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Chapter Three

Progression


Because no matter what people say, at the end of the day life is a magnitude, not a vector.


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Everyone reevaluates their opinions, even as they scheme, intentionally or otherwise - the one static of the universe is that everything is always changing. As one door closes, another opens - there's always someone waiting to capitalize on your latest mistake, but often times, change is for the best.
-
Relena and Noin expand their influence, Duo's too badass to bother, and Odin's too busy improvising to realize the rules might be changing. In the meantime, Mitchell is scheming successfully and everyone is dealing with surprises - some better than others.

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Edit:

I had to scrap and redesign the placement and geography of the next several chapters in the Sahara Desert again. I'm honestly confused about how I could have bungled that so badly repeatedly… but at least it should be good now? Otherwise, just grammatical stuff.


Notes:

If you take issue with my possibly terrible Italian and French, please feel free to contact me – it's been a long while since I conjugated anything in the romantics, and I was never fluent enough to really have a grasp on imperative tense anyway.


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April 26th 198 – Saturday – L2

Odin couldn't help but feel content as he slid the key into the lock and felt the pins smoothly slide into place, allowing the cylinder to turn… he'd never had keys to anything before Leia had given him one for her condo. She had told him that it was his home as long as he wanted to stay… and that as long as it was his home, it was his key.

It wasn't as though the Sronas hadn't considered him welcome in the same way; he had simply always been with one of them, literally something of an invalid so it would have been a useless measure. But Leia had pointedly pressed keys into both his and Marlé's hands at the same time shortly after they had arrived back in L2, her expression serious… and it had meant something more than Samuel and Moira Srona's open-armed welcome. Moira tried to… for lack of a better word, 'mother' them; Leia had taken a close, considering look at them before nodding, then took a step back to allow them to define the boundaries even as she welcomed them in.

Leia Barton confused him maybe forty percent of the time, but he genuinely liked her. She was frank and sincere, but despite that, she didn't have his rough edges. She was swift and sure of herself, yet calm and quiet, perceptive – content to wait in the shadows until those around her realized they had gotten lost in themselves and felt embarrassed by her arch look. He was positive she did that last on purpose, but despite being ready for it, he still couldn't decipher how she made herself slip from his attention in the first place. Or if not the slipping away – he could do that and had been told he had a rather unique presence himself – he wanted the secret to how she made it seem as though she had done absolutely nothing to give the impression. People jumped or scowled when it was him – they felt foolish or guilty with her.

He wasn't going to ask Marlé's opinion until he had it mostly worked out. She might laugh, even if she would also agree in a heartbeat.

The deadbolt slid back and he quietly opened the door, stepping inside and shutting it behind him, glancing around to see if they had heard him yet… only to blink as a pale ball of fur launched itself onto his foot.

He stared blankly at the kitten for a moment, seriously contemplating if it was possible that the neighbor had changed their locks and by miraculous coincidence matched Leia's – that he had, in fact, walked into the wrong house.

The creature turned proportionally enormous blue eyes up at him and started to rumble like a motor as it clawed contentedly at his shoelaces.

No, the furniture is right.

"You can't claim creativity when you've been talking about kittens for over six months," he announced after a moment, sighing as he set down his duffel and knelt to consider the animal. It mewed happily at him as it continued to file its claws on his shoes, then again in pleasure when he reached out to scratch it behind the ears, anchoring its claws in his shoe and leaning into his hand as far as was physically possible, somehow purring even louder.

He smiled, rubbing at its head a bit more vigorously. Alright. He could see the appeal, but still.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Leia cooed as she came into the living room, smiling brightly and coming to crouch next to him and scratch the cat on the other side of his neck. "Marie saw him, and then I thought that, well, maybe I could use a little company while you two are off gallivanting about. He was the most affectionate out of the bunch, as well as the prettiest." Her smile widened as she reached out and spread the little cat's toes to make him retract his claws enough for her to pick him up, and she tossed Odin a mischievous look. "I'll have you know that I always wanted a cat too."

Marie snickered from where she was standing over by the entry to the kitchen, and Odin gave her an amused look. Maybe her original claim last September had some validity, and all girls did love cats.

"We were just about to make dinner," Leia added as she snuggled her pet against her neck, rubbing at him with the line of her jaw so that he rubbed her back as hard as he could with the crown of his head. "There's enough for all three of us, I'll just have to get a few more things out." Again, her eyes lit up in an amused way as she turned and handed the kitten back to him, moving his hands so that he was holding him the same way, that purr vibrating steadily against his jugular. "I'll cook – you take Heero."

He blinked, that not making any sense at all, until Marie giggled again and noted, "It only has one e in it… but we named him Hero."

Odin closed his eyes and fought the urge to sigh, focusing on the warmth on his neck as Hero purred more and rubbed its head against his jaw line. Of course they had named it something like that.

Leia laughed delightedly as she moved away. "Well, if any of your old friends ends up around here and slips up on the name, it makes a good cover, doesn't it?"

He did sigh as the little creature started to nuzzle more at his jugular instead, running the sides of his mouth over Odin's neck and leaving faint traceries of wet that dried almost as soon as they went down… and cried again. Well, no, not exactly a cry, and he kept doing it… it was almost as if he was trying to just idly chatter; making noise for the pleasure of it. After a moment he pulled his cupped hands away to hold him up at eye level and really consider him.

He was mostly a creamy white, with nose, the tips of his ears, paws, and tail fading darker into a pale gold… and he still rumbled like a badly muffled engine. After a moment, he mewled again in a satisfied way and reached out a paw to try and touch his face. Odin let him, wondering slightly at the feel of the soft pads on his nose, then the other paw on his forehead… before, stretched out as far as he could go to accomplish it, Hero ducked his head down between his forepaws so his head was maybe an inch from Odin's eye and let out another happy sort of meow. His eyes were not just content now, but showed that the cat was incredibly pleased with himself.

He laughed and gathered the little thing back into his hands before tucking him up against his shoulder… and smirked when Hero simply clambered the rest of the way on and anchored himself with his claws before crowing out another meow at his achievement. You'll fit right in here, he decided as he went to pick up his bag.

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April 27th 198 – Sunday – Munich, Germany

"Just a sec," Nan called as he shut a few windows – more out of habit than anything – and patted his pockets – mostly to be sure they were there. He'd had the most embarrassing time once when he hadn't thought to check before answering the door, and it had been his landlady, with him only in his shirt and boxers… The damn woman had been convinced he'd done it on purpose too, as if he needed her to make his life harder.

He went over everything from the past week in his head, just making sure… yeah, he was good for all his deadlines, both legitimate and not. Besides, BJ would have called or messaged, not come knocking. Well, unless he was bringing beer and pizza, which was always appreciated.

I need to sleep… and shower… Food wasn't an entirely bad idea either, but on Sundays he usually went over to Lindsay's and they did the big group thing. And Lindsay could cook even better than he could con anyone, and really, the guy had been born to be a con artist more than a rebel. Thank God for small mercies. He liked having the guy on his side of a fight… and this side of his wallet too.

I'm not late on rent or anything, am I? He couldn't think of anyone who'd actually be at his door this time on a Sunday… gah, it was probably his landlady. Seeing as yes, he was dressed, he ran a hand through his hair – not that it would matter to the damn woman – undid the lock… and blanched at the man in military black leaning against the frame.

"Nan Hoffman?" he drawled, dark eyes glinting with the kind of lazy indulgence a cat might offer a cornered mouse.

Oh shit. There was someone else down the walk too. Oh shit, I'm fucked. "Yes." The word came out as a bit more of a whimper than he'd like to admit to.

"May I come in?" Not waiting for a response, he strolled in and shut the door behind himself before again leaning against it. In a slightly more serious tone, he noted, "We need to talk."

Nan desperately wished he'd actually listened when BJ had explained how to identify rank from the uniform. "What about?" he tried, utterly failing to be nonchalant.

"Mm. I understand you and your friends-" Oh shit! "-don't have much love for the genocidal leader I play fetch for." The soldier's eyes were, suddenly, painfully honest. "Don't try to deny anything, just listen. You have a good little discreet operation here; I wouldn't have had anything to work off of to realize there was even a chance of a rebel cell here if I hadn't been caught in a jammer net of yours last summer." He rolled his eyes. "But even knowing you were up to something then, even which hours, I can't get any idea of what you did that day. I can appreciate how much work and coordination that takes."

He shook his head a little, tossing a few black curls of hair out of his face. "I've had my reasons for playing along with Marquise and staying in his good graces, but it's always been with the thought that it was only until someone better, someone suitable came along. So when Miss Darlian-Peacecraft tells her bodyguard, my best friend, that she's sick of dealing with her brother and she wants to move to Munich…" He gave Nan a long, considering look. "I'm a fan of consolidating available resources instead of squandering them."

That… Nan felt his knees start to buckle, and managed to sit on the floor before he fell. His mind was whirling a mile a minute. He'd thought this was a bust, but then… well, who would want to work for Marquise? But Relena Peacecraft was another story entirely; brother and sister were frickin' black and white.

