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Chapter Six
Altered Insight
Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed.
– Howard Nemerov
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Relena's rediscovering old friends, and dealing with the results is making her reconsider a lot of her life; Noin proves that she's running ahead on the same track. Meanwhile, things are more confusing than ominous in America, Marie is a trouble magnet (or has good taste?), and literally everyone is trying to make Mitchell's life difficult.
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Edits:
Geography and formatting tweaks, but nothing significant.
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June 23rd 198 – Monday – Sahara Desert – Libya
"Mitchell?"
David woke at his name, then frowned when the first thing he saw was Charel's face; he was positive it hadn't been his voice. However, before he could look to see who had called him, the Frenchman met his eyes solidly and swore, "I didn't know."
His stomach dropped as possibilities flooded him.
"Damn it, Razo, calm down," Cassidy snapped. "Colonel, it's not the apocalypse, just a runaway. The kid with Charel's group and Layson took off into nowhere on one of the last camp's demarked birds. It's upsetting, but hardly even qualifies as a loss – they took one of ones we hadn't even started to look over to put back on the registry."
"I didn't know," Charel repeated sharply. "Charlie said he'd look after him and get him something to eat, and Cory can look after himself – I thought they slept somewhere else." He met David's eyes again. "I just found the note and went to Lieutenant Foreman immediately."
Mitchell sighed as his brain fought to catch up. That was… Great. The urge to sigh and just roll over would be bad for moral. "I believe you," he assured Charel, who looked like he was about to start ranting about his noninvolvement. Sitting up and glancing at his watch, he looked back to his second. "Ignoring the humane end of it, material losses?"
"Minimal, like I just said. They were smart about it. The plane was out of the newly acquired; we don't even have the serials on it."
He caught the second part of the message in there. There's no way we could track it. Charel's terror and indignation were fading into a purely wretched and miserable expression. Of course. He'd been tentatively talking about taking Cory in himself once this nightmare was over with, asking about the legalities of it…
He debated if he cared to even ask about the note the kid had left, or at least if doing it might help Charel.
It felt callous, but he just… didn't see how it would make a difference at this point. "Good luck to him." This was chaos already; they'd sort out what was sortable as time went on, maybe find the guy who must have flown it, because there was no way the thirteen-year-old civilian had. Shaking his head, he muttered, "Sorry, Razo."
"…Me too."
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Sahara Desert, Southeast Libya – Adashia
Vaska grinned broadly as they came out of the plane, looking surprisingly different but still the same, clean and in fresh clothes. "Hey, was starting to wonder when we'd see you. First thing we worked on once we got here was making sure we could dock you guys okay, but it's been a few days."
Cory wondered if he looked different too… but he knew he looked different even clean now compared to clean before, so it didn't matter much.
"We wanted to be sure you hadn't gotten hung up somewhere," Charlie returned. "And the chance didn't fall into our laps right away either, so we waited a bit. In the meantime, it was safe and easy food for a few days, and some work for the cause, for me." He started to head for what were obviously the doors to the rest of the base, and Cory followed.
Vaska walked alongside Cory and ruffled his hair like he sometimes did. "You look good too, kid. You got someone to cut your hair, huh?"
When the woman had offered, he hadn't seen any reason to tell her no. It was strange to not have in his eyes anymore, but nice. He tilted his head a little to each side, and Vaska chuckled. "Good to have you back, even with what it means. I think Robby's missed you; he's been a bit weird."
He couldn't help but smile a little at that, which made Vaska's smile widen a little too. He'd missed Robby… though now he might start to miss Razo.
"Who'd you get to tell Razo?"
"Jalee will in a day or two," Charlie explained.
Robby had said they needed to be sure Razo's reaction at Cory being gone was genuine, but that it would be cruel to let him think it hadn't been planned for too long, because he would worry. This way, no one had to lie more than they had to already, or do anything they didn't want to in the first place. His family was gone… and Robby had said if they were gone, then he could stay with him.
He wondered if Robby was still Robby, though, or if he'd changed yet. Cory was fairly sure he was going to, but he didn't know how much. It would be okay, he was still him… just not Robby.
There… was music.
"What's that?"
It was… haunting, lilting… yet there was something happy about it too.
Vaska laughed again, not something Cory was used to seeing so many times so close together. "Apparently, Robby's played violin all his life, and left the thing here."
"That's Robby?"
He laughed more as he took the lead, walking faster. "He's been playing it practically day and night since he found it – really complicated stuff too, from memory. Seems like he brings the damn piece of wood to life. That, or it's putting more life into him, I can't make up my mind. He's… bright."
"Bright?"
Cory walked faster, only keeping pace with Vaska now instead of running ahead because there were too many ways to turn, and he wasn't sure which way the music was coming from. Definitely not Robby anymore. He couldn't wait.
"Obil'nyj," Vaska returned, then blinked and seemed to remember he was trying to speak English. "He's… better, not dark. Not happy, but…"
"Hopeful," Cory suggested.
Vaska shrugged. "You'll see."
Charlie seemed doubtful, but curious, and soon enough they were there. Cory ran to him and threw his arms around him like he sometimes did, interrupting the song as the other brought his arms around to hug him back with the violin and all… and laughed.
He smelled like his mom's laundry and cinnamon and car oil. No blood smell, or sweat or ash.
He'd forgotten what everything was supposed to smell like, until Colonel Mitchell had come. Fruit, and clean, and metal and machine and cloth and exhaust and girls.
Some of the women soldiers and the medics had had girly-smelling stuff.
It had been unbelievably cool.
"It's good to see you too, Cory."
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Dachau, Germany
"Relena!" Olivia Dontelaine exclaimed as they came in, standing and smiling delightedly. "It's been a while! I hear you bought Sarracenia."
Olivia… certainly didn't look fifteen anymore. But neither do I, Relena thought wryly. She'd had her hair bobbed short before, while now the thick auburn waves were a ways past her shoulders. Her make-up was different, brows fine, and there was a distinct air of sophistication about the other young woman that the princess didn't remember. She seemed taller, or maybe just slimmer… or it might have just been the difference of clothes. The black, high-waisted slacks with buttons fashioned over her abdomen and crisp white shirt with black vest were very… sharp, yet in an almost carelessly casual way.
She found herself wanting the outfit almost immediately, though she could do without the delicate-looking stilettos.
"It's good to see you too," Relena returned, moving forward to pull her into a hug. She hadn't seen Olivia since she had evacuated her students from Sanc. "You hardly look the same, your hair's lovely this length… What, pray tell, is Sarracenia?" She smiled as she pulled away. "And if I did buy it, did I at least get a good bargain?"
The redhead laughed delightedly. "I'd say! I'm not the only one who's grown; your own hair looks better short, I think, and your face has lost all its baby sweetness… I don't know that you've grown taller, much, but you probably have some height left; no Peacecraft or Weridge have been under 5'7 in at least three generations. As for Sarracenia, now." She frowned. "Had the plaque been stolen? Damned vandals… My grandfather maybe six generations back christened the house you bought near Munich Sarracenia; his first daughter used to keep a garden of them on the grounds."
