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.
Warning: This chapter has a few brief mentions of implied rape (no details).
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 39: The New World Order
Heero tried not to growl as he leaned back in his chair and plastered an attentive look on his face as he listened to a collection of old fossils arguing. It was at times like this that he wondered how he'd managed to let Trowa talk him into switching schedules with him; since it was supposed to be Heero's turn to help out at the reserve. He then sighed as he recalled the concern on Trowa's face when Duo had passed along the information that Taliesin had taken it into his fool mind to go off gallivanting through icy winter forests with no one for company but Wolfstar.
No one knew better than Trowa and Quatre just how much even a little chill could affect the scrawny wizard if anything happened to his wings. It was for that reason that Heero had willingly traded places with Trowa; who had become for all intents and purposes Taliesin's medical doctor over the past two years (well one year and ten months anyway).
Heero frowned slightly as he silently wondered, When did he suddenly become Taliesin in my mind? He's always been Harry to me… right up until… right up until shortly after I released him from his oath. So, his magic didn't just affect him when it bound him to the oath he'd sworn to obey me. I'll have to ask him if that is anything I should worry about when I see him in a month and a half.
"Is there something wrong, Heero?"
Glancing up, Heero found Relena watching him with concern and he gave her a small smile as he shook his head negatively in reply to her whispered question and returned his attention to the debate (more like argument) currently being carried on between the various leaders and public figures from the various countries. That of course only had him once again wishing there hadn't been a need to swap schedules with Trowa.
Cutting his eyes to his left, Heero nearly burst out laughing at the look of pained sufferance on Duo's face as the long haired teen slouched dejectedly in his chair and tugged mercilessly on his braid in agitation. It was good to know he wasn't the only one suffering through these useless debates and run-arounds. He suspected Wufei was just as bored and frustrated as well but the young Asian was nothing if not disciplined and he appeared to actually be paying attention to the discussion going on around them.
Forty-five minutes later, when the old men and women still showed no signs of slowing down or stopping (let alone agreeing on anything) Heero slammed his palm down on the table and shoved himself to his feet. Silence fell over the entire room as everyone swiveled to look up into the section of the large auditorium (the only place everyone would fit) where the Freedom Fighter representatives and the Sanc Kingdom delegates (including Princess Relena) had been relegated. Many of the faces of those who felt children had no business being involved in political matters (and there were quite a few among the conservatives) frowned or scowled over Heero's interruption.
"What is the meaning…" one old man began only for Heero to cut him off.
"We have been locked up in this room for countless hours at a time listening to a handful of you argue back and forth like a bunch of children fighting over the last piece of Christmas cake for well over a month. While I understand that everyone has opinions (and they are entitled to them); I don't understand why you are sitting here yelling at each other when you could be working together to actually accomplish something we've been seeking for the last twenty years at least; peace."
"While he could have worded it slightly differently, Mr. Yuy is correct," Relena added once Heero had dropped back into his chair. "We are all tired of the constant fighting and we each hold a different vision of what we think the future should hold; however, each of our visions share a common goal regardless of how we see that goal being accomplished. That common goal is peace; lasting peace and prosperity – a peace that could encompass, not just the entire Earth, but the colonies as well. Despite our differences, we all have one other thing in common besides our desire to end the senseless wars; we are all human. Regardless of where we were born, how we were raised, or where we live; we are all human."
"Those of us who were born in the Colonies share far more with those born on the Earth than most people remember," Wufei stated once the applause Relena's stirring words had garnered faded into the background. "Each and every single living person in this universe has family history and ties that sprang forth from the Earth. Generations may have passed since we last set foot on the Earth but no one can deny that the original colonists were men and women that had been born and raised on this planet; men and women who looked to the stars with wonder and hope for what their future might hold."
"And how would you propose we settle our differences?" a rather stately old matron demanded after several minutes of murmured discussion.
"Complete and total disarmament in a show of faith and trust," Relena began only to pause when she felt Heero gently grab her elbow and pull her back into her seat.
"While the concept of total pacifism is an admirable and noble goal, I don't believe it is entirely feasible at this point in time; especially knowing there are still those out there who are opposed to the peace we are trying to establish between the various nations around the world and between Earth and the Colonies. There will always be those who refuse to embrace peace for one reason or another and those people prey upon the rest of society like parasites. I would suggest instead, a partial disarmament; with both the colonies and individual countries discarding their weapons over the course of the next two years while forming a universal army, or a police force if you will, to protect both the Earth and the Colonies from those set against peace. The universal police force could be comprised of men and women from all walks of life and they would work together to quell trouble both here on Earth and out in space."
"And who would run such a force? Who could be trusted to run such a force without the fear of them turning around and taking over?" another voice demanded.
