Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 37: A Spy's Deflection
Harry's estimate of exactly how long he would be unconscious was off by two days but it was still a far cry from the three weeks Duo had predicted. He was a bit put out to find himself waking up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar bedroom, and with a familiar and unwelcome individual sleeping curled up in the chair beside the bed. He grimaced and swallowed the groan that had risen in the back of his throat as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, grabbed his glasses from the nightstand beside the bed, and let out a silent sigh of relief when he caught sight of Quatre working at the desk that sat beneath the window off to one side of the lavishly appointed room.
"Good afternoon, Taliesin," Quatre greeted without even turning around to face him, his Space Heart having picked up Harry's minor flash of confusion and irritation.
"Hey, Quatre; where am I, how long have I been out, and why, oh why, is Dorothy Catalonia sleeping in a chair beside my bed?"
"Princess Relena was most insistent that you remain here under her care while you were recovering and she has been dutifully watching over you when not fulfilling her day to day duties. You have been unconscious for just over seven days and Miss Catalonia has practically remained by your side the entire time. Princess Relena has seen to it that she ate regularly and took care of herself; otherwise I don't think she'd have left your side at all."
"Wonderful," Harry deadpanned as he ran a hand over his face. "It took me nearly an entire year to shake my last stalker and I'm already saddled with a replacement? I suppose I should at least be thankful that she hasn't turned into a rabid fan girl. Has anyone taken care of Wolfstar? He was… I pushed him far beyond his limits over the course of the battle."
"Heero took care of him and tucked him into one of the transport planes so he wouldn't be disturbed."
"That's a relief. I don't think he'll be operable for at least another three or four days because I nearly fried his systems when he began having trouble keeping up with me towards the end. Don't know if the stress I placed on him will have a lasting effect on his overall performance or not. I'll probably need to do a complete overhaul of his propulsion system and either upgrade or replace his fusion reactor since I know I overheated both."
"Will that affect his internal systems?" Quatre inquired softly, referring to the personality that Wolfstar had been developing ever since Harry's magic had brought the suit to life.
"No, I made absolutely certain that his memory and central processors were insulated and protected above and beyond everything else. I also have a complete back-up of his mind on my laptop in the event that the worst does happen so I could have restored him eventually." (A reference to the link that Harry shared with the suit and the Zero interface; meaning that so long as Harry lived and the suit could be repaired, Wolfstar would live on.)
"That is good to hear; I know his systems are rather unique."
"I would have said high maintenance," Harry quipped before letting out a snicker which made Quatre smile in return as he glanced over his shoulder at Harry. "As informative as the past few minutes have been, I'm in need of a shower and a change of clothes. Can you point me in the proper direction?"
"The bathroom is through the second door on your right."
Harry thanked his brother and wasted no time in heading towards the bathroom so he could empty his bladder, wash up, and dig out something to wear aside from the rather wrinkled and smelly tux he'd been wearing beneath his flight suit when the battle started. Habit and deeply ingrained paranoia had Harry filling up the bathroom with plenty of steam (helped in no small part by a mist spell he'd recently learned from the Marauder's Grimoire) before he even began undressing in order to prevent any cameras from getting a clear image of him and his wings. He then stood beneath the downpour of near scalding hot water and sighed in pleasure as the heat washed away the lingering soreness that came from laying in bed for so long in addition to the magical exhaustion. Thirty-five minutes later, he walked back into the guestroom he'd been given feeling much better.
"Taliesin, I'm so pleased to see you awake again at last!" Relena exclaimed before she practically pounced on Harry the moment he returned to the room. "I was so worried you'd done yourself serious harm as I watched you recklessly push yourself out there."
"I have been flying for seven years and I knew exactly what I was doing out there," Harry stated as he deftly extracted himself from the awkward and uncomfortable embrace. "I was never in any real danger. Besides, I wasn't about to break the promise I made to your brother when he asked me to protect you in his stead."
"Men," Relena huffed in exasperation as she rolled her eyes and gave just the smallest of smiles.