Jake laughed. "Only the ladies of Romefeller…"
Olivia blinked and looked around to the blonde man, and smiled brilliantly when she set her eyes on him. "A pretty trap for the foolish and unwary," she added. "It's a shame my family had to let go of it, but I'm glad it might see some use again."
"It's a lovely compound," Relena confided. "The top floor especially."
"Could I come see it sometime?" Olivia asked immediately. "My grandmother said it was lovely, and I've seen pictures, though I imagine you've changed it…"
"I'm sure we can arrange something," Relena agreed. "This is the head of my guard, by the way, Colonel Jacob Miller." Tilting her head at the man curiously, she asked, "Only the ladies of Romefeller what?"
He grinned broadly. "Would keep carnivorous flowers and boast of it."
…He likely had a point.
"Pretty carnivorous flowers," Olivia argued immediately, smiling herself. "Though I'm not sure how well they might grow in the weather Munich has these days."
Relena smiled. It was a nice thought, but flowers? "I haven't the time to keep a garden, nor the inclination, I'm afraid."
"Too true, with your schedule," Olivia agreed. She seemed to remember something suddenly and gestured to the aide who had been sitting in an out of the way chair near a different door than they had come in. "In any case, you've gotten the masses to happily grow for you, and something far more useful than flowers, I must say." She smiled as she sat back on the little loveseat she had been on when they arrived… and began to remove her shoes. "You're far too practical for something so frivolous, I suppose. A hound, however – that's hardly useless."
Relena paused, reran the last few seconds of conversation, then when that turned up no explanation, the last minute or so. "I'm sorry?"
The woman Olivia had sent out hurried back in, so many things in her hands she must have had them already set aside to be so fast. The redheaded noblewoman thanked her warmly as she grabbed the hair band she held out first, pulling her hair into a messy ponytail as she slipped off her second shoe with one bare foot. "Well, I enjoy the social niceties as much as the next person, but you've business to be about, and it's rude to keep a guest waiting." She pulled a pair of thick socks apart as the aide gently nudged aside the coffee table – it moved as smoothly as if it had wheels, somehow – and set the discarded stilettos on it as she dropped a pair of hiking boots at her lady's feet. "Thank you, Natalie. Everything arranged out back?"
"As arranged as they get," the woman returned cheerfully. "I've some eggs and omelet makings ready to go in the pan if they've the time, too."
"Lovely. Have you eaten?" she asked suddenly, looking up from tying her shoes with surprising speed to look first to Relena, then to smile at Jake. "I haven't the slightest idea how, but Natalie can keep three frying pans cooking without the slightest hint of char. I can manage enough for the rest of your men to breakfast too, if you'd like, but I still don't know how much time you set aside for this."
"We don't need to leave for another ninety minutes or so," Jake noted, sounding amused. "I'm afraid we were only expecting those social niceties, though."
Olivia blinked in confusion as her hands finally stilled, focusing fully on Relena again. "You aren't here for the yearlings?" At the princess' confused look, she covered a sheepish smile with one hand. "Oh dear, then that was a bit rude of me."
"Apparently I ought to have mentioned that Duchess Dontelaine runs a kennel," Jake added to Relena. "I didn't think too much on it, honestly."
"Except that my best litter to date just finished their training three weeks ago, and requests have been flooding in," Olivia explained. "I just assumed…" Again, that sheepish smile. "My apologies."
"It's fine," Relena assured her. "You just caught me by surprise. To be honest, the idea never occurred to me but," she looked down at herself a moment. "Well, I'm not wearing anything white, at least. What kind of dogs?"
The other woman's smile was brilliant as she went back to lacing her boots. "Komondors."
Relena didn't have the slightest idea what that meant, but Jake blinked and grinned. "Big boys, then; I couldn't find a mention of breed before, or anything about an active litter."
"I'm not breeding dogs during a food shortage unless I have customers willing to wait from conception to pup," the duchess informed him firmly. "It's not as if they are Pomeranians; each pup eats as much as a child the same weight." She shrugged as she stood and picked up the thick flannel shirt Natalie had dropped on the arm of the couch. "But you can't pick your litter number and some people always back out, so I let it out that I had a few open to good homes." She smiled broadly at Relena. "Had something of a boom more recently though, with all your farming projects. The wolves are more desperate now than ever, after all, so I've three more litters on the way."
Three litters? Relena found herself wondering suddenly how many dogs compiled a litter; her parents had never allowed pets of any kind. "That sounds…"
"It'll be a handful," Olivia agreed with a wink. "Exhausting, yet utterly adorable; I'll regret it before I'm halfway through and have to hire on an assistant or two, I'm sure."
"So… breakfast?" Natalie prompted.
Jake looked to Relena, who shrugged a little. "Let's make it lunch," he decided after a moment. "We thought we'd keep your mistress company until eleven forty or so, so if we could plan to eat around eleven? We have four more with us."
"Sounds good; I'll go get the details from them."
"And while she puts everything together for me, I'll lead you out to the kennels," Olivia finished, moving towards the door Natalie had run out before and gesturing for them to follow. "They're worth seeing, if nothing else; we can retire back inside after introductions, if you find them disagreeable."
"I wouldn't mind seeing them," Relena agreed easily. It was, at any rate, turning out to be a more interesting morning than she had initially planned, and that was generally a good thing.
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Marlin, Texas – The United States
Hilde rearranged her scarf so it was warmer somehow, maybe covering more of her face, and tried not to look back at the readout again. The levels through the whole area had been confirmed as stable – a little too high to be comfortable with, but not dangerous. Yet.
We need more data before I can let myself fall into obsessively tracking every single rad of rise and fall, she told herself firmly. She wasn't that deep into the fear yet, and it wasn't warranted yet. They had taken all the possible extra precautions in any case.
The colonist in her wanted to scream in horror at the fact that no one besides the three of them seemed to be noticing the increasing levels of radiation coming out of this small deserted town, and that when they had even pointed it out to the few locals they'd found, they were given entirely blank looks. She understood it was Earth and all, and that the space-born equated knowing the local rads at all times in every direction to being the same as knowing whether or not you had air, but… she had never realized how potentially massive the culture gap might be until this. These people didn't regulate their air, their radiation, and they barely did something that could be called water regulation. The mindframe was a luxury of living planetside that she didn't think of all that often anymore, but apparently Adam had initially tried to tell those nearby, and he had only received uncomprehending looks and shrugs. She wasn't convinced they had any idea what radiation even was.
Hilde had known the ins and outs of all radiation safety protocol, how to understand the meters and calibrate the sensors before she could even read. These people just…
They're just trying to survive and make do. They understood enough that they didn't want to go near there, and they listened when we told them they needed to evacuate and possibly never come back. They weren't idiots, and on some level she knew she believed they were real, sensible people; they just knew nothing about the dangers the spaceborn took in with their mother's milk as a simple fact of life.
The knowledge didn't change the fact that she'd just been slammed with a kind of culture clash that she hadn't even thought existed, and it was still making her world spin.
This abandoned little village was letting out enough radiation that it might rival a nuclear power plant. That was creepy without even diving into the possibilities of the original source, like, say, nuclear warheads in the bunker stationed underneath the town, which Adam had confirmed the existence of before deciding he needed assistance. Bunker security was not, after all, your usual infiltration mission… and even if the amnesiac gundam pilot had the kind of specialty explosives that could break in, there was a chance that such a heavy-handed approach could make things worse.