A bubble seemed to pop in his throat, and he fought off a gasp. The princess wanted to move here? Holy shit, he wouldn't've ever dreamed-

"I see you'll need some time to process it," the soldier noted dryly, his smirk back in place. "In the meantime, I'll be visiting your friends… And as this is an equal opportunity between you all, I'll be having Sergeant Thorly visit with you a while to keep you from letting the cat out of the bag before I'm finished." Waving slightly, he stepped back out his door as smoothly as he'd entered, and the man that had been down the walk came in a moment later with a curious look.

Nan offered him a weak smile. Holy shit

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Salzburg, Austria

"Well then," Noin muttered dryly. "You're both all in one piece; that's a plus."

Hilde grimaced at that, and could see Xu doing the same in her peripheral vision. It had taken a lot more prep than they'd anticipated to get through the security, and then they'd more or less botched it – she still thought it was Xu's fault, but respected the fact that that was probably wildly inaccurate and unfair of her – then had to spend a week on the run before heading back to a base of operations, because there had to be no chance whatsoever of a base being discovered…

And then the General was calmly waiting for them when they did report in. She'd told them to be fast too, she'd something else she needed done, something about an information raid… the kind that they'd actually just blown to all hell, actually.

Inwardly, Hilde groaned again. She's never going to trust us again. And while she realized that that, too, was an exaggeration, her mentor would certainly make sure it felt like an eternity.

All the same though… "Is there any chance we aren't too late to do that other job you mentioned?" Xu was giving her one of his disbelieving looks now, and she rolled her eyes slightly at him. Seriously, if you never went out on a limb, you lost a lot of opportunity.

Noin let out an amused little noise. "I never intended to send you in on that; I just couldn't appear somewhere at the same time as you," the woman noted. "So yes, you're far too late… but I caught up with an old friend and he helped me take care of it."

"Old friend?" Xutao tried to discreetly elbow her, and she openly stomped on his foot in return; he bit back a squawk. If he wanted to keep all his propriety, that was his business; she had no intention of falling victim to that bullshit.

Besides, the General was obviously amused by the byplay, her eyes shining. "Yes, he was a bit of a surprise; I hadn't seen him in over two years." She shifted her focus to Xu. "Though, Chang here had a chat with him last July."

Xu froze, and Hilde was at a loss for a moment, trying to remember what was happening almost a year ago with her partner. He'd been mostly AWOL, and then- She gasped. "Heero?"

Noin looked even more amused. "You should've seen everyone else's reactions to him. I think the Commander was constantly caught between stopping herself from gushing, or pulling him into a hug every time he smiled. I caught a few of our boys trying to hide from him, too."

"He smiled?" Hilde demanded, her mind spinning. Heero… "He's really okay?" I need to tell Duo. But there was no chance of her discreetly getting out to visit Duo for months, and that wasn't the sort of thing she could send a message about even if she could send a message to Duo, seeing as she couldn't let anyone know where he was. Don't tell anyone but one of the other pilots, he said…

Except that the General's tense implied that he'd been there, not that he currently was.

Noin was watching her and she knew it… and Lucrezia probably knew that she knew, but she'd respected the charade enough to not look into it so far…

And she wanted to know if there was any news about Quatre or Trowa too.

"Has he heard from any of the others?" she asked hopefully. "From Duo?"

There was something implied in the other woman's smile, or in the shaded parts of her eyes, that said she knew that Hilde knew where Duo was but was humoring her, as she shook her head. "He was hoping we would know more," she explained. "The last time he saw Quatre was over fifteen months ago, and the closest he came to finding any of the others was when he thought he was chasing down Wufei instead of our Chang here." Focusing back on Xu, she added, "And don't think that I don't see that as a blessing, Xu; I respect that the two of you were friends at some point, but Wufei's an ass that I don't look forward to working with again. And I believe I'm fully correct when I say that it was you who kept this last run salvageable, instead of finishing it with casualties."

She reached over and grasped his hand firmly in hers and made sure he met her eyes before giving him one of her true, bright smiles. "From what intel we did get about what happened and after, you were damned brilliant." Tapping Hilde on the head with her other hand like she might an annoying puppy for emphasis, she added, "You're the one who got you both out and safely home free. The two of you are worth more than any intel I could ever send you on; so thank-you, Chang Xutao."

Hilde blinked and tried to make herself smaller as Xu seemed taken aback by the praise. "I… I was just…" He shook his head. "I did what I could with what I had at the time."

"And it was exactly the right course," Noin praised again. ""Though from what I understand, what you did you learned from your 'Adam' friend, who also has your information as a way to contact us… and it would be nice to meet him too, sometime."

The Chinese youth shifted a little uncomfortably. "I have no idea if he will, ma'am. He's… eccentric and used to working by himself; I got the impression that even working with just me was a novelty."

The General's smile was genuine. "Well let's hope he decides it was good novelty. After all, Yuy didn't contact us for a solid ten months after you ran into him. We're finally culminating into something bigger." She winked at them, looking a bit more predatory. "We've been a bit more showy lately… and I think we'll be kicking it up another notch soon."

The backhand seemed to come out of nowhere, but Hilde knew enough to move with it as much as she could without falling over. "Get some sugar in your system and meet me down in the gym; we've got work to do," Noin ordered, her tone dripping with annoyance. "I actually got to see the tape where you fucked up, so we're going to make sure you never do it again." Smiling softly at Xu, she added, "You're free for the rest of the day."

Hilde ducked around the other woman and down the hall before Noin could ask her why she wasn't moving yet, wanting to grumble but knowing better. If the General caught her bitching she'd be working herself into collapsing asleep on the gym floor kind of exhaustion for the next three weeks instead of one… and, well, she was right. She had fucked up… and really did deserve it. It just sucked that it had been her instead of Xu this time.

And… well, if it had been her and not Xu, then she probably ought to be working her ass off to make sure it was him next time.

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May 1st 198 – Thursday – Brussels, Belgium

It would be all too easy to grow to hate Mary Jean Sabetta, she reminded herself. You're above that.

Relena forced her fingers to loosen before she could bend the folder she held – thankfully it was thick enough to have not done so already. "I see," she returned calmly, letting some small amount of irritation show, but not the heavy weight in her chest. "Did he say when he might be available again?"

Sabetta is merely his favorite proxy. Hating her would only be a hopeless attempt at hiding my resentment with Milliardo. She didn't want to think about how long it would be before that resentment could build finish building into a true loathing for her brother. Incidents like this made it worse, where he wouldn't even allow her close enough to personally shunt her away and instead assigned it to one of his aides, but…

She couldn't simply give up any more than she could let herself hate Sabetta. She owed it to him- no, she didn't owe her brother anything anymore, but she owed it to herself to not fall into his same hypocrisy.

"No, Ma'am, I'm afraid he didn't." She eyed the folder the princess was holding. "Would you like me to take that for him?"

"No, thank-you." He can see it when he cares enough to look. I hide nothing, but that doesn't mean he'll see anything either. She turned to walk away. "Please tell him I came by." If he remembered to care, he could come ask her about the preparations for the Chinese teams arriving in five weeks. It was the only one of her projects that she was obligated to keep him posted on, as the agreement to trade with the Chinese for the heat amplifiers had been made with the Regime, before she became a candidate for the Rhea Lowe Tomorrow Today Fund.

She didn't protest as Jake came up like a shadow and pulled the folder from her again tightening fingers; she'd asked him to wait just out of sight. "Ass," he mumbled just loud enough to hear.

"Don't say that where you might be heard and understood," she sighed out. Not that being face to face with her brother had ever stopped her bodyguard from calling him the same, but… But what? Her hands started to fist and again she forced them back open before most people might notice the gesture. I feel like a damned moody teenager over this. Furious at him one moment, defending him the next… She understood, for the most part, why she was having this war within herself, but she was ready to finish it already and be done with the emotional upheaval.

It was exhausting, never mind the pure confusion and stupidity of it all.

Jake snorted, and instead said another phrase in what she was fairly sure was in Chinese… And if it wasn't Chinese for 'ass' then she had no doubt that it was far more offensive.

"Do I agree with that?" she asked tiredly.

"Yes."

She smiled as she looked over at him before shaking her head. On days like this, Jake was the only thing that kept her from sinking back into the flailing depression she'd dug out for herself before returning to Brussels. "He has a talent for making me feel as small and insignificant as a seven-year-old," she murmured without moving her lips. "Even without being there to do it himself."

Her friend nodded in agreement… as he said something else in Chinese. A true grin made its way across her face. "You know, you could be saying anything, as far as I know."

He widened his eyes in a mock attempt at innocence. "But you agree with me," he protested, bumping her shoulder lightly with his as they continued to walk. "Though," he admitted a moment later, "I'm actually far from fluent in Mandarin."

"That's news," she returned, surprised… and then amused that she was actually surprised that he didn't speak every common language. Wow, Lena, she chided herself. "How much do you know?" She fought back a smile.

"Enough for basic business transactions and at least twenty creative ways to cuss someone out," he returned cheerfully.

She chuckled a little at that. "You would."

"I learned most of it from a cadet that thought I was a…" He trailed off, trying to remember. "bastard of a goat freak of nature." He frowned. "There was something else in there, but I really don't remember. I was, like… eleven and making him work his ass off." He started to snicker. "I eventually looked into it just because Dave would start giggling every time the guy addressed me as something like 'goat-fucker'."