Harry snorted and shook his head, a slight smirk playing about his lips as he knew that she'd blister Zechs' ear over the revelation that Harry had promised the older man to watch over her the moment she had him in her sights. Harry then gave her a more genuine smile as he spoke up once more, "I want to thank you for allowing me to stay while I recovered and for watching over me while I was unconscious."
"My honor would not allow me to do any less for you and those who fought beside you to protect my people and my kingdom. Besides, you are a friend and I would never turn a friend away in his time of need."
"And I suppose you didn't mind that Heero stuck around to keep an eye on me while I was here," Harry teased with a cheeky grin as he watched Relena's face turn red.
"Brat," Relena gasped as she covered her blushing cheeks with her hands.
Harry's mismatched eyes danced with laughter and mischief and he opened his mouth to make another comment only to hold his tongue when the door opened and Heero and Trowa walked in followed by Zechs, Takoda, Hilde, Jack, and Eric (the four squad members that stayed behind). While Harry might tease both his brother and Relena about her crush he'd never humiliate both of them by doing so in front of each other and an audience.
Trowa reached him first and after determining he was just fine, he grabbed Harry in a headlock and gave him a noogie that had Harry yelping indignantly which woke Dorothy from her nap. Heero stepped in and saved Trowa from an untimely hexing by slapping Harry in the back of the head and shoving him backwards onto the bed. Zechs just stood watching with a smirk on his face until Relena strode up to him and gave him a piece of her mind about drawing ridiculous promises from reckless pilots while everyone else just watched on. Harry snickered as he rolled off the bed and ran his fingers through his hair in an effort to fix the mess Trowa had made of it before straightening his glasses.
His laughter cut off rather abruptly when he happened to catch sight of a pair of violet eyes (filled with insecurity, confusion, curiosity, and wistfulness) watching him intently. Harry felt an urge to scowl at the girl only to end up sighing instead as he ran a hand through his hair a second time; sure she was annoying and her skewed beliefs were irritating but she hadn't actually done anything to him or his brothers. And while he suspected she was a spy for her grandfather and the Romefeller Foundation; he really didn't have any proof one way or another. All other activity in the room stopped as abruptly as Harry's laughter had as their attention was drawn to the growing tension between Dorothy and Harry.
Taking a deep breath, Harry offered a polite bow to the sixteen year old before stating, "I owe you my gratitude as well, Miss Catalonia, for taking up a vigil at my bedside when you did not have to; especially when one considers that we have parted on less than pleasant terms each time we have spoken."
Dorothy seemed overly flustered by his politeness and his verbal proclamation of gratitude and Harry tensed imperceptively as a light blush tinged her cheeks pink. It seems his earlier declaration about Miss Catalonia not being a fan-girl had been a bit premature and if he'd been alone he'd have groaned and whined pathetically since he'd really, really enjoyed the fan-free years he'd had since being thrown into the future (Relena not counting since she had been Heero's fan, not his). He was utterly thankful that Duo hadn't been there to witness the exchange but by the smirk on Heero's face he'd be getting ribbed over the whole ordeal anyway.
He was just contemplating the merits of beating a hasty retreat through the nearest window when Dorothy finally found her tongue and replied, "I felt obligated to help you after you made me reexamine my priorities. It was the least I could do after you risked yourself so selflessly in order to protect all of those inside of the palace and city."
Harry blinked and tilted his head to one side in an unconscious mimicry of a confused and curious wolf. He'd heard something in Dorothy's voice that hadn't been there the last time they'd actually spoken and he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. For some reason the young teen's blush deepened further as Harry studied her intently and after a few seconds Harry let out a silent snort as he shook his head in disbelief before tearing his eyes away. Harry's wings twitched and shifted in response to his confusion and self-directed exasperation inside their hidden pocket. He was about to talk one of his brothers into taking him to see Wolfstar so he could assess just how badly he'd stressed the sentient suit when Dorothy spoke up once more.