Hilde really hoped it wasn't a leftover doomsday device that had finally been triggered. They still stumbled across those damn relics from the pre-colonial era periodically, and they were touchy as hell. Adam hadn't been able to get more information than the fact that the bunker had listings for a total of six nuclear weapons on site… and the type was nonspecific. Whatever was going on, considering the timing, it was more likely that people were involved than it was that the damn missiles or whatever had set themselves off – fucking ancient technology – which was when Adam had decided to back off before even confirming the perimeter. The fallout result from an accidental nuclear explosion would be pretty bad, considering the current condition of their atmosphere; all six blowing would probably have distinct effects for the other continents, and if one went off, it was likely to pull the others into a chain reaction.
If this was intentional, and someone was fucking with the weapons to shoot them somewhere specific – say Brussels or other key cities in retribution for the loss of North America – the results could be devastating. And what kind of psycho would think messing with old nukes was a good idea? The violent crazy-ass kind, who, by lack of the action so far with steadily increasing levels of rads over the past few months, was also a moron who didn't know what the fuck he was doing. If anyone was down there, they had to be radiation sick, and probably had been for a while.
It was far from an ideal self-assigned mission, but Adam wasn't sure if anyone else bothered actually looking through the satellite scans for America anymore; at least, the ones that could read more than pure visuals. Hilde could totally see that, and kinda wondered what kick had gotten him looking at it in the first place. He'd said even if he trusted the Regime to handle the situation delicately enough, were it brought to their attention, they probably didn't have the manpower with everything going on in the Sahara; Zechs was born and raised dirtside and might dismiss the importance of the whole thing. He'd agreed when Chang brought it up, though, that if this ended up being over their heads too, they'd bolt and do just that anyhow; Peacecraft had gone and taken over the fucking world, he could bloody well take care of it and deal with the repercussions if he fucked up again. They were doing this out of concern for the planet, not his damn reign.
And that seemed to just… be what Adam had been doing on his own. Like Chang had tried to argue before, he was rogue, but his intentions were noble, and his methods damn efficient. He thought being with an organization might weigh him down, and while Hilde kinda doubted that, she could see where he might get the idea. She'd seen the kind of shit Duo was capable of all on his own, after all… And that was the other thing.
He didn't want to be called Trowa; said it wasn't him. Said he didn't really remember much of anything before she and Duo had found him at the circus, a month or two before everything with Libra came to a head. He also wasn't the shy boy she had met then, or the silent one who had let her hold his hand until she passed out and his suit was repaired on Peacemillion, after Duo had run back out to battle. Knowing what she did about him, she was a little surprised, looking back, that he had bothered… but she had appreciated it more than she could say even now. She'd been half convinced she was going to die, despite Duo having pulled her ass out of the frying pan, and while she'd understood he had to leave, it had taken everything she'd had to not wail. She'd been trying to hold it until she was sure he was too far away to hear her and come back when he was needed on the battlefront, when Trowa had slipped in, sat down next to her, and gripped her hand. She'd stared at him in surprise, and he'd only given her a steady look… but scooted his chair a little closer when she smiled.
It had only been five minutes, probably, before Sally's pain killers started to work their magic and she fell asleep, but the contact had… made her feel a little less like the latest martyr. She'd never had a chance to thank him; she didn't really remember the next few days, and by then everything had all gone down the shitter and everyone was scattered.
She had wondered what he was doing, after he gave them the tipoff about where Heavyarms was hidden, but hadn't put any more thought to it beyond the fact that he was alive and untraceable, like the others hopefully were. Upon arriving in Louisiana, Xu had wasted no time in informing him that they had never lost their unexpected tail of Heero Yuy in their run across Eurasia, and that he was currently in contact with their group. Adam in turn had been surprised, then amused and mildly curious, but that… was it. He didn't ask for more information, or offer any, or want to know if they knew about anyone else… like it didn't even occur to him.
So at least for now, she decided not to tell him about Duo. If she ever got the chance to get back to Amsterdam – which was looking less and less likely as time went on – she'd let Duo know, but this Adam guy… he didn't even remember the war, beyond the last battle. This wasn't the clever guy that had conned Colonel Une and slipped information to Duo in his cell, or any of the other stuff Duo and Sally and Noin had told her about. It was the confused kid they'd found on accident at the circus… only, well, not such a confused kid anymore.
She glanced back at the readout on the radiation monitor again, sighed, and picked her binoculars up, switching them to night vision. She hadn't seen anyone moving down there yet, but she wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not, especially since she knew Adam and Xu were running around down there trying to scout out the area while the lighting was crap. She was still trying to decide if it was a testament to the shitty setting, their skill, or her own possible lack thereof. There was a reason she kept wanting to stare at the instrument she could read clearly and knew couldn't trick her eyes.
She was pointedly thinking in terms of radiation levels, instead of the fact that they might be sitting on top of a nuclear apocalypse. Even if it wouldn't kill the rest of the world, it would certainly be her damn apocalypse…
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Near Coburg, Germany
"This is magnificent!" Olivia exclaimed, staring out the window. "I've never gotten to see them so close; they're bigger than I had realized…"
Somehow, the duchess had talked the princess into letting her come along on the surveying tour for the day. Jake didn't really mind – the entire exchange had been rather amusing in his opinion – but Relena appeared to be mildly confused, or at least flustered. She seemed unsure of exactly how to handle the other young woman. As far as he'd gathered on her history, the enthusiasm Olivia was showing wasn't new to his friend, but the sophisticated intelligence and logic surrounding it was stirring up some mental turmoil.
The attention she was trying to subtly favor him with was also amusing – apparently to Mai as well as him, seeing as the Australian major kept giving him suggestive looks behind the redhead's back. He was pretty sure Relena had been at an angle to see those too, but had evidently decided to pretend she was oblivious to that aspect of her new… friend or follower, Jake wasn't sure. At any rate, at least Duchess Dontelaine was appropriately subtle; anything more would have been downright embarrassing.
It was getting more difficult to keep a straight face, though… and he was losing his confidence in the idea that Mai could keep from laughing through this, let alone something more awkward. He was debating telling her that if she didn't stop it with the looks, then she wasn't getting the damn dog she'd half begged to be allowed to have on the compound grounds, but that would end up with her teasing him more in private.
And he would deserve every moment of it.
The colonel checked his watch briefly. They were ahead of schedule at least, despite the unexpected meal and guest. Olivia was, if nothing else, quite efficient when she decided she was doing something. If it flustered her so much, Lena could probably stand more exposure to the other noble just to get used to it, if not learn how to exude charisma as a technique to add to her own arsenal…
~~oOo~~
"Could I accompany you today?" the duchess asked hopefully, wiping her hands on a hand towel she had tucked into her back pocket as she stood from her crouch. "Under two hours is hardly any time to catch up, and I had been wanting to see the progress with your amplifiers for some time."
"I think not; it's hardly a tourist site, Olivia."