"So we put into place a system of checks and balances that would limit the power of such an army," Wufei answered as he immediately grasped the merits of the compromise Heero had suggested. "A single governing body comprised of elected officials that would represent each nation and each colony that could oversee the universal police force to insure that they are not abusing their position. Funding for the force could be done through taxes garnered from each nation or colony and each nation or colony can sponsor their citizens for a position on the force so that not any one nation or colony has control of either the funding or the loyalty of those men and women who make up the force."
"Such a force would create jobs for those who were displaced by war," Duo added with uncharacteristic seriousness. "It would give those who need ta feel useful and whose only skills are militaristic in nature a productive outlet instead of breedin' discontent because they were 'cast aside' by da rest of da world."
"Why don't we take a recess; take some time to consider our options, come up with potential alternatives, and simply unwind for a while?" Sally Po suggested a few minutes later. "We can reconvene tomorrow morning and continue discussing our future."
By the end of February, an agreement would be reached between the Colonies and nations of Earth (one that was palatable to the pacifists, the liberals, the conservatives, and a number of other political factions) and the Earth Sphere Space Coalition was born. There were still hundreds of details to iron out, a charter to write, and representatives to elect but it was at least a start. The Freedom Fighters would become the core for the Universal Police Force with the newly promoted General Sally Po stepping into the leadership position upon the urging of both the older delegates present at the peace conference and the three Gundam pilots that were attending. Those that had attended the conference left in much higher spirits than what they had come in with as they truly felt like they had accomplished something after all of the bickering.
There were still those that were displeased with the turn of events; Quinze Quarant and his White Fangs were one such faction. Quinze was not about to sit back and allow the new found peace to flourish because he still wanted vengeance and he wished for the Earth to burn. Quinze was also a man willing to do anything to get what he wants.
He started by hunting down and capturing the five scientists that had created the five Gundams (and many other suits) that were originally to be used as part of Operation Meteor. His next move was to begin hunting down Treize Khushrenada since the man was young and charismatic and Quinze believed he could be manipulated into working for the White Fang. When Quinze finally found the twenty-six year old (right about the time E.S.S.C was being formed), he also found the Epyon and a new plan began forming in the aged activist's mind; a plan that involved a dangerous Gundam, a certain child-demon, and the destruction of the entire earth.
Nestled safely away in Crystal Valley within the castle walls of Hogwarts, and completely oblivious to the nefarious plans Quinze was putting into motion, Harry was busy nurturing the reservations two newest residents; a newly hatched pair of phoenixes. Harry had fully intended to leave the raising of the two magical birds to Dr. Watanabe's assistants as they had far more experience but Harry actually didn't have much choice in the matter.
Like most birds, phoenixes imprinted upon the very first person or creature they saw and Harry just happened to have been attending the hatching so he could make certain the ash nest he'd created (out of a large gold bowl salvaged from the castle's kitchen) would keep the chicks warm enough. Whether it was Harry's magic that had unwavering drawn the two birds to him or pure happenstance Harry couldn't say but he still somehow ended up as 'mother' to the two naked newborn chicks.
He half suspected that Trowa, Cathy, and the doctor had conspired to arrange the imprinting because it had meant that Harry would be forced to remain at the castle in order to take care of them because they were so young and fragile that they couldn't even be taken on short trips (especially anywhere in the northern hemisphere since winter wasn't quite over). Oddly enough, Harry really didn't mind either way; he felt that caring for the two infant phoenixes was one way he could repay Fawkes's sacrifices. The care of the tiny male and female also gave Harry something to focus on other than his failures as they needed constant attention (eating like clockwork every two hours and needing to constantly be recovered in their ashes as they wiggled around in their nest).
When he wasn't crushing various berries, fruits, nuts, and grains to make thin gruels for the voracious phoenixes (the magical birds strictly feeding on fruits, nuts, and grains), Harry was modifying the tracking program Wufei had designed for the magical creature database to use on the magical plant index that Harry was preparing to create. Like many species of magical creatures and beings, a number of magical plant and fungi had disappeared through the centuries though most plants had faired better than the creatures because they required less magic and drew their magic directly from the earth. It also helped that Harry had seeds, bulbs, and spores from nearly every single magical plant or fungus in his potion supplies and sparing even a single seed or bulb to grow or clone a new plant would see the lost plants quickly reintroduced and his supplies eventually replenished.
Harry already had plans in place to see the greenhouses (which had been completely destroyed along with every other building on the school grounds bar the castle) rebuilt and anticipated the first round of plantings to take place around the middle of May – or in spring of the following year if there were any delays. He intended on starting with those plants that were known food sources for the various magical herbivores and those with medical uses since those two types of plants were critical to the survival of many species.