She fought down a giggle of her own, just seeing it… and a faintly amused eleven-year-old Jake cheerfully returning something of his own in Chinese at some point… Oh God. She was going to have to ask Mitchell about that one the next time they saw him. "What did you do?"

"I asked him what he had against goats."

She outright guffawed at that… then did a slightly better job of containing herself as he gave more details while they made their way up through the compound and back to her suite of rooms.

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oOo

Sahara Desert

Razo met Robby's eyes briefly when he turned to face them, and he saw the flash of genuine concern before the man focused on Cory. As soon as Razo let go of the kid's shoulder, the boy launched himself at their leader. Robby's glimmer of surprise lasted only a moment before his mouth settled into a grim line and he caught Cory against his chest, closing his eyes as the kid started to shake. Razo could feel himself starting to tremble too, now that he was relaxing enough for it to show, back on safe territory…

It had been one fucked up day. He'd never seen Cory cry, but he was fighting off sobs now as Robby just held him.

The woman's eyes flashed through his mind again before he pushed it back, trying to not hear the shrieking, but that was harder to get rid of…

…and it was time to throw up.

He didn't bother with discretion; just knelt, braced his arms and lost his stomach. It wasn't like it would be hard to shovel it up and throw in the latrine later… sand was sand was fucking sand, after all.

Cory was losing it. Cory was probably the most stoic of any of them, but the kid was breaking down… Razo's stomach wrenched again. Fuck, not that I blame him… But seeing Cory lose his ability to dissociate from it all? Well, he hadn't been able to help but lose his cool too.

When he decided he could look up again, he could see that Robby'd sat down and pulled Cory down into his lap, pressing his favorite's face against his shoulder. Their leader was watching him, though… and something about that sad but steady, cool gaze helped his stomach calm down; made him just tired, instead of wanting to scream and sob. He could start to think rationally again… at least, rationally enough to know he wanted to get up and sit by his friend and hide his face in his knees.

He wasn't sure how long they sat like that on Robby's little keep away corner of camp. He didn't really notice the passage of time at all, until it started to get dark.

Cory? Lifting his head, he looked to the side, knowing he would have heard if they moved, but still… Cory was calmer, but still not normal, clinging to Robby like a lifeline.

Hell, no 'like' to it. Robby was their lifeline in all too many ways… Though more for Cory than the rest of them, he guessed, because Cory was what kept Robby grounded most days.

He was finally starting to feel better when the boy whispered, "Sembrava mamma."

"Shh," Robby murmured, running a hand gently though his hair. "Lei non è qui. Dimenticalo."

"Dimenticalo," Razo agreed, the word feeling foreign in his mouth even as he understood. Dimenticare. It was one of the ones that didn't quite translate across to French, but he'd had to take a year of foreign language to pass his gen eds back in uni… and he'd have figured it out just from context anyway.

He hadn't realized Robby spoke Italian as well as English and Arabic… But I hadn't realized Cory did either.

"Oubliez ça," he agreed. It felt truer, somehow, to say it in his own damn language for once. English was the common one they all fell back on here, with how many refugees Cambyses had swallowed whole. "Better just to forget." Determined to follow the advice, he studiously blanked his own mind;. Maybe someday he'd get therapy, but for now, repression worked too well to ignore.

He only just kept himself from jumping when Robby dropped his head to the side, onto Razo's shoulder. "Ce ne sera qu'un peu plus long maintenant," he muttered, sounding exhausted. "Je promets que ce ne sera qu'un peu plus longtemps…"

Only a little longer… How long had they all been thinking that? The use of French startled him on some level… but at the same time, he couldn't make himself care about how multilingual Robby was. He trusted him… because he really was going to free them.

And it would be soon.

"I believe you," he returned, taking the naked trust the younger man was showing, being this weak and vulnerable, to heart. "Only a little longer."

oOo


oOo

May 2nd 198 – Friday – Brussels, Belgium

Dorothy smiled to herself as Jerome let her into the room, focusing on Jake sitting on the couch with an array of files around him. Relena preferred to use the table, but sometimes, Jake seemed to have something against more permanent furniture.

She frowned. Well, no, couches are less movable than tables. After another moment, she nodded to herself. Jake seemed to dislike furniture that wasn't as universal; as though he'd been balancing his laptop on one knee while spreading papers over a hotel bed for so many years that doing anything else was too foreign. So, while Relena would sometimes use up the whole of the long table in her suite, scurrying around it to different piles of organization to visualize and keep her ducks in a row, her bodyguard covered the couch and coffee table instead.

I suppose it keeps them from mixing up each other's work.

Jake saw her and gestured a sort of hello that meant he'd get to her in a moment before continuing to talk on the phone, and Dorothy focused at the table – only two neat stacks of manila folders, suggesting the princess had finished for the day – before looking to the clock. It was unlikely that her friend was in bed already, though possible… so she was likely showering. Curious, she opened up the top folders on each pile. Mm. The shorter was the constant reviewing and survey Relena had running on the hydroponics, and the considerably thicker stack looked like it was the preparation for the amplifier survey. Picking up a few folders and opening one lower down, she nodded to herself in satisfaction; this was a similar set of objectives for a different town near the fields.

It's a shame Milliardo refuses to acknowledge her. Her princess could be so obsessively thorough. She's going to be a much better ruler. Now if only the stoically beautiful man in power would step down or let his sister do more than nibble at the edges…

The heiress paused as Jake said his goodbyes to whoever was on the phone. She hadn't really paid attention to what he'd been saying – that was the polite thing to do when someone in the same room was on the phone – but… "Are you speaking Swahili?" she asked incredulously.

"Of course not, it was complete Gibberish, spoken only by the official African People's Republic of Gibberish," the blonde colonel retorted as he stood and stretched. Tilting his head at her, he added, "Doesn't the fact that you recognized the language say something? You're a Romefeller Heir."

Dorothy frowned. He had a point, but- "Everyone who doesn't speak English can speak French," she argued.

He snorted as he walked over to her and play smacked at her hands before neatening Relena's stack of folders. "Spoken like a true imperialist. I lived at the Academy in Tanzania for almost three years, remember? If you don't know the language the locals prefer, they can swindle you twice as easily."

She eyed him warily for a moment, trying to decide if he'd said it on purpose… then started giggling when he winked. Swindling in Swahili, really! "You're fluent in Swahili but not Chinese?"

"Did I just claim to have ever lived in China?" he protested. "I'm part Japanese anyway, they hate me!"

She giggled harder at that, because not only was it bad, but it was probably true despite how very little Asian blood her friend had. "Well, don't tell them."

"I'm not an idiot," he returned petulantly, which made her keep giggling, before grinning genuinely himself and shaking his head. "Not that I mind or anything, but were you just here for company or did you have a reason?"

"Oh!" She hadn't actually forgotten, but it was more fun to act as though she had. "I bought a townhouse!"

Well, she'd had an old Romefeller house based in Munich transferred to her direct control, but it was all the same, really.

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oOo

May 5th 198 – Monday – L1

Odin smiled as he watched Marlé make a beeline for the specialized electronics store in the little strip mall, deciding to leave her to it; she was having just about as much fun finding what wouldn't work for what she wanted as she was with what would. He was more than happy to let her hash out the experimental stages for now – she was learning far more than if he'd tried to show her – that was half the point of telling her to find something interesting to do.

She hadn't just gotten the kitten for something to 'surprise him' with, thankfully.

None of the signs in particular drew his attention, but he wanted Marlé to work without him standing over her shoulder, pressuring or influencing her, so wandered into the neighboring shop, which had… clothes. Inwardly he sighed, but began to walk the racks anyway. He had no reason whatsoever to come in here; he didn't need anything, but he'd gathered that this was what most people did when killing time…

He frowned. And now that I think about it, Marie's almost grown out of her coat. Glancing over at the coat selection on the other side of the store, the ex-pilot wondered idly if all these places were carefully molded traps for the unwary spender. If so, they had it down to an art.

His theory was only further proven, really, when after discarding a few options he remembered why he had been putting off getting her a new coat until they were back on Earth. These were designed with colonial weather in mind, not Earth's deep winter of the past few years. Leia had gotten her a different one for the milder weather here, which was what the girl was wearing now… but as he started to turn away, something drew his eye.

Curious as to why he had noticed it, he pulled the racks apart to see it properly. It had a straight collar with a snap, a row of large but dull black buttons down the left side… a hidden zipper on the inside to the far right. He frowned, still not sure why he was looking at it, glancing back to the rack it had been on to see if it was simply styled differently from those next to it… and blinked.

The old, softened and smoothed areas of the leather glimmered a sort of purple indigo.

He shifted it again to make the light move over it. The whole thing shone that dark faded purple-black – it was just more obvious on the worn areas. Overall, it was well-used; someone wearing it would easily disappear into a crowd. Leia and Marie would probably call it 'well-loved.' It was impossible to say how old it was, but it had aged well.

Aa. Now he knew why.