"I'm hardly a tourist," Olivia protested smoothly. "I may not be in my family's inheriting line, but as a member of the nobility I have at least as much responsibility to the people as Dorothy Catalonia." The fact that Relena periodically had Dorothy travel in her place did not need to be stated; they both knew the other had caught the implications in the statement. Her face was smooth and open, however, with none of the petulance or manipulation of the words themselves showing through.
"Any visits including Dorothy have been planned, and nothing had to be changed to-"
"Your car seats eight, though; no more planning than that required, and I know better than to get in the way, Relena."
"…I'm afraid I don't understand why this interests you," Relena admitted after a long moment, apparently not coming up with sufficient polite argument to that rebuttal.
"It interests you, your Majesty; it interests you very much, which means it is every bit as important as my brother has been suggesting it is, perhaps more. When a queen cares deeply for a matter, it is wise for others to follow her lead."
"I am no longer a queen," Relena returned, nowhere near as coldly as Jake might have expected, having heard this topic come up more than once. "I resigned my position to Treize Khushrenada, and shortly after his death, Milliardo dissolved the United Earth Sphere Nation entirely. Even my status as a princess of Sanc is title only, as my brother currently controls our state, much as yours does your own family assets."
"But I am no less a duchess for my lack of power, and you were no less a princess before Zechs Marquise reclaimed your country from the Alliance," Olivia countered serenely. "Monarchy is no temporary commitment of election. The dissolution of a nation does not strip titles so long as it is remembered, and you have long stood for the ideal that we are not to abandon our responsibilities simply because we have been beaten back. I learned that from you in Sanc, Princess, if you must insist on the lesser title. The imposition of your brother's regime does not mean we are not what we were – merely that the power table has shifted yet again. You were once coronated Queen of the World, and as both a citizen of this world and a lady of the Dontelaine house, I would like to follow my queen's lead, if I may." She bit her lower lip gently. "Please, Relena… I had worried you might have forgotten me, after all this time."
~~oOo~~
That last little guilt trip had been the perfect touch; Olivia had to know outright that she had been forgotten, but now that Lena had remembered her, she was going to use that lapse to her full advantage. It was brilliant, really… and he could tell that his princess was already dissecting the tactics for later use. After all, the tricks that worked on you tended get your attention. In any case, it was easy to see that Olivia had been selected from the many Dontelaine daughters to attend Sanc for more reasons than her close age range to Relena.
They had only been out of the car for maybe three minutes when the whole group seemed to collectively blink. Despite the history of the past few years – or even his own life perspective, with how young he had come to certain aspects of his life – he was surprised to see a girl that appeared to be maybe thirteen hop down the last few steps of the ladder up to a machine into a pair of waiting boots with practiced ease. For a moment he waited for anyone else to start on their way down, but it quickly became evident that she was alone… which was the part that made it odd, in the end. She was probably older than she looked, but he hadn't been under the impression that the Chinese might risk sending someone they thought might not be taken seriously, let alone leave them unsupervised, which meant she was far more than she appeared. She didn't have one of the usual nametags of the workers with her title of assistant.
That fact was amusingly reinforced when someone who was labeled an aide walked by and asked something in a questioning tone, and the girl just kicked a loose clod of dirt at him; the man hurried off as she snapped back a retort.
Mai snickered. Oh dear. He really needed to learn Mandarin.
The girl snatched up the clipboard she'd evidently left at the base of the amplifier and started to write before turning to see them… and blinked owlishly. She wrote quickly and dropped the board again, then settled her bare feet deeper into her goulashes and began walking towards them, taking off her gloves and shoving them in one pocket. "Sorry!" she called, grimacing slightly. "My temper is short, and it was a stupid question." Holding out one hand, she offered, "My name is Yu Zi Lao; a machine deeper in was having problems beyond what I've been taught, so my father switched with me and asked me to meet you for him."
Relena smiled and grasped her hand. "Your father?"
"Engineer Kailì Lao. I could… lead you to him?"
Her accent was near nonexistent, but she appeared worried that she might pick the wrong words. At Relena's accepting nod, Mai launched into a more complete response in Chinese, and the girl nodded and pointed before gesturing for them to follow. She kept an easy conversation with Mai as they walked, completely unaffected by the presence of the noble women. Before long she stopped and gestured to one mechanism, saying something else to Mai, who nodded. "She doesn't want to call out to him," she translated. "Incase he's in the middle of something delicate. He ought to be done or at least about to check if anyone's below in a few minutes, though." She smiled a little. "Apparently he hates being yelled to, so he makes it routine to check for someone waiting."
Olivia tried to see up the ladder, but her angle was wrong, and she flicked her gaze to another. Biting her lip a little, looking a touch embarrassed, she focused on Jake. "Could I go up one?"
Of course she had to ask him – the fact that he was actually the correct person to ask on this sort of outing not withstanding. Jake glanced to Relena, who only looked faintly amused, before raising an eyebrow at the duchess. "How's your balance?"
"Um…" She grimaced. Jake sighed, debating a polite way to tell her no.
"I could… take you up that one?" Yu Zi offered, pointing to the nearest amplifier besides the one Engineer Lao was apparently in. "Normally it's only two people, but… I'm light." She focused on Jake, evaluating. "If you can watch her, I could take you."
Lena's expression was easygoing; she didn't mind, evidently. Mai gestured that she had this under control, signaling Vaughn to range back in more of a scouting position, so that if trouble were to find them – entirely unlikely – they'd know sooner. Frustrated but willing to play along, Jake nodded to the engineer's daughter again and started to walk after her, while the duchess made a happy noise and followed.
There was hardly any danger to be had out here, and Mai was more than capable in any case; there was a reason he'd chosen the major. Olivia might well prove to be an important ally in the long run, and he'd readily admit that the view from above the crops was pretty fantastic.
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Relena shook her head slightly at her bodyguards, who all grinned back at her, shrugging. In all honesty, Dorothy wasn't much different; and for all that she could tell that Jake was a little annoyed, she was pretty sure no one else present could… and it was mostly exasperation, not actual annoyance. He wouldn't get annoyed unless the redhead purposefully invaded his space after he made it clear he didn't appreciate it, and whatever hand he kept on her to make sure of her balance up above, he was already planning that amount of touch. Once he resigned himself to contact with a stranger, the man was implacable.
She wondered if Mai or any of the other new guards had noticed his overall aversion to being touched, yet. It had only been a handful of weeks, and it was only being allowed through that normal barrier he kept that made her realize how little the colonel actually cared for strangers or acquaintances. She was fairly sure Lin had noticed, and Jerome likely had known before his assignment to her guard, but it wouldn't surprise her if Cassidy had never realized before he left for Mitchell's Strike Force.
"Ah, Miss Darlian-Peacecraft!"
Relena looked up and couldn't help but smile at the very casually upside down man grinning at her. "Engineer Lao, I presume?"
"I should hope so," he returned jokingly. "Would you like to see something unusual? I understand you've been up a few of these before." He winked.
The princess laughed in return; it had been far more than a few, at this point. She considered for a moment and nodded, signing to Mai and Marsden as she went to the mat at the foot of the ladder and bent down to unzip her boots. There were weight limits on the structures, and as Yu Zi had noted, usually only two were allowed up at once. Initially, Jake had insisted on being the one to go up, but once he had a feel for them and the rules inherent in not doing damage to the machines, they had convinced a few techs to let just the two of them up. Eventually he'd agreed she was proficient enough that it was no true worry, and she'd climbed a number on her own with various technicians, but she had yet to speak with one of the two designing engineers that had come with the tour.