It also turns out that Harry had a ready supply of magical fertilizer for the greenhouses in the form of case upon case of dungbombs made from dragon dung; still as fresh and potent as it was the day it had been expelled from the creatures in question. Even the large number of the disgusting prank bombs he'd set off on the Lunar Base hadn't put a dent in his supplies and they were further augmented by the supply of joke bombs that he'd collected from Fred and George's joke shop.
The problem would be getting a complete list of those plants that would be needed since the number of species of magical plants and fungi were somewhere between five and ten times higher than the number of magical species of animals and beings. Which is why Harry was modifying the program Wufei had created so that it could not only pull up information from the plant index but also from the creature database to provide cross references so that he would know which animals needed which plants and which plants could potentially be fatal to a particular species if they ingested it by mistake.
Not to mention it would be good to know which plants would need to be housed separately in a secure greenhouse least someone be accidentally killed (venomous tentacula and mandrakes just two examples of deadly plants that had uses in healing potions). Unfortunately, it would take longer to build the database since there was far more information on both magical and muggle plants (since a number of mundane plants did have useful properties such as aloe and dittany) to be entered.
"When is the last time you actually took a break and just relaxed?"
Harry's hands were reaching for his knives before his brain caught up with itself and only the fact that he'd stopped carrying his throwing knives while on the reservation (after nearly skewering a gnarled garden gnome back in the fall) had saved Dorothy from an impromptu stabbing. Cursing long ingrained habits and the high level of paranoia he'd cultivated all of his life and a certain individual's annoying habit of sneaking up on him, Harry closed his eyes, dropped his elbows on his workstation, and began massaging his temples in hopes of soothing away the headache he could feel building.
"You know you wouldn't suffer from headaches so often if you actually rested once in a while."
Harry snorted since he well knew how impossible it was to actually get any real rest while he was trying to get the reservation running properly, coordinating the re-population programs, trying to make certain that the repairs were continuing as scheduled, and taking care of the one week old twin phoenixes that Harry had named Spera and Spero (both names meaning hope in Latin). It wasn't like he could just take off and take a vacation; especially not with the chicks just now starting to grow a layer of soft red and gold down all over their scrawny bodies. He sighed a moment later as he pulled off his glasses, leaned back in his chair, and spun around so he could face Dorothy where she was standing in the doorway to his office slash workshop.
"Was there something in particular you needed from me, Miss Catalonia?" Harry asked tiredly.
"Not exactly… I was volunteered to drag you out of your office by the others," Dorothy admitted without any shame. "I was told to remind you that Heero would be arriving in a few hours and that Trowa would be leaving this evening."
"I appreciate you taking the time to deliver the message about my brothers but I have too many things I need to get done to just walk away right now," Harry stated as he put his glasses back on and swung back to face the computer screen.
"You have to be one of the most stubborn people I have ever met."
"You aren't the first person to notice."
"Why do you push yourself so hard?"
"Habit and necessity."
"That's it? You continuously drive yourself into the ground because it is habit?" Dorothy demanded in disbelief after disregarding his added comment about necessity.
"Sorta," Harry as he glanced over his shoulder at the sixteen (almost seventeen) year old who was now hovering just behind him. "It would be far too difficult to put into words everything that has made me whom I am today so I summed it up with the first two words that came to mind."
Silence fell once more as Harry went back to his work, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the keyboard as he ran through yet another simulation with the program to see if he'd finally worked the bugs out of it. When it looked like it was going to work properly, Harry reached forward to grab his first year herbology book (One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore); intent on entering the information of a dozen or so plants so he could run a live test.
He'd just cracked open the book to the first entry when he felt a pair of small hands drop onto his shoulders and he froze for a split second as he felt those hand applying pressure as they moved towards the back of his neck. An instant later his chair, the book, and the laptop he'd been using crashed to the ground as he rocketed out and away from both his chair and the hands, his heart pounding wildly and breathing labored as he dropped into a defensive stance well out of arms reach from Dorothy who was watching him in confusion.
"Get out," Harry ordered tightly as his magic swirled around him in agitation.
"I only wanted to…"
"Get out."
"Look, I'm sorry; I was just going to…"
"I said… get out."
"No. Not until I explain."
"I don't fucking care what you have to say… leave now."
To Harry's surprise (and ire) the young blonde didn't back down as she stepped closer, jutted out her chin, and crossed her arms. He was so used to her behaving rather meekly since her arrival (mostly due to the fact that she'd been hit with shock after shock from the moment she woke up) that he'd nearly forgotten that she had a rather confrontational personality. Gritting his teeth, he narrowed his eyes and considered drawing his wand as he contemplated just hexing her straight out.
"I realize that you and I are not the best of friends and I've tried…"
"I still don't care and you have fifteen seconds to haul your ass out of my office or I'm going to do it for you."
