest of the pilots, "Fourteen? Fifteen at the most? And Younger for 'Fei. What would this Doctor have to do with us?" He blinked, "Or, rather, want with us?"
Une sighed. She had hoped that she would have more time to come up with answers before they jumped right into the hard stuff. But of course it was the Gundam Pilots, they never took the easy route for themselves or the others.
She was going to have to suck it up and keep going, hoping against hope that they wouldn't tear her to pieces when they found out what she had to say.
"From what we could gather, he wanted your child." They stared at her as if she had just said the sky was Green and Oz won the war without opposition.
"Une, that is ridiculous. If you wanted to play a prank, you should have at least played a believable one." Heero was looking at her like she was way less intelligent that he had originally thought, and she knew that that wasn't that smart to begin with. "There is no way there are five children out there that are ours. We would have known." Lady Une shook her head.
This was going to be harder than she thought. But, of course, she had to have Sally explain the idea, and the process, to her four different times before she was able to wrap her head around it and accept facts as they were.
It seemed it was her turn to do the same. She took a deep breath, fortifying herself, and tried again.
"Just open up the files in front of you, so you can follow along with the rest of the class." They blinked at her again and sullenly opened up the files, still clearly thinking she was losing her mind and then some. "From what Sally has been able to decipher, from three nonstop days and nights, so no fucking with our senior medical officer or you might not survive." Another deep breath. "From what Sally has been able to decipher from the incomplete files that were brought back, is that This Dr. Michaels, was in fact one of the original builders of the Gundams." Now they were paying attention, each one of them leaning forward in their seats and fixing their eyes on her. Quatre was wide-eyed. He'd had the best education, and was catching onto where she was headed with this more quickly than his comrades.
"There was some sort of disagreement between the six before the Mechas were built, so the sixth was never completed. Some of these files were personal journal entries, rants more like it, and while there is mention of the sixth Gundam being started and hidden, he never comes out and says exactly where it is, just bizarre hints that honestly make no sense. But what is more interesting," She flipped a page, "is what he was trying to do with his practice. Apparently, and this is going to sound crazy, he became obsessed with creating the perfect pilot for when he finished his masterpiece. So, instead of finding a suitable candidate from the people of L4 where he'd chosen to hide out, he decided to create one. And what better way, than to use the pilots his rivals already had?"
She waited to see who got it first, and she was not disappointed.
"Bull shit!" Quatre's voice was outraged and he was glaring at her with blazing blue eyes. The other pilots jumped, clearly not expecting such an outcry from the usually quiet one, at least in these meetings, but she was expecting it.
"Lady Une, that is not logically possible." Heero followed shortly after, glaring just as hotly as the blond.
"I can assure you, we had this analyzed by four different techs, and five different doctors. All of them came to the same conclusion. He left a detailed description of the process he used, and while the idea of FIVE fathers is...rather outlandish, I can assure you the science adds up...unfortunately."
The light bulb went on for the other three, and an uproar erupted in the room. She was sure that the shouting could be heard all the way down the hall and that was confirmed when her secretary barged into the room with three agents behind him, guns drawn and ready to shoot.
The pilots didn't even notice their arrival, just continued yelling at her and each other.
She waved the agents out, eventually succeeded in getting her secretary out the door after several assurances that despite their big words, the pilots wouldn't kill her, she signed their paychecks after all. The man was new, only having worked with her for little more than three weeks, and wasn't yet used to the constant upheaval that surrounded the former terrorists. But eventually she was able to shove him out the door and settle back into her chair to wait out the screaming.
The three hours of screaming. Sally came and went, inducing more screaming, until they finally settled down, and accepted what was going on, or at least decided to start accepting what was going on.
"Do we know...its...name?" Trowa's voice was just this side of cold, and though Une was surprised by that, she didn't comment. At least one of them was ready to talk rationally. She only wished that she had better news for them regarding that little fact.
"No, sadly. Dr. M, while keeping his notes as he did with all of his ideas, did keep one thing secret and that was the identity of the child. While we know his mother's name was Lily Potter, and there is a death certificate for the woman in question, or a woman with the same name, we cannot find a birth or death certificate for the child. Dr. M records seeing the child after birth, so we know that he did in fact survive, we have no idea where he might be now, as the records for Ms. Potter do not exist except for her death. We have no way of locating the child, unless we can find someone who knew her. If the child is alive, he'd be around ten, possibly eleven depending on his birth date, which again, was not properly documented."
The room sat in silence for what seemed like ages, all of them deep in thought, the tension thick enough to cut with a sword, before Quatre dropped the pen he was playing with, and looked up at her.
"What about registering everyone? We don't want people to know we're looking for one certain child, because then he may be in danger," He looked outraged at the very thought that a child of his blood would have anything but the best, "so the easiest thing to do would be to register everyone on the planet. It would also have the side effect of having families to send the War Orphans to. We'll solve two problems with a couple million blood tests."
She gagged on the water that she had just taken a sip of, spewing it all over Trowa who drew back revolted.
"Easy? You call getting blood tests from each and every human on the planet, analyzing, cataloging, and reuniting families, Easy? We'd have to hire thousands of new techs, make room in the prisons for the inevitable kidnapping cases, which would solve open cases I will give you that, create a process for reuniting families, making sure that we don't send runaways back to the abusive families that they ran away from if that's the case, and a million other logistical problems that are going to give me nightmares for months just thinking about." She paused to take a deep breath, "And Did I mention that this will probably cost more to implement than is in the budget for the next hundred years?" She was standing up and yelling by the time that she finished speaking, spittle flying everywhere. The Pilots did nothing but slide their folders back a little from getting soaked, and waited her out.
She was getting tired of that, very quickly.
"And? I'll fund some of this, it is my child after all, but you'll have to ante up as well Une. I'm not going to pay the entire government payroll you know."
She just shook her head, but pulled out a pad and began taking notes as they started bantering ideas back and forth. Une had no doubt that whenever they found this child, if he was still alive, he would have the five most overprotective parents on the face of the Earth.
Woe would befall anyone who so much as gave him a paper cut.
Six Months later, The Family Reconstruction Act was signed into law by the ESUN President, in an act met with both criticism and praise. It generated thousands of jobs, which generated revenue for the businesses that were still trying to come back from a war almost a decade past, revenue that was quickly taken back by the taxes that were levied to pay for the unprecedented registration. Everyone, from newborn, to the oldest person on the planet was required by law to register at their local Preventors office, to be fined if they did not comply within a reasonable amount of time after receiving the letter that testing was being done in their area.
The records were held in the Preventors Database, made impenetrable by Heero who prided himself on never having been hacked, and every sample, while being matched against every other DNA sample in the database, were also ran against the five samples that were not added to the Database, first and foremost, for a hit on all five. They had yet to get even the slightest blip, except for Quatre's 27 sisters, which had caused quite the scandal.
It would be another five years before a hit was found, and three worlds shattered in the face of paternal rage
AN-And there it is! Wordy, I know, but the next chapters will be action packed, These had to be done to get some background in, or everyone, including me, would be lost! Oh, Please read and review! The Alerts and Favorites are fantastic of course, but even a quick "I like it" feeds my muse even more!
Slytherin