In any case, she was armed and fairly proficient with what she carried, now. It wouldn't come to that, but Jake had gotten her deeply into the habit of contingency planning.
Lao righted himself and settled on the edge of the trapdoor she was approaching with his legs hanging down, and shook his hair to right it. It looked as though it just brushed his collar for length, and was kept in a multitude of braids she was more accustomed to seeing on a man of African descent, not Asian. Humor snapped in his dark eyes. His tan was a deep bronze that bordered brown, but that was the case with nearly all of those working on the amplifiers. "Yu Zi didn't give you any trouble, did she?"
"None whatsoever," Relena reassured him. "It's nice to meet people who don't see me and scatter like a bright light's been shone down."
He laughed at that. "Nothing scares the girl, for better or worse. She has a startling capacity for mouthing off when she thinks she can get away with it."
"I might have witnessed a bit of that, but it was lost in translation," the princess agreed in amusement. "She made one of your technicians run away."
Kailì snorted. "Her mother has been teaching her marvelously; good practice for when she snares a husband."
She briefly wondered if she heard that right, then snickered. "Is that so?"
"A woman's not worth having if she can't manipulate her husband as she pleases, and no man would be good enough for her unless he could stand up to it," the engineer explained cheerfully. "A relationship is half dead if one does nothing but cave to the other."
She grinned more broadly. "I'll keep that advice in mind."
His eyes sparkled. "It's good advice for growing girls, I think, whether they take it so literal as Yu Zi or not. You're only a few years older, forgetting the difference in mind and heart. Even if you are not looking to snare one for yourself yet, Miss Darlian-Peacecraft, be aware of the potential husbands trying to snare you."
Relena tossed her hair a little at that; she wasn't too far, now. Idly, she wondered if the word 'snare' was so strong in his vocabulary for any particular reason. He was missing his daughter's lack of confidence in English, but it was definitely still not his first language. "I have a man with a gun for that."
He laughed delightedly at her response, pulling his legs up and pushing away from the trap door so she would have ample room as she finished the last stretch of ladder. "That you do. I was surprised not to see him; I was told he was blonde, but there were only ones with dark hair below. Did he dye it?"
"No, he and Yu Zi are taking a friend up an amplifier for the first time as a favor; you might be able to see them from up there."
"Ah." He was out of sight now, but she hard him stand and delicately step over to the far edge of the planed dish that was the head of the heat amplifier. After a moment he noted, "I can see three people and colors, but little more; no one but Yu Zi could offer to take two up at once, though." There was a note of smug pride in his tone.
"How old is she?"
"Fifteen, now." He shrugged. "And I think full grown, though she is upset when I suggest it. I don't know why; her mother is a wonderful height, but most girls who want to compete with boys are disappointed to tilt their heads when they meet eyes with their competition." He tilted his own head to one side as she pulled herself up to a kneeling position on the deck and carefully closed the trap door behind her. "Do you need a hand?"
"I'm fine," she assured him, testing her balance as she got her feet firmly under her and rose to a standing position. "What did you want to show me?"
"Ah, yes." He walked back around her and into the opposite direction he had gone to look for Jake and his daughter, motioning for her to follow. "A few things. There were three panels here that broke in an odd way, maybe hail; you can see more of the inner parts of the pane, so I can explain more of how they work. A few techs told me you were interested in such things. I have been trying to decide if I can fix some for half an hour now, and I think some I need to replace. It's over here." He looked over his shoulder at her briefly. In a quieter tone but still a normal range voice, he added, "I also wanted to give an apology from a friend; he would have liked to meet you, I gather, but it was too risky for him to visit this continent."
At the change of tone, she debated if this was something the engineer felt sore about, perhaps, or if it were actually significant in some way. Outwardly she stayed calm, but her heart began to beat fast. "Anyone I know?"
"He said you never met directly, but you were rather close to a number of his allies in the war, and that you considered each other allies by the time Libra fell. He fought both armies in that battle."
Butterflies were fluttering in her stomach now and she followed Lao quickly. The only people who had technically fought both armies were those who had been aboard Peacemillion, and the one who would have been actively fighting and welcome to asylum in China to escape the price on his head… "Wufei?" she murmured softly, close enough to the engineer's back that he would hear her.
He turned to face her and smiled, nodding. "Engineer Wu Long. He said he wanted to pass a message to you, provided I could do so privately. Discretely." He smiled and squatted to run his hand over one of the many pearlescent tiles. "This is one of his designs, also. Beautiful, isn't she?" Lao shook his head a little, looking wistful. "The boy has such talent with machines… and leaving the war behind for a high calling such has mended him very much."
Relena focused on the layers and perfectly placed mirrored pearl tiles as the realization really sank home, and found herself smiling. That was another of them confirmed as safe, then, and he was making a staggering contribution to society. She kept track of the competition between the engineers, as she still offered bonuses to the best increases in efficiency; Wu Long's name was behind nearly half of the successful designs and new innovations. A few more pieces clicked too… such as why she had never been allowed to meet the engineers before the two that had been recently sent to Europe. China was keeping their asylum to him secret, but holding up their bargain far better than if they had tried to be open about it.
"That is good to hear. I have only heard back from one other of his old allies, so you can tell him Duo is well, if you like, and that his identity rests safe with me."
Kailì Lao looked up at her and nodded. "He said it would, as long as you heard the news alone." He shook his head a little, braids swaying. "But his new life was not the message; just a way for you to trust. He was convicted of a crime that he does not greatly care about, but he says it is important for you to know the truth."
"What crime was not also laid to the other four as well?" Relena asked, confused.
"The murder of Treize Khushrenada, Miss Darlian-Peacecraft," the engineer muttered, lowering his voice even more. "It was never committed. Treize lives."
oOo
oOo
June 24th 198 – Tuesday –Sahara Desert, Southeast Libya – Adashia
There was a certain casual artistry to be had when crafting false identification. I learned that I had a natural talent for it when Instructor H first recruited me, and slipping all the details together had been fulfilling, in a naughty sort of way. I had had various false identification papers since I was four or five and my father began to worry about someone trying to hurt the Winner family through his heir whilst I stayed with this or that sister and her family, but they had always been presented to me finished and perfect. Maybe I had picked up on it so quickly because I picked up the habit of looking for the flaws, drawing comparisons, when I was bored and stuck indoors… but I had always loved my L1 passport, being Katriel Dimardin, for sentimental reasons. My brother-in-law there had always let me play with his construction MS in the asteroid fields Tamelia had inherited. Of course, once I had proven I had some skill in one, my other sisters had let me do similar things, but Anton had been the one to pull me into his lap in the cockpit and teach me when I was five. Piloting was the first thing I really believed I might be good at, growing up, and Anton had indulged me even when I was told it was an inane hobby for a future executive.