Glancing over at the mirror in the back, he shrugged off his backpack and pulled the jacket off its hanger, quickly undoing the zipper. A moment later, he was tugging it on… and nodding to himself at the length – well below his belt, but not so long as to get in the way. He zipped it up and turned to view his profile. It didn't tug tightly when he rolled his shoulders, and despite his thick sweater, it was still fairly baggy around the waist without being what Dasha had once told him was 'far from stylish,' and the zipper ended above belt while the front was still split; the metal of the zipper was too high to clink against anything hidden at his waistline or rip at his hand if he moved fast… The set of buttons held one flap over to the side, hiding the silver of the zipper. He bent over slightly at the waist and smiled approvingly; it was still long and loose enough, without looking oversized or suspicious.

"…Odin, that's a girl's coat."

He chuckled slightly as he met Marlé's eyes through the mirror before undoing the zipper. "I'm aware. It's not for me."

Noin had been complaining about how the light jacket that she had was short enough that she had to be careful of how she moved, or her gun would show. He had borrowed a shoulder harness from her when he had raided that base with her, and hadn't had to adjust the straps at all, which meant her shoulders were roughly the same width as his, so it should fit her.

And the leather shone purple the same way her hair and eyes glimmered in the right light. It just… suited somehow.

Looking at the tag, he snorted in amusement. Conniving trap indeed. Not that he was opposed to spending money – his means of gaining it were virtually unlimited – but he would have been inclined to buy it even if that weren't the case. It was hard to say how much of that was pure marketing, however, and how much it might be a matter of good taste. "Did you find what you needed?" he asked his charge as he folded Noin's new jacket over his arm and picked his bag back up, slinging it over one shoulder.

"I think so," she temporized, still eying the jacket. "Is that for my mom?"

"No."

"It's too big for me," she noted.

"Observant," he granted as he headed for the cashier.

She just frowned again. "So who's it for?"

He smirked – now she was just handing it to him. "A friend."

She gave him an annoyed look. "You have friends?" Her tone was wry.

He snorted again as he pulled out his wallet. "Yes."

Marlé rolled her eyes slightly and seemed to think for a moment before focusing back on the coat. "You have a female friend?" He simply raised a brow; she'd already established that, really. A moment later, she grinned broadly, grabbing a candy bar off the rack. "You should give her this too; chocolate's always appreciated." Glancing back at the rack, she grabbed a second kind as well, and held them out expectantly.

There was something deviant about her smile, but after a moment Odin decided it didn't much matter and shrugged, taking them from her and handing the overly expensive sweet to the woman running the cashier. She, in turn, smiled and nodded approvingly as she rung it all up and got a bag.

"You should put them in the inside pocket before you give it to her," Marie added as they walked out.

Odin just shrugged. "Remind me later."

oOo


oOo

Munich, Germany

"Lena, we're here," Jake announced brightly.

Relena blinked at her name, shifting out of the slump she'd fallen into; she hadn't really thought she might fall asleep. "We're where?" she asked blurrily. There was something odd about his tone of voice…

"Munich. Or specifically, Dorothy's new townhouse."

She was suddenly wary of looking out the window. That sort of extremely chipper tone that meant he was trying to not cackle helplessly. It was only putting off the inevitable, however, so she looked out the window… and stared. "Please tell me I'm looking the wrong way and it's on the other side of the street," she mumbled.

"Nope! That's it."

…There is absolutely nothing to be said for that. She squeezed her eyes shut again and dropped her head back against the headrest. Jake gave in and started laughing delightedly.

When they had told Dorothy where they were planning on going, she had immediately decided she needed to buy some property nearby the princess' new base of operations. It had seemed like a sensible enough idea, especially when she had agreed to find something in the city proper instead of the quiet suburb Jake had described the new property was in. She hadn't really thought any more about it until Dorothy had given Jake her new address after he offered to help set up security… but really, she should have guessed.

Sighing again, Relena opened her eyes and undid her seatbelt, leaning forward to get a clearer look out the window while she waited for Jake to come around and open the door for her.

Only Dorothy would call an outright mansion a townhouse.

"She gave you a key?" Relena asked as they went up the walk, shifting her knapsack on one hip; she had a million and one files to work through while her bodyguard surveyed the… estate.

"No. Apparently Mitchell recommended her a local skeleton crew staff. At least one of them is supposed to be here." He checked his watch. "And Lin is due in in another twenty minutes or so… So I'm sorry for the hassle, but stay with me until he's here? I trust Dave and all, but I don't know these guys yet."

"Yet?" she asked curiously, trying to resist from rubbing more sleep out of her eyes; there was nothing there and it looked silly.

"Dave did recommend them," her friend returned, reaching out to press the doorbell. "I promised to keep my claws retracted until I saw if they had any."

"David has friends without claws?" she asked dryly.

He laughed again. "None that I've met so far." After a moment, he added, "Though there have been a few who were extraordinarily good at keeping theirs politely sheathed."

"Oh?"

He gave her an amused look. "I met David because we had the mutual friend of Treize. If you need me to reach further, you might want to either take another nap or-"

"Hello! I'm sorry it took so long to get to the door, we've been trying to get the coffee machine working, and-" The young man stopped in his tracks as Relena turned an easy smile on him. "And, um… uh… your Highness…"

"You all must get along marvelously with Dorothy," Relena interrupted, stepping forward and offering a hand. "Some days I would swear the woman's veins run with coffee, not blood."

He shook her hand easily enough, though with the sort of awe that meant he'd been wanting to for years now. Then he blinked his way through whatever euphoria she had supposedly struck him with and realized, "You two are alone?" His eyes whipped to focus on Jake. "You-"

"Colonel Jacob Miller," he inserted smoothly. "I assure you that I can adequately guard the princess by myself until the rest of her retinue arrives." He cocked one brow. "Are you going to let us in, or not?"

The man flushed immediately and practically flung the door back off its hinges as he stepped out of the way. "Of course! Sorry, I just-" He appeared to visibly cut himself off and took a deep breath. "Sorry." He almost made to offer his hand to shake, then seemed to remember that he'd already done that, and instead grabbed at the back of his head in embarrassment. "I'm Alexis Engal."

She offered him another smile in return as Jake shook his head slightly and shut the door behind them. It really wasn't fair, she'd decided at some long ago point, to hold people's nerves against them. "Pleased to meet you, Herr Engal. Had you finished figuring out the coffee machine yet? I feel I could use the caffeine…"

oOo


oOo

May 6th 198 – Tuesday – Amsterdam, Netherlands

"I can swing that," Kasey decided after a moment. "It's a little tight, but that sounds like it's what works best for everyone, all around."

The woman gave a relieved sort of nod, biting her lip, so he leaned over and rested a hand on her shoulder, offering his own tired smile. "Hey, listen, it's fine, and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, just tell any Devil, and I'll take care of it, alright? Nobody's doing too great right now, but…" He sighed and shrugged a little. "Well, it's better than two months ago, right? We've got the whole summer ahead of us now. Just… if you think you might run short again, try and warn me, alright? That's what this network is for; I'm not going to put up with anyone trying to terrorize you when sometimes shit just happens."

"They threatened to break in and steal what I did have," she protested quietly. "That I was hiding it, or I'd wasted it…" Her expression hardened. "Like I would waste food. Or that my kids would take more than we agreed without us talking about it." Her eyes were worried again, though. "They are eating more, but it's out of mine, not community; my son was the one who was really pushing for us to do this in December!"

"It probably got measured wrong to start with," he soothed. "Or someone double-dipped when your back was turned, or some such like that. A lot of people's gardens came up short too; this kind of thing happens. I'm not blaming anybody… but tell a Devil or text Karina von Koll if anyone tries to threaten again, and tell them that they ought to talk to me instead. If they're really wanting, I'll see if I can pinch something together elsewhere. Shit happens, we just have to roll with it."

Mrs. Jansen nodded again, off in her own world for a moment, before blinking at him and smiling genuinely. "You're a good boy, Kasey… good man. Your sister is well? Your niece?"

He couldn't help but grin back at her. It never failed, any woman he talked to always asked after Renee… everyone cared about babies, and with how much sway the Devil's Get had anymore, she was practically an icon. "Everyone's been doing fine on my end," he reassured her. "Renee's fussy lately, but I gather that's normal for teething. Father Espen and the Sister have her right now while I'm running errands." Icon or not, people tended to take you more seriously if you weren't bouncing an infant with one arm, and Sister Isabel had insisted that Nee ought to socialize with other little ones for a while, or something. Personally, Kay thought Isabel just missed having a baby around at that stage where they were finally starting to entertain themselves but couldn't move far enough to be an utter nuisance; baby Abigal was very obnoxiously two now, and the newer orphans they had taken were older… Though the Father had said they were supposed to be getting another infant in a week.

If the kid was of an age to play with Renee, it probably would be good for both of them to hang out together.

"I'll talk to you later, okay? I have a few more people I'm supposed to check in with. Don't be a stranger. And tell Kail I said hi."

The food and work networking hadn't really been his idea, per se, but he was the one who had gotten it set up then deeply rooted, after Luc died. Nobody had much, and usually not enough of something or other, but if you pooled it… it worked so long as the community was mostly honest. After the original organizing points, for better or worse a lot of what he had been doing was keeping it honest… and making an example out of anyone trying to cheat their little system – at least, the ones who cheated more than a little. An extra mouth now and again, whatever, but he'd personally hunted down the last punks who thought they could break into someone's home and steal their supplies just because the didn't live all in a group home and fight like the Devils. There were always exceptions, but outright trying to leech off what everyone else was working for when it was not easy to come by… There were limits.