"If you think I'm just going to let you walk all over me…"
"Eleven seconds…"
"I don't care who you think you are…"
"Seven seconds…"
"If you would just shut up and listen…"
"Three seconds…"
Dorothy gave a cry of frustration before she strode across the short distance separating them and tried to slap Harry. Harry caught her by the wrist and his expression darkened as he opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind when she stomped on his foot, kicked his shin, and slapped him hard with her other hand. He retaliated by hitting the pressure points in her wrist and elbow of both arms with short, hard jabs that made her arms and hands go weak and numb before shoving her backwards with a open palmed strike to the stomach. Harry half hoped that she'd flee the room at that point but she only seemed to grow more determined as she jumped right back into the scuffle, this time attempting to sweep his feet out from under him.
He jumped the sweeping kick, blocked a strike aimed at his stomach, and prevented her from kneeing him in the crotch as he pulled out his wand and prepared to stun her. His wand went skittering across the floor a moment later as she managed to land a sharp blow to his right wrist that sent pain shooting through his entire right arm due to the damaged nerves (his arm unprotected at the moment because Trowa had applied a fresh layer of the healing cream on his arm just a few hours earlier because he'd spent the morning out in the cold gathering firewood for the fireplaces). He grabbed her arm with his left hand and prepared to toss her over his shoulder only she grabbed hold of the back of his unbuttoned over shirt before he completed the throw and the two of them ended up tumbling to the floor as Harry's wings spilled out of the shirt as it was ripped almost in half.
White hot pain shot through Harry's entire left wing, back, and shoulder as he landed roughly on his left wing with Dorothy's weight bearing down on top of him and the wing. Dorothy recovered first, the pain addling Harry's head and slowing his reactions, and he felt her straddle his stomach; her knees digging painfully into his wings. She managed to slap him twice more across the face before he captured her wrists with his hands and wrapped them in an iron grip. The two of them then spent five minutes breathing laboriously as they glared at each other, Harry's eyes tinted red and gold and filled with more than a little pain while Dorothy's were filled with anger and frustration.
Several things happened at once at that point. Dorothy moved backwards to break Harry's hold on her wrist causing her long skirt to bunch up further around her waist as she ended up sitting on Harry's lap. The pain of her knees pulling on the scales of his wings and grinding them into the hard stone floor had Harry closing his eyes as he hissed in pain and arched his back and hips off the floor in an effort to move her off his wings in order to relieve the pain. And the door to Harry's office opened up as Heero and Trowa walked in looking for Harry, who they'd expected to find in the Great Hall waiting to greet them. Needless to say the two pilots immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion when they caught sight of Harry and Dorothy tangled up on the floor.
"I really don't think this is what Cathy had in mind when she said Taliesin needed to relax more," Trowa deadpanned as Heero snapped the door shut behind them.
Dorothy gasped in shock at their newly arrived audience only to flush scarlet when she immediately realized what it was the two pilots thought the two of them were doing. She immediately began struggling to free her hands but that only added to Harry's pain as she put more of her weight on his wings and twisted as she tried to get free. Harry bit back a scream as he switched both of her wrists to his left hand and shoved her left knee off of his right wing which spilled her forward onto his body and brought them face to face. Harry then rolled them so that their positions were reversed and slammed her hands against the floor above her head as he sat there trembling, his left wing hanging crookedly and more than a few of the scales painfully bent out of shape and bleeding from where they'd been ground against the stones. His eyes never left Dorothy's though as he struggled to catch his breath and desperately waited for the pain to subside.
It was the sight of Harry's damaged and bleeding wing that made the two pilots reassess the situation as they now took in Harry's discarded wand, his overturned chair, the carelessly dropped book, the running laptop sitting upside down on the floor, and Harry's partially torn shirt hanging from his arms. As one, Heero and Trowa pulled out their pistols and approached the pair on the floor cautiously from opposite sides. As he moved closer, Heero noted how red the left side of Harry's face was and guessed he'd been slapped at least once before noting that Harry was currently connected to the Zero system; which meant that they could expect Wolfstar to barge in any minute.
"One of you want to explain what the hell is going on?" Heero asked in a deadly soft voice.
"The others sent me to drag Taliesin out of his office and after he refused he threw a hissy fit when I tried to help him with the headache he had. He was being a stubborn jerk and I tried to apologize for startling him but he wouldn't listen. He made me so mad I tried to slap him and it degenerated into a brawl from there and not… that is we weren't… what you saw wasn't what you thought it was…" Dorothy explained, her face turning a bright red as she got to the end of her explanation as she recalled exactly what it was Trowa had insinuated the two of them were doing.
"Anything you want to add to that, Taliesin…?"