I had cried when Tamelia told me it was time to go back to L4, and she had had to pick me up and carry me onto the shuttle while I sobbed my eyes out. I got over it, of course, but it was a while before she invited me back; I think she was worried our father might think she was trying to steal me away from him for her poorer little region of business. Prestige mattered little among my sisters, but she was considered to have married so 'beneath her' that they expected her to try to snatch up opportunities for advancement that the others thought too low to contemplate.
For years, in some little part of my mind, I'd wished and waited for my father to maybe pull me into his lap like Anton, only at his desk, and show me the papers he spent so much time on. But whenever I started to ask him too many questions about something, the following week another sister would be there to take me home with her for a month or two.
I wondered, sometimes, about how happy I might have been if Tamelia had taken me. She was one of the ones who had decided to forgo artificial birthing and the risk of pregnancy, so she might have even been able to convince our father that I needed a stable mother figure where she could focus on me as an only child. But at the same time, I know Tamelia. She probably tried, and didn't tell me when the gambit failed – yet another attempt by my sisters to stem the fracture of my relationship with our father.
In the end, it had been Kilani and her husband who started taking me through the ins and outs of business and strategy, not Zayeed. It had been Amilie who taught me to weave through the dance of politics and social manipulations, Datania who drilled me in Arabic, French, Italian, and Japanese, Courtney and Frederick who always insisted I remember to take time to play with their children, develop hobbies… Tricia who taught me how to be cutthroat yet genteel at the same time and rewarded me only when I was clever and cunning. Our father never had the time, and the rest of them passed me around like the latest accessory. I adored my sisters, but by the time I was twelve I was so sick of the way they accepted everything and simply told me to give Zayeed time, that I began turning down all their invitations and staying stubbornly in my father's line of sight. When nothing changed and my sisters only continued to come and go, and he seemed to make time for each of them for business reasons… I began to wonder if I had any worth at all.
As I grew older it became more and more clear that it had been our mother who had cared, and our father who was more interested in what use each of us had for the Corporation… and as supposedly incapable as I had been, in spite of my sisters' coaching, all of my own worth was set in the future. I was an heir, after all, and the man's older children had been more than willing to teach me everything I needed or wished… apparently there was no reason to bother putting in the effort just because I was his son. So I had decided to give the man something to tip off the bloody burden of his responsibility towards me and actively tried to be rebellious… and at every dismissal of 'youthful indiscretion,' I had only grown more and more jaded.
When I ran away at thirteen and managed to be taken hostage by the Maguanacs, I suppose I had just given up entirely. Even after Rashid literally knocked some sense into me and I went home, I never regained any faith in my father; I just decided that my life didn't need to revolve around my family anymore, and it was time to strike out on my own. The fact that Zayeed didn't even notice I was hiding Instructor H on a nearby asteroid and funding the construction of a gundam under his nose, that I was training myself into the ground every moment of the day in preparation for war, had only driven the point home further.
Considering how much it hurt when he died, I suppose on some level I had still hoped he would one day see me instead of his obligations through me, and understand my perspective. That we would one day reconcile and be the kind of family I dreamed about as a child. But when I went home, all the fractures had deepened, and when a sister who had always been too busy with schooling to see me had died along with him, defending his actions… everything had shattered into a million pieces.
I took a deep breath and tried to redirect my thoughts back to the papers and plastics I had been able to find. I probably needed the time to brood and sort through my emotions after so long of being terrified that if I stopped bottling myself up I would get us all killed, but I didn't like to remember who I had been while I feverishly built Wing Zero. I could never decide if those memories made me want to sob or laugh hysterically or scream myself raw, none of which I really felt the need to indulge in currently. In truth, I had mostly sorted myself out over that before I went to Sanc.
No, now I needed to find a way to cope with the time spent carrying Heero across the globe while he actively contemplated blowing a hole in his head every other week… coping with the fact that every time I thought he'd finally do it his sea of emotions swirled into worry and pity and resolution. I needed to decide if I could really live with everything that had happened during those sixteen horrifying months with Cambyses, and if I couldn't, what I might be able to do in order to repent. I seemed to be more balanced and level-headed than I had even come close to hoping for… perhaps I had inherited Heero's talent for hopeful pessimism sometime along the way. What I had done willingly in the colonies was arguably worse than what I had been forced to in the Sahara, but it had been so much more… personal. Visceral. It was one thing to know there had been thousands of people living in that exploding structure, and another entirely to watch the light die in a woman's eyes as she bled out.
…Whoever the fuck Quatre was or would be in the future, I had already decided I could never be Robby again. I needed to bury him and focus on those that had been saved… because unlike when I had slaughtered entire colonies, I had saved people with my actions this time. I had thought I was breaking myself into smaller pieces than I could ever hope to pick up again, but all things considered…
…I wanted to know why it seemed so easy to just keep walking. I was worrying myself sick, waiting for the shock to wear off and the other shoe to drop, but I was starting to wonder if it would. It felt like finding Heero again was the first step in understanding this all. He had seemed better, before Cambyses took me… different. Considering how drastically I had been forced to change over the past seventeen months, I couldn't help but wonder if he had continued to stagnate or not.
I had enough in the way of materials and templates that I knew I could craft five nigh flawless passports for a few different countries, six if I was careful, maybe seven if I made no mistakes along the way. Of course, there were twenty-six of us here, but Adashia had been well stocked when we had abandoned it, and it had escaped notice from the scavengers until now; the men had also started to scrounge through the city's ruins, and it was hard to say how much they might find. Whoever stayed behind could live comfortably for up towards a year, and I couldn't imagine it taking more than two or three months to secure solid new identities for them so they could return to the real world without suspicion.
I had old contacts I could revive… I had sisters who had escaped scrutiny because they had been off the records since they married, if not before. Obvious monopolies had a way of upsetting small business, after all, and all of us valued personal privacy very highly. Many of them wouldn't have had to change anything about their lives at all in order to escape Peacecraft's notice – I could smugly imagine his frustration at realizing he could only successfully hunt down four or five of them before all but two of those had slipped between his fingers. If nothing else, our father's indulgent neglect taught us to look after each other, and I had no doubt that if they found a hint of me, they would only be too happy to sweep me away as well.
If I would let them, at least.
I might have considered it before… but not anymore. No, now I had a score to settle. I had wanted my own life and I had gotten it in the end, for better or worse, and I was going to damn well finish what I had started, or else what was the point of any of it? They would understand that… and I had no doubt that they would back me, especially now that Father was gone. Zechs had done his best to ruin us out of spite to me, and he had ruined the world and so much else. Once I managed to establish safe contact, first with my sisters, then Heero, the Maguanacs, and the ones who had gone with Colonel Mitchell that still wanted to follow me… I was still only one of the forces moving against him. If I was brutally honest, I doubted he would survive another two or three years; I didn't have nearly as big of a grudge as others.
Whatever Zechs might think of the past two years, this was still only the beginning.
oOo
oOo
June 26th 198 – Thursday – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Marlé grinned at the view, more than pleased with her perch. Amsterdam was an old city, and from here she could just see the ports as well as a few of the larger buildings around the city and the general ramshackle sprawl – it had character. Most of the cities in Europe did, and she was finally getting used to the crazy designs in place of the smooth grids she was used to, but they often seemed to each have their own flavor. She hadn't fully made up her mind about Amsterdam yet, beyond that she liked it.