Since last December… So much had changed, or melted back into brutality, or just… Rina liked the phrase 'gone to hell' and he wasn't exactly the type to disagree, all things considered. Melissa preferred to sigh and just say they were a bit deeper again; he liked that better, but was willing to admit it more or less meant the same thing. Rina had been using him as an anchor after losing Luc… and he'd done his best to be that for her. Then he'd gotten deep into this, and into defending people who weren't too good at it themselves who weren't Devils, and…

And somehow, it was May.

He was starting to think he knew literally everyone in the damn city, now. They sure as hell seemed to know him, at any rate – either as a good ally or as some sort of Robin Hood Boogeyman. He at least still had his reputation as 'Chaos' even with the baby on one hip half the time, married and everything now, shit… actually, him getting all domestic had somehow cemented it. Family man and… He smothered a grin. Family man and fuckin' Robin Hood Boogeyman. He wasn't sure if that was an upgrade or demotion from Shinigami, but it sure was funny, in its own demented way.

Everything he had done had been for others' safety or to just keep the peace… and the Devils had backed him. Melissa had backed him, and refused to let him just bury himself in the now… kept him rooted firmly, proudly even, in his past, and looking to the future. It was going to get better damn it, if he had to make it that way himself… And somehow, not running from his past anymore gave him the courage to stand out now as Kasey von Koll and hold his ground. No one was looking for him anymore – no one would honestly recognize him without good reason, because he was showing them what to see.

Well… he wasn't about to go dancing in front of Zechs or people he recognized, but really, no one who hadn't known them was going to do that either.

It had been interesting to see Hilde again, last March; pleasant even, really. He'd almost been worried that she'd resent him moving on, but she'd only been too happy to bounce off with Melissa and chatter like schoolgirls. Well, after she hit me, but how was I supposed to have invited her to the wedding? Not that it had even been much of a wedding. They'd just grabbed whoever was standing closest and run down to have Father Espen finally do it – well, okay, it had been a bit more exact than that, but not by a lot. But it had just felt… right. And it still did. And 'Liss hadn't tried to beat him about the head and shoulders with a rolling pin yet, so he figured she wasn't too disappointed.

He and Hilde had managed to catch up a little, though. They didn't talk about anything really that she was up to, but… that was good too. Zechs was going to go down eventually, whether he stepped down or was thrown, and then… Well, Melissa had made it very clear that despite the 'von Koll' on their marriage certificate, she was going to be 'Maxwell' once the name didn't imply that they might need to run for their lives.

The idea kinda… made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, to use a cliché.

Though Treize sending some cash as a wedding present through her father had been mildly terrifying. He'd managed to mostly forget that Will was mixed up with him.

Shaking his head, he started jogging to the next house he needed to check in on. Days go as they go… He never would have imagined himself doing this kind of social networking shit, though…

oOo


oOo

May 11th 198 – Sunday – Figueira da Foz, Portugal

"Oh, good morning, Sister… Had you wanted to meet for breakfast?"

Relena carefully forced herself to not grind her teeth. She had been pursuing that line of thought for quite some time, so it wasn't too odd of a thought for him… At least, it wouldn't be if he had ever taken me up on it in the past two months or more, or if I hadn't stopped even asking three weeks ago. "I'm afraid not, Milliardo," she returned calmly. "I doubt you're up for the drive."

A pause. "What?"

Another slow breath. Calm… The sea wind blew her hair into her eyes, and she shielded the mouthpiece of her phone from the white noise of it with one hand. "I'm in Portugal, Milliardo." She hadn't been in the same country as her brother for over a week.

He hadn't even noticed.

Another pause. "You're in Portugal." There was a steel in his voice that made his thoughts on her 'disappearance' clear.

"I'm surveying field sites for the amplifier inspections," she informed him coolly. "The initial papers have been on your desk for a month; when you showed a total disinterest, I assumed you wanted me to stop bothering you with the follow-up." Closing her eyes, she bit back the comment that wanted to come out about how he could leave without even having her informed, but he didn't notice when he had signed off the papers for her tour. That she had followed that schedule to the letter, only leaving Belgium a day early to see the mansion Dorothy had set up for herself in Germany.

Vindictively, she wondered how many weeks after she literally moved to another country it would take for him to realize she wasn't next door anymore.

He sighed, and it at least sounded genuine. "I'm sorry, Relena, I've just been-"

"Busy," Relena finished for him. "Yes, your aides informed me."

"Relena…"

"No, it's fine," she dismissed tiredly before looking back over her shoulder. "I need to go… I had just wanted to say hello, seeing as I haven't seen you properly for a month." Almost seven weeks, to be accurate. "Have a good day, Milliardo."

"You as well, Relena."

She hit the end button and sighed again, turning to face the wind fully, breathing deep the smells of the sea… She hadn't realized just how much she had missed living by the ocean. Japan had always felt like home when she was a little girl. Her parents had moved there directly after Sanc fell, and she'd always reveled in the smell of the sharp saltwater… And she had realized, after reclaiming Sanc and standing on the ocean cliffs, that the sea breeze had always been a part of what defined 'home.' She had long loved finding a place where she was just buffeted by the wind, almost as if it could sweep her away… Something about it just made her feel powerful, made her head clear…

"Relena?"

Maybe when all this was over, she could settle back in at Sanc. Newport hadn't been destroyed this time, and while it wasn't as central as Munich, it was more in the thick of things than Brussels… And she didn't want to use Brussels anyway, after her brother had firmly left his imprint on it.

Har har, she thought sarcastically to herself as she turned to see who was calling her. When this is all over indeed. It's nice to be optimistic and all, but don't count your chickens before they hatch… in any case, a few are bound to be useless roosters instead of hens. "Aa, Lin," she greeted with a smile. There is absolutely no reason for me to let Milliardo ruin my day. "It's nice up here, isn't it?"

Lieutenant Lincoln Sobrie smiled back even as he crossed his arms. "If you say so, Lena. It's too windy for my taste."

She grinned in return and closed her eyes as she leant into the breeze, trying to memorize the feeling for the next time she felt down. "How are we doing on time?"

Figueira da Foz really had next to nothing to do with her touring, but this time they had built extra leeway into her schedule, and she was finding it terribly worthwhile. The pressure was nowhere near as high – though she was willing to admit that this slower pace would have been upsetting to her back then. In any case, they had time to get other things done too, such as interviewing further staff for the Munich house. Jake had been reviewing files, calling people and arranging visits since before they had decided on Munich in particular, but her tour was really the ideal excuse to go visiting in person and work through the final steps. They were hitting two or three birds with one stone.

"We're on schedule so far," Lin returned amiably. "We might run a little late in the end, though; I think Jake likes this one."

"That's promising," the princess noted, opening her eyes to look down the rail to see Lieutenant de Leon attempting to watch her and mind his own business at the same time. He was actually doing a surprisingly good job of it too. "It's peculiar, having all these new people around." Jake had slowly been recruiting to replace the men of her guard that Mitchell took with him when he formed up the Strike Force, but now with the move ahead of them, he was taking up a lot more. It wasn't as though she was left alone with them – Lin was here of course, and Jake generally was too – but… it made her start to realize how foolish it may have been to just put herself in the hands of strangers before. It had turned out fine, obviously, but… she was inheriting her colonel's paranoia, it seemed.

It made her miss Noin more than ever.

Though really, Jake stuck closer to her side than Noin had even at her most protective. Comparatively, she was far safer now than he had been in the war… and it may or may not have had anything to do with the small army Jake was assembling for her 'invasion of Germany,' as David was teasingly calling it. He'd proven when Brussels had been attacked that he could work as his own one-man army… though then of course, he had proven why she had so many guards as she did when he was almost killed in Amsterdam.

…She couldn't think of Amsterdam anymore without a flood of emotions in just about every direction.

She turned an amused look on Lincoln as his teeth started to chatter, which he returned with a glare. "How are you not freezing?" he demanded.

"Look at Marsden," she protested, gesturing toward the other Lieutenant that she could see. The others were all out of her immediate line of sight. "You're the only one shivering."

"I'm shivering because it's cold," he argued immediately.

She rolled her eyes a little at him. "Baby. It could be worse." Grinning broadly, she suggested, "I could make you come dress shopping with me and there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it."

"Honestly, I would prefer standing awkwardly in a lingerie store to here right now."

She snickered, feeling her face flush a little. "I am not taking you with me to shop for underwear." He started to roll his eyes, and she couldn't help but add, "You'd tell Jake what kind of thing I looked at, and he'd start showing up with bras as often as he did blouses for me to try." He wouldn't mean anything by it any more than he did the clothes he already brought her – he could be weird like that – but she didn't particularly need him to make her blush hard enough to pass out. It was bad enough when he'd set outfits out for her when she was in a rush, because she knew he had to paw through her underwear drawer in order to grab and pack her clothes but… God, he already knows my taste. Hopefully he'd already been refraining, and would continue to do so.