"I also selfishly thought that doing so would allow me to atone for the mistakes I have made, the things I have done, and those things that I nearly did under the mistaken belief that I was helping to make the world a better place."
Harry snapped his head around to fix his mismatched gaze on her once more, his eyes now shrewd and calculating. He noted her defeated posture as she dropped her gaze, her face turning pale as the blood drained from her cheeks. He instinctively knew exactly what she was hinting at; as did everyone else present in the room.
"Dorothy, we already spoke of this…" Relena began in a sharp voice that also held a hint of pleading.
"Zechs… please escort Princess Relena from the room," Harry ordered without taking his eyes off of Dorothy.
"Taliesin Bard you can not go about ordering me around inside of my own palace!" Relena countered indignantly even as Zechs gently took her by the arm and began half guiding and half dragging her from the room. "Dorothy is my friend and she made a few mistakes but that is no reason…"
Whatever else Relena was going to say was cut off as Zechs set her outside the room and firmly snapped the door shut before locking said door. Dorothy paled further as she glanced wide-eyed between each of the men and one woman locked in the room with her and her only avenue of escape which had effectively been cut off. Relena pounded on the door several times, the sound of her voice rising and falling though her words were too muffled to be understood through the thick door. Harry didn't need to hear the now irate teen to know she was pissed with him though.
"What exactly is it you plan to do with me?" Dorothy asked in a steady voice though fear lurked in her eyes.
"We're going to take a short trip and have a long conversation," Harry answered truthfully as he discreetly palmed his wand. "Although, I'm afraid you're going to miss a significant portion of both the trip and the discussion; good night, Miss Catalonia." Red light engulfed the confused and frightened teen and she slumped back in her chair as Harry tucked his wand back into his sleeve and turned to face the other four in the room to ask, "Command Center or library?"
"The Command Center is easier for all of us to get in and out of but it would also allow her to potentially see far more than we'd wish her to," Heero pointed out.
"We could set her up in one of the extra, unfurnished rooms," Harry countered. "She'd never know exactly where she was and I can either stun her again or feed her a sleeping potion when it is time for her to leave. Princess Relena isn't going to be happy with us no matter where we take her so we have to handle this as delicately as possible since Relena does see Miss Catalonia as a friend."
"It is best that none of us are ever alone in the room with her," Quatre stated softly from where he was still seated at the desk. "It would also be prudent if we bring either Major Po or Lieutenant Noin along as well in addition to Hilde because then there will be no chance that she can claim we tried to take advantage of her."
"Joy," Harry muttered as his lip curled up in distaste as the thought of being accused of doing something he found abhorrent. "Relena trusts Noin enough that her presence during any interrogation will set Relena's mind at ease. Unfortunately, that means cluing Noin in far more than I feel comfortable with since I don't really know her all that well."
"She can be trusted," Zechs assured him.
"That's not what I… fine… but you'd best explain to her that she's not to speak about what she learns about me to anyone because if she so much as says a word to Relena I will curse her with bad luck. Relena is nice and all but she is far too trusting and open which makes it difficult for her to keep a secret; not that I think she'd blab it out on purpose, just that she couldn't lie to save her life."
Harry then plucked his leather cord from around his neck and set up the Command Trunk, his supply trunk, and his food trunk at the foot the bed while Zechs stuck his head out the door to have Noin summoned only to find that Relena had already called for her. When Lucrezia was allowed into the room but Relena was not, the young ruler of the Sanc Kingdom stamped her foot in frustration before she stormed away.
Harry merely sighed as he lifted the lid to the supply trunk and addressed his brothers, "Trowa and Heero, can the two of you please give me a hand grabbing everything we'll need? Takoda, can you and Jack please start setting up an interrogation room in the Command Center? Quatre, Hilde, and Eric; will the three of you please watch over our guest? Zechs, I'm leaving you to brief Noin."
Harry, Trowa, Heero, Takoda, and Jack then disappeared into two different trunks to the astonishment of Noin who turned to Zechs for answers.