Harry didn't respond as he let go of Dorothy's wrists and slowly sat up so he was no longer lying on top of her. The change in position made him realize exactly how and where he'd been lying and the blood drained from his face as he scrambled backwards as if burned. In his hurry to get away he trampled over both wings and ended up sprawled on his back once more. He was trying to get up once more when Wolfstar (in wolf form) plowed into the office growling and the suit ended up pinning Harry to the floor a second time as the huge metal wolf placed itself protectively over Harry.
Spera and Spero, of course, chose that moment to wake up and add their hungry cries to the cacophony of sound filling the office while the scent of blood had drawn Orsa (the female thestral yearling) into the room in search of food (the filly frequently sneaking into the castle looking for food and Harry). The noise pouring from the usually quiet office had, of course, drawn everyone else in the castle and the small antechamber was soon packed with people which had the level of noise skyrocketing.
That was the last straw as far as Harry was concerned and he let out a scream of pure frustration and pain that had the entire room suddenly falling silent as a tomb as everyone turned his way. Panting heavily, Harry shoved Wolfstar off of him (no easy feat despite the fact that a weight reduction spell had been cast on the sentient suit) and climbed weakly to his feet as his magic pulsed around him in a visible aura and he pointed to the door and coldly ordered, "Out… just get out. I want all of you out right now. Do not make me say it twice or by Merlin and all that is unholy you will not like the results."
Most everyone beat a hasty retreat, few of them ever having seen him quite that pissed; Cathy making certain to herd the half grown thestral out with her. When the partially ruined door slammed shut at last there were only seven beings still in the room; Harry, Heero, Trowa, Dorothy, Wolfstar, Spera, and Spero. Wolfstar's growl deepened and gained a feral undertone as Harry tapped even further into his connection with Zero in his anger while the maelstrom surrounding Harry grew denser as his wing tips ignited. Dorothy flinched but made no move to leave while Harry's two brothers swallowed thickly and stubbornly held their ground. The two little phoenixes on the other hand stayed oddly quiet as Harry's out of control magic saturated the very air in the room with his anger and instinctively the little birds knew that 'danger' lurked nearby.
"You are in no fit state to take care of your wing even if you could reach the damaged scales," Trowa stated boldly when Harry took a single step forward. "Once your injuries have been tended I will willingly leave you alone as you asked."
"Ditto," Heero drawled as he tucked away his gun (so as to not appear threatening) and crossed his arms.
"I'm still waiting for you to let me finish what I was saying," Dorothy declared in a voice that wavered slightly, once the three young men turned to look in her direction.
"The sooner you calm down, Taliesin, the sooner we will be able to leave," Heero added as he reached out to right Harry's chair and picked both laptop and book up off the floor.
Harry stood there staring at them for nearly ten minutes before he turned away from them and strode over to pick up his wand. Heero and Trowa tensed but otherwise showed no sign that they were nervous about the fact that Harry had armed himself once again. The young mage ignored them though and used his wand to regain control of his magic by casting the spell that the portraits had taught him months earlier to siphon off excess magic into the castle.
The spell itself is known as the 'dead spell' also called the 'empty spell' and it is typically used to help young and magically weak wizards and witches to exercise their cores (in the hopes that their cores will either grow or produce a larger amount of magic). In the case of extremely powerful wizards, the same spell is used to bleed off large amounts of magic and help them gain better control of their magic which would make their spell work more efficient and effective. Draining off a large amount of magic prior to casting higher level spells also allowed them to safely expend the excess magic so that they don't overpower delicate spells at an inopportune moment and kill themselves with an explosive magical backlash.
The spell would take anywhere from one quarter to one half of the wizard's (or witch's) magic and feed it into the nearest receptacle (usually a building, a magical device, or the earth). In Harry's case, he poured his magic directly into the castle (something he'd been doing periodically since he'd first learned the spell and the current boost would reactivate a number of secret passageways that had gone dormant two centuries earlier when the castle's defenses began shutting down the enchantments that weren't essential to protecting the castle).
It was a testament to just how powerful Harry was that it took him casting the empty spell six times just to dispel the visible aura of magic surrounding him and another eight times to drop his reserves low enough that he could control his magic and douse the flames that had been dancing across his wings. He could have just pulled the magic back into his core but it would have taken far longer for him to regain control and the castle needed the extra magic in order for the various wards and enchantments still active to continuing functioning as intended (including the newly reactivated hidden passages and shortcuts). The numbness that had filled him in his rage receded with his magic, allowing his former pain to rush back into place and he sagged sideways into Wolfstar as his left wing drooped while his right wing pulled in tight against his body.
"Thank you, Taliesin; why don't you sit down so I can take a look to see how badly damaged your wing is?"