Lin covered his face with his hands, breathing a few slow breaths before he could look her in the eye again. "I'm not getting into that." He grimaced. "And I hate to say it, but… I think you grew; your pants are a little high-watered."

That made her blink and look down. She thought she would have noticed when dressing, but… Huh. "I haven't grown since I was thirteen," she found herself noting, dismayed. She had a ridiculous number of outfits, and an inch or so wasn't too big of a deal, but what if it kept going? As she was now, she couldn't let her appearance look at all untended to, despite how vapid it might be. Next she might be fighting pimples, a problem she'd never had… "Shit."

Lin seemed confused that it was bothering her. "Relena, it's a pair of pants."

"All my pants are this length," she argued, frowning. "How much time do we have before we head back into the countryside?"

He checked his watch. "About two hours."

"Alright then," she decided, waving at Lieutenant de Leon and turning away from the ocean. "Let's go."

He gestured in hand signals to de Leon as well, then tapped at the communicator in his collar to tell the others… and stopped to blink at her incredulously. "Wait, are we actually going clothes shopping?"

oOo


oOo

L4

Marlé sighed, leaning back in her chair and rubbing at her eyes. "I'm going cross-eyed," she complained.

"Stop staring at it so hard."

She rolled her eyes. "Any other sage advice?"

"Get a magnifier."

…That's actually a great idea. "Do you have one?"

"Yeah." She pointedly watched him for when he would glance her way and realize she was waiting for him to finish; a glare usually had him realizing she was waiting sooner, even if there was no way he could see it. "I think I left it in Germany."

"Germany?" She rubbed at her eyes some more. "Germany where?"

"…Zurich. I think."

She paused to turn and really look at him this time… and blinked. He looked about half asleep on his keyboard, but his eyes were still flicking across the screen. Under another minute's observation, she saw him tilt his head to the left so there was enough room for his right hand to slide under it and tap something out with almost the same speed she saw him type normally with two hands.

She wasn't sure if he was that tired with his body on auto-pilot, or if he was bored enough that he'd decided he wanted to see if he could read something faster if it was at a half sideways sort of tilt. Either way…

"Odin?"

"Mm?"

"Zurich is in Switzerland."

Her pseudo brother stopped and considered that, looking up and to the side. "…I think my stash in Germany is in a box I buried somewhere." He frowned. "Near…. Something tall. With glass."

She tried to keep herself from giggling. He was really tired. "And in Zurich?"

"…#3248."

"Mm?"

"…I'm thinking a safety deposit box, but I'm not entirely sure about which bank."

She smiled and shook her head. She loved moments like this, where he was sorta lazily happy and not thinking in terms of expectation or ability, just… content to give her funny looks for trying to design something for over a week that he could probably hack together in a few minutes. Comfortable enough to do his sorta idle random chatter, not paying attention to his surroundings beyond the fact that she was safe to have nearby.

Her mom hadn't gotten to be quite this comfortable with him yet, but she was starting to get close to it, now. "Are we doing anything tomorrow?"

He yawned. "You need to know how to set up temporary perimeter security… and you need to get better at running from me."

Marlé made a face. "I just don't know why this is taking so long for me to figure out," she bemoaned, looking at all the pieces of tiny cell phone hardware. "I thought I had it, but…"

Odin pulled his head off the desk and rubbed at his face. "The next time I say you're overcomplicating it, you should try… uncomplicating it. Instead of going off on a tangent. Size is the secret of what will or won't work, and you know that." He blinked over at the time on his screen before shutting the laptop. "We need to sleep." With an annoyed kind of sigh, he started stretching his bad leg out.

Marie really agreed, on all counts, she needed to just come back to her project with fresh eyes… and maybe give in and ask after the specs of a few communication devices he'd had before. She wanted to make something… but in the end she still would be, and more examples of functioning pieces would be a good thing to have to understand… and maybe just something that worked in the meantime until she got her thing fully fleshed out?

She really hadn't gotten the kitten as part of the 'be creative' order; that had been random and hilarious, but entirely unrelated. She had started off on this… which was still a mess, but if she could figure it out they'd have, like… the most awesome phones ever by adding something that could piggyback most of the common models. Maybe more of it has to be done through programming, not hardware… That would be the opposite take of what she had been thinking before, but maybe…

…Maybe she'd look into that… tomorrow.

She sighed herself, turning off the desk lamp. "Do you want any help with that?" He usually didn't anymore unless it had been a long day, but they'd also reached an understanding at some point that he found it comforting, or safe, to have her massage the muscles. Well, only the lower leg, of course, the upper would be… just no, that would weird them both out. It had turned into a sort of trust thing to do over the months traveled…

It had almost been a year now, since she'd stumbled out onto the wet street with nothing but the pajamas she was wearing. Some days she'd look out at the viciously wet weather and cringe for Odin even before she saw that his limp was more pronounced that day.

But today had been a fairly lazy day with steady weather, so he waved her off. She nodded in turn… and went to dig their pajamas out of the suitcase. It was something utterly stupid like four in the morning anyway.

oOo


oOo

May 12th 198 – Monday – On the road to Serpa, Portugal

"I feel bad," Dorothy announced.

Relena raised her brows, not entirely sure how to interpret that. "Do you think you're coming down with something?"

"No, the other kind of feel bad," the woman insisted. "I'm getting stressed again, and bored, and I haven't been able to do anything about it."

The princess frowned, flicking her eyes towards the front of the car to see if Jake had reacted at all yet. He was pointedly focusing on the road for now, though, which meant the ball was entirely in her court… and she did her best to give the subject serious thought. Sometimes it seemed like Dorothy was perpetually about to fall into a depression purely for lack of inspired direction; she could only take causes from others for so long before she needed something more.

As far as Relena gathered, before she had come back to Brussels her friend had been in a constant sort of manic depression. It was a wonder Milliardo had tolerated her, to be honest; she had gotten more and more unpredictable and unreliable as time had gone on, with occasional lapses into utter obedience. She was terrified of stepping away from either of the Peacecraft siblings, however, of being alone, even if that would make her decisions all her own… Relena thought it was possibly because Dorothy had only really ever had the illusion of control her entire life, and she had no idea what to do with it now that her relatives were dead. The heiress had rarely been what you could call 'obedient' with her either, but she had known the ins and outs of manipulating those with hold over her, had had a constant play of games and intrigue, half of them made out of boredom…

She honestly believed, knowing the other woman as she did now, that Dorothy Catalonia had come to the school in Sanc purely because it was something different to do – because she was bored. She had talked her grandfather – Duke Dermail – into it by presenting it as an odd sort of espionage, but really… she had just wanted a viable excuse to show off and be one of the girls. It had literally been the first time the young genius had ever attended school, having always had tutors hired for her before, and…

Well, that actually went a long way towards explaining a great deal of her personality and how she interacted with people.

Such as simply turning to someone she looked up to, announcing 'I feel bad', and just expecting Relena to sort it out for her. She respected the level of trust and didn't take it for granted, but really, sometimes… sometimes her friend was so genuinely a child that it was mind-numbing.

"Well, what have you tried?" she asked, trying to find enough of a starting point that she could catch her friend before she realized Relena might be just as clueless.

"Almost everything," she returned, sounding annoyed now. "Reading, cooking, gossiping, shopping, finding random little games… and they do help, but not enough. I want to scream my head off at all these old men trying to outsmart me from my inheritance, but I can't do that, and everything just seems so… boring."

Wonderful. She closed her eyes. How am I supposed to fix anything with that attitude? "Has it ever been this bad before?"

"When you were gone on tour the first time," she returned promptly.

"Okay, what did you do then?"

"Well, eventually I started to wander Brussels in the middle of the night to see if anything was different."

…How is she so deviant and utterly naïve at the same time? What on Earth made her think that might be a good idea?

A little voice in the back of her head pointed out that she'd obviously run out of sensible options, so she'd gone back to more random ones. Which, more than her announcement at feeling bad, was what was really indicative of how badly her mood had slipped.

"Which is how I found the clubs."

Relena debated with herself for a moment before deciding that no, there really wasn't a reason to hold back the question. "Why did you go wander the city in the middle of the night alone?"

"Well, because none of you were there," Dorothy returned with a roll of her eyes. "I'm hardly helpless, and you all were gone and busy, and I couldn't leave Brussels because of your brother making me work for him."

…Meaning she hadn't been able to quit despite hating her position because she didn't have any guarantee of being taken care of until she was old enough to receive her inheritance. Dorothy was willful and impulsive, but she had at least some of her priorities right. Of course, Milliardo probably would have supported her, but that wasn't a stable alternative in the Romefeller heiress' eyes… and considering her brother's history, Relena couldn't actually argue with that logic at all. Dorothy had pushed her boundaries as far as she thought was safe – which was far further than Relena might have ever dared – but she would only risk so much defiance with someone who, in the end, held ultimate power over her.

Just having Dorothy free of the military had done wonders for her mental health. She would never have been willing to stall the elder Peacecraft for time during their mad run to Amsterdam in December, had she still been on Milliardo's payroll; Relena suspected the move to Munich might do her just as much good as coming into her inheritance had.

"And the clubs helped with the stress, didn't they?" asked Jake from the front seat.