"What is going on, Zechs?" Noin demanded as she frowned up at him before craning around to catch sight of Dorothy slumped in her chair. "Relena is more than a little upset with all of you right now and I hadn't yet managed to get a coherent answer from her before you pulled me in here other than it had something to do with Miss Catalonia. And why the hell did the five of them just climb inside of a pair of trunks?"
"We'll fill you in on the situation with Dorothy Catalonia in a moment," Zechs replied as he gently pulled her to one side of the room. "First… what you are about to learn is a closely guarded secret within the Freedom Fighter Corp and even then it is mostly only known to a select few. You can not speak of what you learn about Taliesin here today to anyone; not even Relena. Taliesin, well, he won't take kindly to you telling anyone and he can and will make your life miserable if you do. I can promise you that what you learn today will not pose a direct threat to Relena or her kingdom but it could have devastating repercussions on Taliesin if any of what you learn gets back to those in the Romefeller Foundation, OZ, Treize, the Alliance Rebels, or the newly emerging White Fang."
"What could possibly…?" Noin began to ask only to trail off when she saw Harry, Heero, and Trowa exit the trunk carrying several folding chairs, a folding table, and a couple of boxes that they most assuredly did not have before they'd entered the trunk. The three of them then disappeared into the trunk that the others had entered with their burdens. "Did they just…?"
"Wait until you actually get the full story," Zechs drawled in amusement. "I've assured Taliesin that you are trustworthy but he is not a very trusting individual so I'm putting myself out on the line to include you on this. Do I have your promise that you will not betray my trust or Taliesin's?"
"You have my word, Zechs," Noin breathed without any hesitation, her trust in Zechs far surpassing the trust he held in her (and he trusted her enough to watch his back and protect his little sister).
"Thank you," Zechs replied with a smile. "I guarantee you'll never quite see the world the same way again."
"Oh don't be so dramatic, Zechs," Harry quipped as he climbed out of the Command Center and headed for his portable larder. "Go ahead and show her around; Takoda and Jack are almost finished so we'll be able to move Miss Catalonia down soon."
"How much longer is she going to be out?"
"At least another six hours; unless I wake her up sooner."
Harry was gone again before another question could be asked and Zechs led Noin to the trunk Heero, Trowa, Takoda, and Jack were currently inside and he simply gestured for her to step inside first. She gave him a long look before complying and Zechs stepped inside after her in time to hear her gasp in shock and see her jaw drop halfway to the floor as she took in the state of the art Command Center tucked away inside of a trunk of all places. Zechs was rather impressed himself with the numerous upgrades and changes Harry and the squad had made over the intervening months since he'd last entered the trunk.
To start with, the maps that had covered two of the walls had been replaced with twenty one large flat screen monitors installed flush against one another in three rows of seven on the shorter wall to the right of the staircase. Each screen seemed to be rotating through a different set of ten electronic maps that were constantly reporting the various activities of the different factions currently fighting in the war (five of the monitors dedicated entirely to the various facilities out in space). Directly beneath the monitors was a table that was as long as the room was wide under which sat a rather impressive supercomputer that Zechs suspected ran the mapping program that updated and monitored the maps on the wall above.
There were three workstations spaced out over top of that same table. The first one belonged to Eric (the squad's radio man) and was set up as a communications center complete with radio, CB, and satellite equipment, four laptops (one linked to Rockstar, one linked to Wolfstar, one linked to the internet, and one to filter information between the other three), a desktop, and a single printer.
Next to that was Ricardo's navigation center (the squad's navigator) set up with various sonar, radar, an assortment of scanners, and satellite equipment, another four laptops (set up much like Eric's, only with one linked to Northstar instead of Rockstar), a desktop, another printer, and a large collection of maps. The final and largest station on that table was a research center and belonged to the squad's researcher, Patricia, and had four desktop computers, another four laptops (one of which was linked to Dragonstar), several printers, and a number of books and printouts covered nearly every inch of the unoccupied workspace.