Harry nodded wearily after a moment and patted Wolfstar's shoulder. The sentient suit then turned so Harry could reach the door to the cockpit, which still sat on the suit's chest in wolf mode, and pulled out his magical first aide kit (the inner storage cupboards not affected by Wolfstar's reduced stature). The mechanical wolf then dropped down onto his belly beside Harry as the wizard passed Trowa the first aide kit. Harry in turn sprawled himself belly down over Wolfstar's back with both of his wings carefully propped up on Wolfstar's wings so that Trowa would be able to easily reach the damaged scales on both wings (the right wing merely bruised).
"Heero, can I get you to hold his shoulders steady while I work?"
Harry tensed at the contact but otherwise ignored it as he closed his eyes and pressed his face into Wolfstar's neck. The next thirty minutes or so passed agonizingly slow for Harry as Trowa carefully straightened out each scale and spread a healing cream over the scrapes from where the floor had rubbed the outer casing of the scales away. He also applied bruise cream to the bruises, which showed up as dark purplish-black blotches on Harry's wings, to help numb the pain and speed up the healing of those areas. Finally, the green eyed teen gently wrapped each damaged scale on the left wing in gauze that would prevent the cream from being wiped off.
"All done; any other injuries I need to worry about?"
"The bandages on my right arm are unraveling and half the cold cream has been scraped off," Harry murmured in a low voice as he sat up and spun so he was facing Trowa as he held out the arm in question.
"So… are you going to tell us what set you off?" Heero asked casually as he glanced between Harry's profile and Dorothy, who was sitting on the floor massaging her bruised wrists and hands (from Harry grabbing her wrists and then slamming her hands down onto the floor).
"I don't want to talk about it."
"In that case… Miss Catalonia, care to illuminate exactly what you were doing when he threw his… what did you call it again…? Ah… hissy fit I think it was?"
"He was tense and I could tell he had a headache so I was going to give him a massage… like I used to sometimes do for my uncle before he died. I only wanted to help."
"Let me guess… you didn't warn him of your intent or ask for his permission and the moment you touched him he flew off the handle?"
"Yes… and when I tried to apologize for startling him and tried to explain what I was going to do he refused to listen and he just made me so frustrated."
"Join the club," Heero snorted earning a scowl and a glare from Harry.
"When are you going to talk to someone about what happened, Taliesin?" Trowa asked softly into the silence as he felt the tension radiating off of Harry as he finished rewrapping his right arm. "Maybe it was a mistake not to push you regarding those memories but we had hoped that you would come to us in time in order to deal with the baggage those memories left you with when you felt more comfortable around us. If you just continue to bottle the pain up inside of you it's only going to get worse; not better. And yes I know you've dealt with some of it on your own but it is obvious that you are still hurting."
"Don't… just don't even go there, Trowa," Harry rasped as he jerked his arm free.
"Yet it is okay for you to lash out because someone made an honest mistake?" Heero demanded as he reached out and turned Harry's head so that Harry could see Dorothy's wrists. "I realize you've kept a tight leash on your temper since last summer but how long will it last before someone or something sets you off again?"
"I didn't do that in anger or because she caught me off guard; that only happened because I was in pain and desperate to get her off my wings and stopped holding back."
"And that's supposed to make it better?" Heero countered disdainfully as he plucked the jar of bruise cream off Wolfstar's back, shoved it into Harry's left hand, and propelled Harry towards Dorothy. "The least you can do is treat the bruises you caused now that your injuries have been tended to and have the common courtesy to hear her out."
"She attacked me and suddenly I'm the one who was wrong? All I did was defend myself!"
"Taliesin Bard, kindly act your age unless you wish to be treated as the child you so greatly resemble both in appearance and attitude right now," Heero barked out in a near growl.
Harry flinched at the rebuke and the truth behind the rather hurtful words before he bowed his head and dropped down into a crouch beside Dorothy who flinched in turn (the young teen more than a little intimidated by everything she had witnessed since entering the office). Without looking her in the eye, Harry opened the jar of bruise balm before he gently captured her left hand in his right hand and began spreading the soothing, numbing cream over the back of her hand and around her wrist. When he finished with her first hand he traded it for her other hand and continued his ministrations with the same level of tenderness he used when he interacted with the various magical creatures in his care.
Once he was done with both, he started to replace the lid on the jar only to freeze as Dorothy gently pulled the jar from his hands. Harry then stopped breathing altogether as she collected a dab of the cream onto her fingers, pulled off Harry's glasses, and began spreading it across Harry's bruised left cheek and the shiner that had eventually developed under and to the side of his left eye (where she'd slapped him pretty hard a total of three times).