Dorothy ran her fingers through her hair, staring deeply into it… into the green highlights. And it was only then, somehow, that Relena realized that she had probably done the dye job in the first place for when she was clubbing.

And she had maintained the dye job impeccably despite having not gone once since she was drugged last October.

"There's something unique about it," she murmured after a moment, still focused on the green strands. "I don't normally enjoy loud music, but there… it's almost like everyone's synced their hearts to the beat. Like no one's just themselves anymore; they're part of it, and it doesn't have to worry about anything. It doesn't have any responsibilities. It's…" She frowned, apparently not finding the words she wanted. "It's remarkable. But…" She didn't look like she was about to cry, but her expression was disturbed enough that it almost made Relena want to. "But it's too dangerous, isn't it?" Looking up finally, she focused on Relena. "That night, it… it could happen again, if I go… So I can't."

With that, she focused back on her hair again, and Relena felt like a horrible person for having judged before, or for having somehow brought the subject up. Again, she was struck with how some days Dorothy could be so terribly young… but how she wasn't a child, whose world you could easily set to rights with a hug and reassuring words.

She looked up to the front of the car and met Jake's eyes in the rear view mirror for a long moment before he flicked his gaze to Dorothy and announced, "I'm picking my own clothes."

She blinked. "What?"

"Your house in Munich is all set up anyway when Lena's isn't, and we were already planning to stay at least one night there with you this week," Jake continued as if he hadn't skipped to the middle of an answer to a question that hadn't been asked. "You pick the club, and I'll see what kind first, so I know the style, but I'm not letting you dress me." His eyes flicked back to Relena. "We'll set it up so Relena has one of her sit still days, so I can sleep in the next morning… But I'll go with you so nothing bad can happen, alright?"

Dorothy's eyes were wide… and Relena smiled as her friend literally bounced.

Hopefully, that really might be enough.

oOo


oOo

Prague, Czech Republic

Lucrezia Noin sighed as she shut her door, and flopped backwards onto the bed she hadn't slept in for at least a week. Life was… a trial, more often than not. Not that she generally minded, but sometimes, all the little things added up.

Sally had somehow been keeping them hidden, healthy, and fed throughout two continents, which had to be some sort of record considering how much underground shit there was. However, in the end of the day, despite the various jobs the older woman had managed to pick up and do like a pro, Sally was a soldier in name only. So while the blonde's hair slowly turned more of a brown from never seeing sunlight – because Zechs knew he was looking for her – as the woman impeccably kept house, it had fallen to Lucrezia to work out how to make this revolution happen.

There was more than one reason why Sally hadn't even begun to properly fight until almost eighteen months after Libra's Fall; she'd needed someone else to run it. And it had taken about that long for Lucrezia to pull her shit together and decide what she wanted – no, needed – to do.

She still didn't properly understand depression, despite what Sally said. In the end, you got tired of crying and found something else to do. Break down enough times, and you begin to resent the man who'd done it to you… especially when you honest to God knew that none of it was your own fault. In her head she'd known that from the start, but it had taken time to convince the rest of her… and in the end…

Well, there wasn't much left in her for Zechs Marquise but contempt. To have fallen so low… she would never have imagined. Maybe he'd just been weak, despite whatever he wanted, but at the end of the day, it was the consequences that mattered, not the reasoning. She couldn't even pity him anymore.

Stealing things from him in her Hilde guise had been downright cathartic. Before that, training Hilde into the lean little psychotic ball of muscle she was had been deeply vindicating, considering how once upon a time the girl had tricked and betrayed Milliardo to try to save them from the Libra folly… the fact that she had gotten so good at it had been an unexpected bonus. Flying Heavyarms was an amazing, fantastic, exhilarating experience… she never would have imagined how different it could feel to fly a gundam…

But she knew she would freeze up the moment she tried to fight him directly in it. She squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her hands around the blanket. It wasn't fucking fair how he could do all this to everyone, to her, and she couldn't even fight back – not truly. So she flew Heavyarms now… but religiously avoided the man she'd once loved.

She'd actually told Hilde and Xutao that it was because she was worried he would recognize her style of fighting. And they either believed that shit, or knew better than to question her.

Everyone was supposed to be allowed their own issues, right?

She sighed and rolled over onto her stomach to stare at the wall. Direct, personal opposition or not, Sally planned for survival, not war, and they were running low on fuel cells. Not just standard fuel cells that they could raid the Regime for either – the really complex, high-end ones that you could keep a village-sized space station afloat indefinitely with three of – one on, two off at any particular time.

The kind that you periodically burned out, when you were using it to run the ultracompact fusion reactor in a gundam.

The kind whose production was strict as hell on because, you know… you could use one to run a gundam. Heavyarms was nothing like flying other MS, it made her old Taurus look like one of those foam kickboards kids played on in the pool when learning to swim, but damn it used up a fuckton of energy.

So she could keep their gundam running for maybe another two months, if she played it right… which meant maybe not letting Hilde and Xu take it out again after all, because they were sloppy. Well, not Hilde, at least. She hadn't let Xu fly it yet because Schbeiker just outperformed him no matter what he tried on the sims, but he had a better concept of conservation than the little spitfire did.

So she had a month, maximum, to figure out how to solve that deficiency. She'd already shaken down the Maguanacs for any assistance there without much gain… despite his nature, Quatre apparently hadn't ever shared the interworkings of Sandrock with them beyond asking for specific tools or help with the more generic sort of tasks. She'd had her boys trying alternate versions of various power sources for the past two months with what had originally looked promising, but now appeared to be a dead end. And she wasn't quite confident enough in their abilities to have them try to take apart one of the cells they did have to try reverse engineering how to make one of the damn things. It was starting to look like that might be their only chance, but she wasn't quite the desperate yet.

Maybe in another two weeks.

If it wouldn't kill one of those space stations, she'd steal one from there. Or out of a colony hub. But she had something against possibly condemning a lot of innocent people to vacuum. It would be a bit in line with, you know, dropping a battleship on the planet. She'd never been the type to go jump off a bridge just because everyone else was doing it.

…Jumping off a building. Out of a fifty-story window. She'd watched the remnants of the satellite backup feed on that stunt as well as hearing Relena and Sally's alternate versions of the story… and she hadn't been too sure what to think. Heero had stabilized by the time she saw him again in Sanc, even if he probably hadn't by the time she brought him to fight Zechs in Antarctica… Then it had been like seeing someone else entirely when he had joined her and Sally on Peacemillion.

That boy had been solid as well as confident, and even… wise, in a way. He'd talked Wufei into staying and helping them, he'd gotten Quatre to successfully use the Zero system, he'd been the calm presence that anyone with half a mind could see Duo needed… He had changed so much as to seem an almost impossible contrast to when she had gotten to know him and Quatre in Sanc…

And yet the young man she had met with a handful of weeks ago was, again, an entirely different person. She supposed she had never known any of the five well to begin with, but just the same… Hm. He'd had someone texting him randomly before; doing so herself shouldn't be a problem. She had no long-term gauge on his personality, really, but from what she had managed to gather so far…

Well, it couldn't hurt to ask. Shifting onto one elbow, she fished her phone out of her pocket and started trying to compose a message that would look innocent in a general sort of way. "I'm trying to figure out how to power your old friend's boat. I don't suppose you'd know where I could find any batteries for the thing?" She didn't actually expect any kind of response, but that should be obvious enough for an ex-gundam pilot to understand… and probably snort at, because she'd just called a gundam a boat. Really… She rolled her eyes and snorted. Really, she should be offended by that… a boat?

It was probably around time for her to admit to herself that she was exhausted and sleep deprived – that she needed to just ignore the bundle of nerves going nuts in her belly and pass out in spite of her next pending meltdown.

She must have followed her own orders for once and begun to doze, because she jumped hard when the phone chirped that she had a new text message. Groaning, she grabbed it, flicked through the unlock sequence… and snorted.

'Do you have any idea how hard those are to get through security?'

No actual question, no annoyance, no poking fun at her, no underestimation… just that dry sort of confidence – maybe some incredulity – as he pointed out a different problem entirely.

Well, it was worth a shot. Idly, she wondered if Quatre knew how to make them. Of course, that involved finding the Winner Corp Heir in the first place… But he'd constructed Wing Zero on his own, hadn't he?

Her phone chirped again and she blinked at it being another message from Heero's phone… and laughed.

'Was there anything else you wanted?' She could just feel the sarcasm, and she totally deserved it too.

'Heavy artillery shells and a pony.' It was somehow so unique and eye-catching to get a smile or amused look from Mr. Perfect-Soldier, as Duo had called him, that she just couldn't pass up the opportunity. The way he'd laughed and played on the phone when he called her a few weeks ago had been astonishingly soothing, she supposed because he just… however confident he'd been on Peacemillion, he'd still seemed broken somehow, and he didn't, anymore.

Chirp. She hit the button.

'…A pony?'

She just started giggling hard at that point, because really, he had apparently missed her point entirely… And she hadn't had this level of amusingly stupid conversation in a while. Shifting again so she could hold the phone properly enough to type easily, she added, just in case he got the idea that she was serious, 'A pink one.'