On the wall directly opposite of the stairs (what would be the back of the trunk) where the temporary stations had been set up previously, were four more workstations; three of the four each had a single wrap around desk and at least one flat screen monitor linked to the mapping system hung on the wall. Like the other three stations below the new map wall, those first three work spaces were assigned to a single squad member and each one reflected the job each individual had been assigned within the squad.
The first station belonged to Jack (the squad's medic) and had two desktops, four laptops (one linked to Superstar), three printers, and a bookshelf filled with medical books, charts, and files. The next station belonged to Takoda (the squad's supply officer and delivery boy) had another four laptops (one linked to Dogstar), a pair of desktops, a printer, and several file cabinets for various invoices, receipts, and shipping manifests.
The third station belonged to the squad's mechanic, Hilde, and had three desktops, four laptops (one linked to Deathstar), two printers, several boxes of spare parts, a top of the line tool chest, and a small bookshelf crammed full of manuals for assorted vehicles, machines, mobile suits, and other equipment. The final station (which was actually two stations with the dividing wall removed) belonged to Haddock and Brian. It was set up with a pair of desktops, eight laptops (one each linked to their suits – Arcticstar and Brimstar respectively), two printers, and four map monitors. Brian was the squad's strategist while Haddock was the squad's tactician; the two of them making up the squad's security slash scouting and tracking team.
Zechs' station was virtually untouched, though there were a trio of new laptops and a pair of desktops sitting ready for installation that he hadn't had before. Harry's workstation on the other hand was the most changed. It had originally started out the same size as Zechs' workstation but now it was twice the size in length and the former clutter that had once littered nearly all of the work surfaces was mostly gone (or rather more neatly organized).
The longest worktable across the back of the cubicle was filled with countless laptops, each one labeled with the name and pilot of every single suit Harry had ever warded and that wasn't even counting the original three laptops that Harry had used to link up to Wolfstar and the internet (which were still sitting on the work surface closest to Zechs' station along with a desktop and four printers). On the wall behind the worktable with the laptops there were six monitors mounted in two rows of three; two of them monitoring Hogwarts and the veterinary clinic and the last four monitoring different points of the Sanc Kingdom.
On the wall furthest from Zech's workstation (where Harry's area now butted up against the wall where the staircase sat) was a shelving unit filled with several hundred pigeon holes and a large whiteboard. Several dozen of the pigeon holes were labeled with the names of the various species of magical creatures and beings that had become extinct over the last four hundred years or were only one or two individuals away from extinction (based upon the centaurs' records that Harry had been given). The white board on the other hand listed the remaining species of magical creatures and beings, their current population numbers, and how many young (if any) had been born over the last fifteen years.
Below both cubbies and board was another worktable with a smaller supercomputer installed beneath it and two desktops, eight smaller monitors (four of them connected to the supercomputer, two of them for the desktops, and the last two connected to Wolfstar), an extra mouse, and an extra keyboard sitting on top (the last two items attached to the supercomputer); there were no labels on any of those computers but Zechs guessed Harry used them for research or work related to the magical reserve he was building.
The last worktable, which ran along the short wall that separated Harry's entire workstation from the rest of the Command Center, was piled high with paperwork, numerous books, various computer parts, and a bunch of tools. Hung on the inner side of the partial wall that prevented the mess on the table from spilling onto the floor outside of Harry's workspace were a series of empty portraits labeled with names. A small handful of the names affixed to the portraits Zechs recognized from the moving portraits he'd been introduced to when they'd first shown up at Hogwarts to take Harry home. They looked nothing like the original frames so Zechs guessed Harry had been working to create additional frames for the magical paintings so that they could travel between Hogwarts (where most of them had been returned to their former positions in Headmaster's office) and the Command Center as needed so they could contact Harry when he wasn't at the castle.
Moving away from the organized clutter of Harry's station, he next noted that the two doors that had once led to his and Harry's bedrooms had been replaced with a single door. Towards the top of the door hung a sign that said Private Quarters with a small map below it showing the basic layout of the rooms; complete with small labels marking who each room belonged to with several labeled as guest rooms.