The only thing keeping him from flinching away from her touch was the knowledge that his brothers would use his response as leverage in order to badger him into discussing his darkest memories. His eyes fell closed of their own accord as he became slightly lightheaded due to a lack of oxygen as he couldn't help but focus entirely on the feeling of her fingers ghosting across his face. He sucked in a sharp breath as his lungs began burning and the scent of bruise balm, chocolate, and peppermint washed over him causing his stomach to flip-flop unexpectedly as he began trembling.
A wave of vertigo assaulted him and he dropped forward onto his knees to avoid falling backwards onto his wings yet again and breathed in another dose of peppermint, chocolate, and balm as he felt Dorothy's breath brush across his face. Opening his eyes, he found himself practically nose to nose with the blonde, her right hand still pressed to the side of his face as her violet eyes stared into his mismatched eyes in surprise. His heart skipped a beat and he couldn't seem to remember how to breathe as he watched her eyes flicker down to his lips for a brief instant.
Unable to help himself he mimicked her and felt his stomach flip-flop a second time as he saw the tip of her tongue moisten her lips before she caught her bottom lip between her teeth in a show of nervousness. His breath caught in the back of his throat as he tore his eyes away from her mouth in time to look up to see her eyes fluttering closed as she leaned imperceptively closer. Harry's eyes widened as he realized exactly what she meant to do a mere heartbeat before she did and then her soft, warm, and slightly moist lips were pressed to his and the world stood still.
The butterflies that had been churning in his stomach since she first began applying the balm to his bruises dropped unexpectedly lower as he felt warmth pooling in his belly. He felt her left fist tangle in the collar of his undershirt as she leaned into the kiss a bit more and turned her head a touch to the side so that their noses were now side by side instead of tip to tip and Harry let out a barely heard moan as his eyes fell shut once more and the world seemed to close in around him until the only thing he knew existed were the lips gently but firmly pressed against his.
Almost instinctively, Harry began leaning into the kiss as the warmth in his belly began spreading outwards and his hands developed minds of their own as they reached up to cup Dorothy's elbows before sliding up the outside of her arms to the top of her shoulders where they buried themselves in her long hair. Her soft moan of appreciation set his wings to shivering in anticipation as he felt her breath ghost over his lips when her lips parted slightly. Reality chose that moment to reassert itself as a hand fell on Harry's shoulder and he heard a voice speaking.
"I think we get the idea, buddy boy."
When realization of what he'd just been doing shot through Harry, he jerked back sharply only to find he had no where to go because someone was standing right behind him with their hand still on his shoulder and he began to hyperventilate. The knowledge that he'd just experienced his first ever kiss was soon superimposed with the dark memory of how the Yule Ball during his fourth year at Hogwarts ended for him and he reached up to press a hand to his mouth as he desperately fought the nausea rising in his stomach. A strangled sob escaped from behind his hand as the hand trapping him in place combined with hearing the word boy and his previous activity, pulled loose a fraction of that memory to play through his mind as he heard that hated oily voice hissing in his ears once more.
"I see you've been reaching above your station again, boy," Snape hissed as he fisted his hand in the robes of Harry's left shoulder and propelled him through a deserted hallway towards the dungeons. "I think it is past time I remind you exactly what that mouth of yours is for… and it isn't for chatting up or attempting to kiss pretty little girls."
He lost the battle against his stomach as he forcibly shoved the memory back into the depths of his mind and he rolled sideways onto his hands and knees as he emptied his stomach. When he looked back up he saw Heero holding Dorothy firmly behind him as she struggled to free herself and as their eyes met Harry felt his stomach twist painfully as he misread the look in her eyes. Shame filled him as he realized what he'd just done, what he'd just subjected her to, and he babbled out a barely coherent apology as he twisted out of Trowa's grip and drunkenly headed towards the door only to be brought up short by the renewed cries of the phoenix twins.
Duty warred with the need to flee for a brief instant before he dashed across the room, scooped up the two birds, and disappeared out the door so quickly that the three left behind could have sworn he simply vanished.
Dorothy stopped struggling the moment he was gone and pressed her hands to her face while Heero and Trowa just stared at each other in growing alarm as they realized Taliesin could literally disappear completely if he wished and they would have no way of finding him. Cursing, Heero glanced at the teen that he was now holding up as she sagged against him, clearly distraught. This was so not how he'd intended on spending the afternoon and evening of what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation after the headache inducing political battles of the Peace Conference.
"Take her to Cathy, Heero; she'll be able to help her better than we could. I'll gather up Takoda and the others and start searching. Also, if you could call the Estate and tell them I'll be staying here until further notice… in fact, tell Quatre to drop what he's doing and catch the first flight up here as well as he's always had an easier time dealing with Taliesin when he's floundering since he can read Taliesin's emotions far more accurately than the rest of us."