He didn't immediately reply to that one… and so it was that she found herself drifting back to sleep. She was willing to admit that she might have really needed that little bit of laughter… and sleep was more than welcome.

oOo


oOo

May 14th 198 – Wednesday – Sahara Desert – Eastern Libya, northern Expanded Rabyanah

In retrospect, he really shouldn't have volunteered for this. Someone had neglected to mention how hard it was to run in sand. Or how little or much the dunes could hide. He hadn't felt this flatfooted since his anti-grav simulation… and these psychos were somehow both everywhere and nowhere at once.

Sam tried to react, he tried, when someone slammed into him from behind, but all he managed was to not take the hit as directly as he saw a glimmer of a blade in the moonlight. Fuck, they were used to these kinds of conditions!

I'm not going to make it back.

Despite that haunting his mind, he was far from giving up, trying to fight back blindly, everything shadows and glimmers and splotches of less dark on pitch black as the clouds moved back to hide even the glimmer of moonlight that gave him a chance at all. But just when he was finally convinced he was well and truly fucked, bleeding from a few places, he heard an odd sort of gurgle… and the clouds parted enough to see the silhouette of a taller man standing at his attacker's back, holding his arms to his sides with one arm, the other holding a blade that didn't shine anymore as blood poured from the first man's neck like water out a faucet.

They met eyes for a moment, his rescuer calm and intent as he dropped the twitching body in the sand and raised one finger to his lips in a motion of silence. Next was a sort of 'follow me' gesture… and then the clouds were back.

Before Sam could decide what to do, he felt someone grasp at his shoulder and a heavily accented voice muttered, "Sound barely carries, but a shout will. The others helped lead them away, but we need to go – I know a building nearby to pass time before they move on. No one will count heads or recognize the body until morning." The hand shifted to grasp his forearm instead. "This way."

"My ride will leave with or without me soon," Sam protested in a whisper as he weakly followed.

The man paused. "Where?" Sam licked his lips and said the name of the extinct town, to which he nodded. "There, then. This way." He started off in a slightly different direction than before.

It wasn't too long before walking blind and the confusion and silence was too much. "Who are you?"

"Talk low, don't whisper. The dunes mask sound, but whispers carry further than a low tone." After a moment, he asked, "You're Regime? What are you doing in this hell?"

"Scouting." He tried to keep his stomach from twisting, but it was a lost cause.

The man let out a bleak sort of chuckle. "You found more than you wanted, then. Will the army come?"

Sam licked his lips again. "Once we know enough, yes."

They walked on in silence again for a while before the man finally asked, "If we give you information?"

"We?" He was breathless, though he wasn't sure if it was fear, exhaustion, or the possibility of what his rescuer might be saying.

"My squad was gathered by a man trying to find means of escape; we've not found a way out, yet. He can tell you where all camps are, when."

His heart was pounding. His mind was flying a mile a minute, remembering what he was or wasn't authorized to do… Colonel Mitchell had said he hoped, but didn't expect it… "How many camps all together?"

"Eight," he answered with no hesitation. "Eight in the Sahara between here and the sea, as far as the Gulf. Fourteen total, for Libya – I can't say, further west. Your admirer, he came from one of the two direct west, and there are three more between us and Egypt, Sudan… The veterans, they form the fringe – we catch their seconds…" A disgusted snort. "We starve, soon. The south is more empty, and deadly for it."

Sam took a deep breath. "Your leader will meet with mine?"

The man hummed slightly in his throat. "In eight days? Where I leave you?"

He thought he was going to die, from how hard his heart was pounding. Still, he made himself think, adding together how much time Mitchell might want to gather everyone first… "Ten." He licked his lips. "We, ah… Supplies? Surround the rendezvous, and claim a hidden stash there, maybe? We'll bring crates."

"Mm." Another moment passed. "My name is Vaska." Then, "I want to see your face before you're gone, and see you again in ten nights."

And that was how he got shafted into coming back when he'd been swearing he never would less than ten minutes before.

oOo


oOo

May 15th 198 – Thursday – Munich, Germany – Dorothy's Townhouse

Relena frowned and looked up from her map as she heard Jerome's communicator say that the car Jake had taken out with Dorothy was coming back in. Checking to clock to be sure she hadn't just lost track of time, she set her pencil down and looked over to Lieutenant Moretti. "Rome?"

"They're too early," he agreed, turning to follow her when she stood and walked out of the room. She made it to the top of the stairs before she heard the kitchen door slam open, and stopped there, waiting. She was planning to immediately ask what had happened, but as Jake stormed around the corner and stalked up the stairs, her throat went dry.

She hadn't thought much about them going out, and had been in the shower when they had finished getting ready and left. She hadn't thought it would be such a difference, but… she hadn't thought… and she wasn't entirely sure she could think as heat swirled through her face and down her body…

He looked like something out of a rock star magazine.

His hair was spiked instead of its usual tousle, which made the contrast between all the shades of blonde that sharper. His shirt was high-collared in an Asian style and sleeveless, nearly skintight, black with some sort of deep, bright blue pattern she didn't pay attention to beyond how it made his eyes look electric. And… it took a moment to realize why his eyes sucked her away from the sculpted arms and form-fitting leather pants, the click of his two small hoop earrings in one ear touching as he tossed his head.

I am never going to protest the idea of a man wearing eyeliner ever again. It made the almond-shaped tilt of his eyes suddenly obvious – made him look Asian despite the cobalt eyes and blonde hair. Everything about him exuded power, dominance…

She fought to keep herself from starting to breathe too hard, her whole body shivering from something that wasn't cold. Watching his muscles glide smoothly into his motions was suddenly taking her whole attention…

She had never seen anyone so… so purely masculine sex appeal less than two yards away from her – coming closer much, much faster, fast! – let alone have it be her colonel, her best friend, Jake.

She was too breathless to ask what was going on. What focus that wasn't entirely lost on him was being spent trying terribly hard to not show how weak her knees were getting, despite his irritated beyond belief expression and body language as he more or less brushed past her and continued to storm the suite they had commandeered in Dorothy's house. She turned to watch him go, still confused and gathering herself back up… as he slammed the bathroom door behind him and the water started running.

Slowly, Relena turned wide eyes on her green-haired friend. "What did you do?"

"I- I didn't!" the woman protested instantly, looking frantic. "I mean, we were there! And it seemed like- I didn't think he'd be all- He's mad! I didn't want to make him mad, I just- Well, I guess it wasn't really- I should have thought about it- But he's crazy, why would that-"

And isn't that reassuring. Walking back towards the bathroom herself, she gestured Dorothy after her. "You need to apologize." Now that she wasn't going weak in the knees, she was more or less positive that that expression had meant he was forcing himself to not break something.

"I did!" she protested immediately. "I did, over and over again but he won't even look at me!" If she wasn't there already, the girl was fast approaching hysterics.

The water turned off and, looking close to tears, Dorothy cried out, "I'll never do it again!"

"I should hope not!" He made an aggravated sort of noise. "Just give me, like… Give me ten minutes, and we can go back."

The other woman went still at that, obviously not expecting the concession… before squeaking happily and running out of the room – probably to change who knew what part of her outfit.

Relena shook her head, debating if it was even worth asking at this point, when Jake let out a heavy sigh and opened the door.

She managed to control herself better somehow, even with him bare-chested, a towel hanging around his neck. He still made her heart pick up and thud harder than usual, but… well, she could get past that.

Probably.

He looked so very tired, in a put upon sort of way… but at least the anger was gone. She didn't think he really had it in him to hurt Dorothy, he catered to her like a little sister and he understood how much she really needed him as a stable person she could look to, but apparently the heiress had just discovered one of his limits. "She's not driving you insane, is she?"

He sighed again and reached up to pat the towel better around the nape of his neck. "Only mostly." She saw the glimmer of black calligraphy tattooed on his left side before he dropped his arms again and moved to hang the towel back on the rack.

Still… she frowned. "Did she actually upset you that much?"

His eyes narrowed. "She knew better. And this way, she won't follow through on any weirdass urge again, because she'll remember tonight."

Relena understood… but she was dying of curiosity now. "What did she do?" It was good to know he'd been blowing his own reaction out of proportion, but still.

He snorted, picking his shirt up off the counter and pulling it back over his head. "Honestly?"

"Truly."

Jake looked at her with that sort of sideways tilt of his head he usually did… yet a new heat swirled through her body at it. Shaking his head, he reached up to do the buttons on the side of his collar. "She licked me."

…All thought processing crashed to a halt. "She what?"

He started snickering, leaning back against the door. "Yeah… my thoughts exactly, Princess. My thoughts exactly."

She started chuckling helplessly herself… Then outright laughing as she realized that he might have been blowing it out of proportion to make sure Thea never repeated her actions… but he'd also felt the need to come home and wash.

"I know what you're thinking," he argued after a moment, tilted cobalt narrowing, "but I don't think you appreciate my situation."

She just laughed harder. In some ways, he was just as bad as Dorothy. He really, really was.

oOo


oOo


Progression


oOo


Thoughts, questions, theories? So much of this chapter was the final pieces to get the ball rolling in all courts… And I really don't think 16,200+ words makes up for the shitty timing, but hopefully it at least helps.