The former dorms that had opened up off of the wall where the staircase sat had been converted into a pair of libraries; one labeled Magical Library and the other Technological Library. The other original rooms still led to the kitchen, two bathrooms, and a storeroom that had originally been installed inside of the trunk but another five doors had joined them. The first one was designated as the Conference Room (where Zechs imagined the missing conference table was now housed), the second declared itself the Rec Room, the third was titled Magical Storage, the fourth one was labeled as the Parts Department, and the last door was unlabeled. The generator room beneath the stairs, like Zechs' station, had also remained mostly untouched, though if he were to look inside he'd have noticed a second generator and an additional two fuel tanks had been added.
In the center of the room, where the conference table had once sat, there was now a small lounge filled with a handful of small coffee tables, live plants, small bookshelves, squishy armchairs, and couches. Blocking the lounge off on three and a half sides was a short half-wall; the outside of which had been painted to look like a sparse evergreen forest, each wall representing a different season. Wandering about inside of the forest were the life-sized paintings of extraordinarily life-like wolves of several different types in addition to a herd of white tailed deer, a warren of rabbits, and a small flock of pheasants. The inner walls of the lounge, on the other hand, depicted four different environments; a lush jungle, an arid desert, a deciduous forest, and an open field filled with tall grasses. The occupants of those walls were equally life-sized and life-like snakes from the various regions along with an assortment of the various prey that they typically ate.
"How is this possible? Are those wolves actually moving? Is that some kind of advanced wrap around screen? And are the rooms labeled as magical supposed to be some kind of inside joke?"
"The answer to your first question; it is that magic makes it possible," Harry replied as he carried another box down the stairs and made a beeline for the kitchen, only to pause outside the door to finish answering her questions; Zechs still wandering around taking in the various changes that had been made since he last visited the Command Center. "Yes the wolves are moving and no they are not just an elaborate video played on screen or monitors; they were my tenth attempt at creating a magical painting and my first successful attempt I might add. And finally no; my magic is not an inside joke though those that know of my abilities sometimes crack jokes about my abilities just to tease me."
"But… but…"
"Think of my race as the forefathers of all Newtype abilities," Harry gently suggested. "I suspect that all Newtypes are actually the descendants of the small handful of witches and wizards that fled into space when the first colony was finally cleared for habitation. Over time, their magical cores most likely grew smaller and smaller as they used less and less of their magic for fear of getting caught or of destabilizing the colonies and the magic expended was lost to the vacuum of space instead of being fed back into the Earth. Eventually, their descendants barely had enough magic to manifest one or maybe two particular talents with empathy, telepathy, and telekinesis being predominate because those branches of Mind Magic require the least amount of magic to control. There are of course other talents that appeared as well but from my research those three are the most common ones that have shown up through the years."
"What about those that stayed on Earth? What happened to them? And if magic was slowly lost in space how is it that you apparently have more than those born as Newtypes?"
"Those that remained on Earth were hunted to extinction according to what I have been able to determine, though there might have been a small handful that survived with their magical abilities going the same way as those that fled out into space because the fear of being caught suppressed their cores. I do know that very, very few of the other magicals managed to slip into space undetected survived the genocide. As for me? Well… you see I wasn't exactly born within recent years… technically you could say that I am around four hundred and eighty-eight years old; making me not only the oldest human currently in existence but also the only surviving wizard."
"I find that hard to believe," Noin dryly countered as she glanced about the Command Center once more. "You barely look like you're twelve let alone four, nearly five, centuries old."
"Physically, I am eighteen based upon the actual number of birthdays I've celebrated. I won't go into details on the hows and whys I look like I'm younger since I still haven't found an answer to that myself. As for tacking on the centuries… well let's just say that it involved a manipulative old man, a few backstabbing friends, a desperate godfather, and a few miscalculations that sent me unexpectedly into the future instead of just sending me someplace safe."
"However, we aren't here to discuss Taliesin's abilities or his personal history," Heero interjected as he stuck his head out of the door that was unlabeled. "We've finished setting up the room you requested."