Eight hours later, Quatre, Duo, Wufei, and all but a handful of the Maganac Corps poured into the entrance hall with Duo playing unwilling taxi to a pair of irate cobras (one red and one black); Quatre having pulled strings to get Wufei and Duo out of attending the peace conference shortly after Heero had contacted him. Quatre's eyes were drawn upwards the moment he stepped into the castle; Harry's emotions loud and all over the place as they continuously cycled between guilt, shame, disgust, anger, hate, regret, confusion, and longing.
Heero, Trowa, and Harry's squad joined them a moment later and the five original Gundam pilots all shared a silent conversation in a single glance before they turned as one and followed Quatre up the stairs; the blonde's Space Heart leading him directly to Harry. The others simply dispersed to take care of those things that needed to be done so that the five teens could concentrate on putting the young wizard back together again. Something they had done many times over the past two years.
It took them a full day to talk Harry into unlocking the door to the old Gryffindor Common Room (with the help of the two snakes hissing out obscenities and accusations of neglect – not that the five pilots knew that). It took two days before he acknowledged them in any way, yet another full day before he finally broke down and gave into the pressure they'd been slowly exerting on him, and a good four days to paint a full and complete picture of what his life had been like both before and during his years at Hogwarts (including all the details he'd previously left out of his talks and stories).
He talked himself hoarse for hours, cried himself to sleep repeatedly, and ran through an entire gamut of emotions as he bared his soul and what he saw as his worst sins to his five brothers. His brothers in turn listened to him when he spoke, held him when he cried, gave him encouragement when he faltered, let him know he wasn't alone, and above all never judged him or blamed him for those things that been done to him or that he'd been forced to do against his will.
When it was over, Harry felt completely wrung out and far lighter than he ever expected to feel. He also slept for nearly a full day from the sheer exhaustion of purging a good deal of the negativity from his soul. And while Harry felt more than a little uncomfortable knowing his brothers knew everything he'd been through (in far more detail than they had previously known) it was also a relief knowing they still accepted him no matter what. Another two full days were spent discussing everything that had happened the day Heero arrived, Harry's reactions, and what Harry planned to do when it came time to face Dorothy and the others again.
They also addressed Harry's feelings regarding the now five month old clone and why the child bothered him so much. That led to Harry dredging up all of his insecurities; how he didn't know how to be a father, how he feared any child of his would hate him because of who he was, and the barest whisper of the fear that lingered because of a promise Snape had once whispered in his ear. A promise that if Dumbledore ever allowed Harry to father a child before they killed him off for his money that Snape would be sure to 'teach' his child his or her proper place in the world; much as he'd been 'teaching' Harry his proper place. (One of the many memories that Harry had suppressed deep within his consciousness for the past four years that had been dredged up during Harry's long talk.)
His brothers then took a day to catch Harry up on all of the world news he'd been missing out on while buried in his work at the reserve (and taking care of the phoenixes). They spoke of Dermail's surrender, the peace conference, the Earth Sphere Space Coalition, the Universal Police Force, and the growing trouble being caused by the White Fang. Nearly thirteen days after Harry's rather violent and spectacular break down, the six of them reemerged from the Gryffindor Common Room and just before they joined everyone for supper Harry gave a very public and sincere apology to Dorothy and to everyone he'd directed his anger at that day.
And while Harry remained rather silent and withdrawn, his emotions were far more stable than they had been at any time over the past five years (his fourth year at Hogwarts included).
Translations: Latin to English
Spera – hopes
Spero – to hope
AN: Still no queen of the world but there is something of a world government forming in the wake of Dermail's surrender. We also see Quinze aiming for a different figurehead for the White Fang since Zechs is firmly entrenched with the Freedom Fighters. And while there are no Preventers, per say, the U.P.F. is a similar concept in some ways.
I hope I managed to portray both Harry's and Dorothy's stubbornness during their short scuffle; I did promise you drama after all. And don't worry one stolen kiss doesn't mean that they'll suddenly be all over each other in the next chapter. There will be more tension and drama with a dash of angst first.
Harry has also finally dealt with the last of the emotional and mental baggage that he's been suppressing since he regained his memories at the start of the story. Which means that his reactions to certain situations won't be as severe as they have been in the past. I can hear the cries of FINALLY from my computer over that.
And last but not least... the next chapter will have a bit of entertainment, another small drama scene, and a few clues on what happened to certain individuals from the past. Oh, and if anyone is interested, I just posted a new one shot entitled Good Intentions along with this chapter and the one I posted on Haunted. It's one that I've been writing bit by bit over the past two years in between everything else I've done. I should have the last of the edits done on WWYR1 soon too, only seven or eight chapters remain (one of which has all new material that I wrote to fix the plot holes). ~ Jenn