Now if only Leah hadn't broken the camera.
She hadn't liked the notion of Odin leaving her behind, but she'd understood, and Moira Srona had already been planning on taking Anne and Leah on a tour around western Europe through the end of the Cambyses campaign. Israel was a little close to the action, after all, and given his reputation, Dr. Srona imagined he might have less reputable patients in greater numbers than he was used to… patients of a more violent disposition. His sons didn't live in the area, and apparently he and his son-in-law had decided to lock down the Srona's house while they sent the women out of town and stayed at the Moore's condo. As Moira had explained, they would rather come back to a ransacked house than deal with the possible trouble of desperate men… and apparently it had been time for a vacation anyway. Marlé was welcome so long as she didn't mind sharing a bed with her five-year-old granddaughter.
She didn't mind, really, and the family was good company, but… I guess I'm not really used to that kind of company, she decided. That and since she had started to travel with Odin, she hadn't had a reason to put up with company when it bothered her… And since she was only really used to Odin and her mom anymore, she hit a point where she had to get away from the doting mother, grandmother, and spoiled little girl. The older women didn't seem to mind so long as she wasn't gone for more than two hours without making some kind of contact, which she was grateful for. She would have lost it by now if they had tried to smother her.
Since said five-year-old had managed to snatch and drop the camera, however, Marlé had decided to take it with her, with half a mind to find a nice rooftop and see if she could fix it with what tools she had in her pack. That had turned out to be a lost cause, though; she was in entirely over her head. She was used to phones now, but the electronics on this were different… but the view was nice.
At the same time, her stomach informed her it was about time for lunch, and she'd forgotten to find something before trekking up here.
Making a face, she tucked what stuff she'd laid out around her back into her bag and made her way down. This was one of the worse neighborhoods, really, but she'd decided to go see the square where the riot had happened before looking skywards. In any case, she supposed it meant the food was on the cheaper end too, which was just as well. She wasn't wearing anything nice enough to catch notice, and so long as she kept her mouth shut they might not think she was a tourist – just someone from out of town. It gave her a pretty good opportunity to people watch as she figured her stuff out… and she was glad to see that despite the place's reputation, the locals didn't seem to be that depressed.
So much for the veracity of the news, but she'd already known that.
There hadn't been anything about Dam Square that stood out, not even a sign to say what had happened last December. She wasn't sure what she had expected, really, but there wasn't even any damage that showed through six months later. It was a very ordinary place on all counts… which only made the whole thing worse, she supposed. If it could happen and disappear so completely from here, chances are it could happen just about anywhere else too.
"Hey! Kid!"
Marlé stopped and blinked down at the man in the khaki militia uniform yelling at… yeah, at her. Hm. Okay, I deserved that. Most people didn't appreciate people walking along the tops of walls; she just hadn't been thinking. Smiling apologetically she carefully dropped down and trotted over to him. "Sorry," she muttered sheepishly in German. "I'm a little lost, and, um…" Thinking quickly, she slung her pack off one shoulder and yanked the smashed camera out of the side pocket. "I was hoping I might see a sign for a repair place." It was as good of an excuse as any, and she might as well get something useful done.
The blonde man's expression turned from irritated to exasperated as he considered first her earnest expression, then the very broken gadget. "What did you do to it?" he asked, sounding a little amused. "Did you use a hammer?"
She snickered at that herself. "Might as well have; my little cousin managed to drop it off the balcony. I think I can save the files on my own, but I was hoping I could maybe get it fixed. It's my grandma's."
He shook his head a little in disbelief, muttering something under his breath in Dutch that she couldn't really follow, before gesturing for her to follow him and starting to walk. "I know a good place near here, if you want. They'll tell you if they can do anything about it before you spend the time or waste money. The price is good too."
"Thanks." She moved after him. "Sorry! You're not going out of your way, are you?"
"I haven't started my shift yet anyway," he dismissed. "My partner and her husband own the place, so I might as well meet her there. They run a good business; good people."
Marlé nodded amiably enough, glad to have avoided the actual issue.
oOo
oOo
Marlin, Texas – The United States
Adam still couldn't make up his mind if they were getting good signs or bad ones.
It had taken over two days to scout discreetly through the area and find the bunker entrance without being found by any possible surveillance…. surveillance which it had turned out didn't exist. He wouldn't want to take back the caution even if he could, but this was getting increasingly weird.
The entrance was sealed.
That on its own indicated that this was more accidental than anything, but at the same time, it didn't make any actual sense.
It was sealed from the inside.
And there was no doubt about it, the radiation was definitely coming from inside.
"…We're going to have to break it open and go in totally cold, aren't we?"
He didn't look away from the door, but he let the ironic amusement he was feeling leak through his tone. "Right in one."
"Joy."
He smirked. "Well, hardly a 'hallelujah.'"
Hilde snickered. "Shit, just don't get me killed, that's all I'm asking."
He raised both brows, glancing back at the woman. "That's a lot to ask."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm sadly used to that attitude, you realize."
He grinned at that, then shrugged, motioning at the door. "I'm confused by this, honestly."
"Comforting, Adam. Very comforting."
"I try," he returned blandly.
She snickered again, coming up to stand next to him, her hands deep in her coat pockets. "Thankfully, I'm still a daredevil… and this is weird, but it could be worse."
"Definitely."
"You're sure it might not be a better idea to just ditch it, though?"
He sighed. "Any projections I've managed to get done for the effect of even one nuclear blast here vary wildly with the atmosphere as is, let alone six. With the storm patterns and the fact that so many people are still alive out here, not even going into the fact that we might be able to come back to the Americas in force in a decade or two… the risk to us is still reasonably low, from what we've found."
She sighed and nodded. They were both silent for a minute or so before she shifted her weight. "What are the chances of other entrances that aren't sealed?"
"Very likely," he admitted. "But we're not going to be able to find them, from what I could work out of the design. They're supposed to be secluded and hidden… and there's enough collapsed structures here that we could look for weeks."
Hilde nodded again as though she expected that response. "I kinda figured. You can see what's leftover from a big fire that swept through a while ago… maybe a hurricane or two. In some ways, we're lucky we found this one as fast as we did." It was his turn to nod in agreement. She sighed exaggeratedly. "Well, let's go back to camp and get our last guaranteed night of sleep, then. If there's no cameras, we might as well figure this shit out while it's daylight."
"Yeah."
oOo
oOo
Burgas, Bulgaria
"That," Noin noted happily as she dropped her bag on the bed, "Had to be one of the smoothest operations I've been party to since… since I turned seventeen."
Odin nodded agreeably, moving to check the bathroom to see if it had a bath, more out of habit than anything else. He hadn't pushed his leg past its capacity for a while now, but he found himself always planning for it. On some level it still stung that he had to plan around such a major weakness, but that was the same part of him that used to be upset when he failed to successfully die in the course of a mission, so he didn't take it very seriously. In any case, it was habit and contingency, knowing himself and his available resources, not a need. He could make just about anything he needed of a situation if it came to it, but he'd gotten to like the idea of actual preparation since he had first fallen to Earth in Operation M; it didn't take as much trouble and effort as he used to think.