"Thanks, Heero," Harry replied before he addressed Noin once more while he discreetly keyed her into the wards with a flick of his wand. "Could you please bring Miss Catalonia down here? I don't want to give her any reason to claim that any of my brothers or I did anything inappropriate and as such I want to be able to honestly say that none of us so much as laid a finger on her. Zechs, will you please join Heero and Trowa in writing out a list of questions to ask our guest? Noin can help you once she gets back down here since she's spent more time around both your sister and Miss Catalonia and will know which state secrets she might have uncovered during her time here."
Once the others left to attend to their assigned tasks, Harry entered the kitchen, unpacked the supplies he'd collected from his larder, and started a pot of tea. While he was waiting for the water to boil he put together a tray of sliced fruit and vegetable sticks, another of egg salad and tuna salad sandwiches, and a final one with assorted biscuits and scones. Next he filled up a sugar bowl with sugar cubes, poured cream into a small pitcher, and gathered up an assortment of small plates, saucers, tea cups, silverware, and water glasses.
By that time the kettle had been whistling for a couple of minutes and Harry poured the hot water into a teapot and set the tea leaves to steeping before he filled up a second, larger pitcher with ice water. Finished, Harry removed the tea leaves from the teapot and settled all of the trays onto the tea cart he'd purchased to make hauling large meals around easier for when they held conferences in the Command Center (since he couldn't use large amounts of magic inside of the trunk without destabilizing the charms – something he'd come close to doing repeatedly when remodeling the Command Center).
He then wheeled the cart into the interrogation room that had been set up where he found Noin settling Dorothy into one of the chairs while Heero, Trowa, and Zechs sat off to one side writing out a list of questions and Takoda and Jack stood off to one side talking softly. Everyone (but Dorothy who was still under the influence of the stunner Harry had hit her with) turned to glance at him as he entered and Harry noted that Noin was now sporting a rather grim expression; which Harry assumed meant that someone had finally filled her in on what had happened earlier.
"How much time will you be able to give us?" Zechs asked as he looked up from the list of questions.
"Twenty minutes per dose and no more than two doses in any given hour with at least ten minutes between when one dose wears off and the next dose is administered. Any more than that and we'll only end up poisoning her. I brought several bezoar slices just in case but I'd rather not need them at all. Trowa, I'll need you and Jack to monitor her health closely because we don't know if she'll have any adverse reactions to the serum. Heero and Takoda can stand guard in the event that she tries to make a break for it once we inform her that we'll be drugging her with a truth serum. Zechs and Noin will be in charge of the questioning; which means the rest of us need to keep absolutely quiet least we interfere. Quatre, Hilde, and Eric will remain topside to make certain we aren't disturbed. I will of course be handling the administration of the Veritaserum and making certain the entire interrogation is accurately recorded."
Nine and a half hours later, Noin was carrying Dorothy back up into the guest room that Harry had spent a week recovering in. All seven of those that had been present during the interrogation were rather grim faced after listening to just how much Dorothy had done to sabotage Relena's kingdom. In his hand, Harry carried a sixteen foot long roll of parchment that contained a detailed copy of every last bit of information that the young teen had passed back to the Romefeller Foundation (the original scroll holding the written record of the interrogation safely tucked away in the Command Center where it couldn't be destroyed or damaged).
The only two reasons they weren't hauling the teen off to a prison cell was because Relena considered her a friend (despite Dorothy having openly admitting to Relena that she was a spy during the recent invasion attempt) and because Dorothy had truly had a change of heart after she'd confronted Harry on his second night in the palace. She'd also not carried out her final orders; which had been to convince Relena she needed to surrender to the Foundation in order to save lives and take the disposed princess to the Foundation's headquarters.
Noin settled Dorothy into the bed, the young teen having been given a dose of sleeping potion and was not expected to wake up for another eight hours while Harry shrank and returned his leather cord of trunks to his neck. Any disdain Harry had felt for the girl had faded when he learned that she'd been pushed into a corner by her grandfather after her father's death several years earlier (the result of an earlier war that had ended before Harry had arrived on the beach in Japan). Her uncle, who Harry had met during that forced dinner party at Treize's castle, had been killed by the former Alliance not long after Harry had escaped which had only added to her grief and growing contempt for war; contempt that she'd been forced to bury because of her grandfather's beliefs and goals.
"What do we do with her now?" Quatre asked as their small group headed to the door in order to leave Dorothy to sleep off the potion in peace.
"She can't stay here," Noin stated with a sigh. "Her presence will only drive Duke Dermail into attacking again and again; either because she turned traitor to the Foundation's cause or because she's his only granddaughter. Princess Relena won't be pleased but it is best that we not give Romefeller any more reasons to target the Sanc Kingdom."
"So, what; we just let her go?" Heero asked incredulously. "She knows far too much to just let her walk free; even if she did deflect in the end."
"So we give her a choice," Harry interjected as he glanced back to study the sleeping teen. "She either becomes a refugee and we send her someplace where she'll be both safe and free or she joins the Freedom Fighters and helps to take down the Romefeller Foundation. She is intelligent and she won't thank us for making decisions for her though I believe she will understand why she can't stay here. Relena, on the other hand, is the one we need to worry about because it's been over ten hours since we kicked her out of here. We're also planning on taking away someone she's come to view as a friend which will place a bigger burden on Relena because it means she will once more be isolated from her peers."
Nothing further was said as Zechs opened the door and came face to face with a still irate Relena. As the young princess opened her mouth, Harry cut her off by simply placing the copy of the interrogation results into her hands before he walked passed her. Harry had no desire to be lectured for doing what he thought was right and had decided that now was a good time to check on Wolfstar; leaving his brothers, Zechs, and Noin to take the full brunt of Relena's ire (the four members of his squad that were present being quick to follow in Harry's wake). And no, he didn't feel one iota of guilt over leaving them with the irate teen but he would later regret not sticking around for the discussion; especially once Dorothy woke up and gave the others her decision.
Harry wouldn't find out that the Crystal Valley Magical Creature Reserve would be taking in its first official refugee until several days later (on the twenty-sixth after they'd celebrated Christmas Day with Relena) when he was making preparations to return home. Dorothy, it seems, had stubbornly insisted that she would only go where Taliesin went as she had no desire to return home to her grandfather, had no wish to draw further trouble to Relena's doorstep, could not bring herself to take up arms against her grandfather, and refused to be shipped off to another country where she'd most likely be found by the Foundation or one of her grandfather's enemies.
Relena thought it was the perfect solution since it meant that she could hold Taliesin responsible for Dorothy's well being and considered it ample punishment for his highhanded treatment of both of the two young ladies upon his waking up. He supposed he could have simply said no and walked away but the nagging voice in the back of his head (that sounded suspiciously like Hermione) told him he would need willing hands to help him run and rebuild the magical world. Cathy would be there to help keep an eye on the girl (and to act as a chaperone since there were no other adult women on the castle grounds) while Hilde and Patricia would be there to provide companionship for Dorothy since they were both right around Dorothy's age.
Harry's brothers would also start a rotating schedule that would make it so there was always one of them at Hogwarts at all times. Additional refugees with much needed skills would eventually be brought in as well (after being thoroughly screened since they didn't want to risk any spies infiltrating the newborn magical nation). Harry only prayed he'd not come to regret his decision not to fight the proffered solution at any point in the distant future.
AN: Eep… nearly forgot to get this up… but I made it with just seconds to spare… I'll be posting on Haunted tomorrow as well as replacing more chapters in WWYR1 and IF I get those finished I'll add another chapter here.
Anyway, as you can see, no Queen of the World since Dorothy didn't manipulate Relena into surrendering. We also finally see what duties each of Harry's squad members have been assigned and why there were so many assigned to his squad aside from the fact that they each have one of the magically enhanced suits. ~ Jenn