It had been a relatively good week, all things considered. Xutao Chang and Schbeiker were in America… with Trowa, which was something to look into. It made more sense why the pattern of evasion had seemed so familiar, when 'Adam' and Xutao had been running from Treize's men last year. Lucrezia had refrained from giving him the details, but he could only admit to curiosity, not true interest. Trowa would make sure that any problem further west was handled effectively, or he would make it clear that he couldn't. Even with his memory gone, Odin doubted that aspect of the other pilot had changed.
"I want to shower before we go get food and act innocent for the evening," Noin announced, pulling a clear bag with various bottles in it out of her pack. "With my hair this long, though, I take more time than I used to, so you can go first."
"I prefer to wash before sleeping," Odin returned easily, dropping his own bag on the bed and undoing the laces. Recovered or not, it helped him sleep easier to loosen the muscles as much as possible. "Tell me if the hot water runs out early." He hated it when that happened, and since this room only had a shower, it wasn't so easy as with a tub. He would likely take far longer than Noin, no matter the length of her hair.
"Suit yourself," she returned cheerfully, not looking up as she gathered a change of clothes. "Good work today, really. I won't be long." She grinned broadly when he nodded easily again and strode purposefully for the bathroom, locking the door behind her. A moment later, the sound of the water started.
He liked Noin; she didn't bother trying to press social… politeness. She showed courtesy, respect, and genuine emotion, and didn't try to fit anyone into a mould that suited her better. He had noticed it in Sanc, but had assumed it was at Relena's request and her own need of his cooperation in the kingdom's defense. Now that he had spent more time with her, he could see that the easygoing acceptance was a part of her personality.
It was nice to not have any… expected 'role' pressed on him.
Retrieving his laptop, he settled at the desk provided by the hostel and began making sure no trace of his illegal presence had been found on the base he had visited earlier that day. He thought his work had been nearly flawless, but he had learned the hard way that a single inconsistency could unravel an entire plot, and caution had a way of balancing his skills. There was no reason for the Regime to suspect his infiltration, but since he had the time, there was no reason not to be sure every step had been perfect.
oOo
oOo
Amsterdam, Netherlands
"Danke," Marlé muttered again as she ducked in the doorway of the shop, biting back a sigh as the militia man followed her. She intended to do exactly as she had told him, but still, she didn't like to have someone who had seen her act inappropriately at her back. It was doubtful, but there was always the chance that someone might recognize her despite her longer blonde hair and how she had aged, if they thought about it long enough. Despite being almost thirteen, she still hadn't started her period and hadn't grown in any way except maybe height, and that was a definite maybe. Her mother had said that fewer people would be likely to draw similarities between her and her photograph once she started to gain a woman's figure, but there was little sign of that happening anytime soon.
A brown-haired boy a little older than her looked up and smiled when he saw her. "Goedemiddag."
She smiled at him, stepping forward with Moira's camera, and decided to go with English; most of the locals here were fluent, and she wasn't sure she would be able to go over the technical details she needed to on what she'd figured out in German. "Hi. Could you take a look at this for me?"
"Of course." He focused on the man who had come in with her briefly and raised his brows. "Melissa took Rina to work; she won't come back before going to meet you."
He cursed and turned quickly to leave. Marlé watched him go, debating if she was bothered that he hadn't said anything, before glancing back at the boy. He shrugged and rolled his eyes a little, so she smiled. "I'm Marlé."
"I am Amos. Welcome to New Renew. Sorry for Daron; is be rude." Picking up the camera, he frowned. "What…"
"I so had nothing to do with it," she protested immediately.
oOo
oOo
Munich, Germany – Sarracenia
Relena looked up as Jake's phone rang, glancing back in the direction of the bathroom. He was taking Dorothy out to the clubs again tonight, and was getting ready. When he didn't immediately come out at the sound of the phone, she reached over and picked it up, looking at the caller ID, before smiling and answering it. "Hello, David. It's good to hear from you."
"Hey, Lena," her old bodyguard returned tiredly. "You're having a good evening, I hope?"
"Boring, but productive," she returned, standing up. "You sound exhausted."
He snorted humorlessly. "'Exhausted' was a few days ago. There has to be a better term for what I am now, but I can't seem to think of one."
She smiled sympathetically as she moved into the bathroom. "I'm sorry to hear that." Dorothy was up at one of the vanities, doing God only knew what with her make-up, and Jake was nowhere in sight, but the door down to the master suite was open. Starting down the stairs, she asked, "Will it be over with soon?"
He sighed heavily. "Not as soon as I could hope, but we're making progress. Listen, Lena, it's wonderful to hear your voice, you're a balm on my soul, but-"
"I'm looking for him," she assured her friend. "You called his phone, David, not mine, there's no need for the flattery."
"I would much rather be there with you," he returned earnestly. "I'd be lounging on some couch in that decadent house of yours."
"Well, you're certainly welcome to, when you have the time." Moving out of the walk-in closet, she didn't see anyone, but her colonel's shoji screens were shielding his corner of the room. "Jake?"
"Just a moment," he called back quickly. "That David?"
"The very same," she agreed warmly. Hitting the mute, she added seriously, "I think he could really use some company, Jake, he sounds awful." She pressed the button again; hopefully Mitchell wouldn't have noticed she had done it at all.
The blonde colonel moved around the screens in the same form-fitting pants he wore each time he took Dorothy out on the town and an undershirt he was still tugging down to his waist. He held out his hand for the phone and she handed it to him before heading over to her nightstand, forcing her movements to be casual. There was something to be said about that outfit… or really about Jake in general, if she were honest… but it struck her as a poor idea, especially now. She'd gotten over her silly little crush on him before; she could work around the newer attraction worming its way around her chest. If her bodyguard had noticed it yet, he had the grace to not be obvious about it in turn. He had been very good about that the first time around too, for which she was grateful. It was only worse this time for the fact that she knew him far better.
In any case, if he was almost finished dressing, she could lock him and Dorothy in the bathroom in a minute and change into her pajamas; she still had work to do, but now that the sun had gone down there wasn't any reason to stay in the pantsuit she had worn all day. She could change and make some tea for herself before finishing the last of the authorizations on today's work requests, then maybe take up Mai on her offer of watching a movie. Something good and mindless sounded perfectly wonderful, and for once she didn't have to be up early tomorrow. She hadn't really considered movies in some time, but Mailin had been more than happy to remind her of 'the values of periodic vegetative states' and offered to find something sweet enough to chase all the menfolk on the base away. Mu had claimed disinterest as well, but Relena had found that in her free time, the American woman tended to bury herself in massively-sized paperback novels, not anything from the more popular media.
She liked to have Mu at hand when she was working; there was a calming sort of kinship about the other woman's presence, and they settled into a comfortable silence. She greatly enjoyed Mai's company too, but in an opposite sort of way; the Australian woman had a way of distracting her from morose moods the way Jake could, and firmly believed in indulging for the sake of stress relief. She didn't slack off, but she certainly did her best to live it up too. Mai didn't much believe in doing anything partway.
It was good to have other women around again. The shift in company wasn't something she had entirely realized she missed; or at least, that she hadn't realized she missed so much as she truly had.
The conversation between the two colonels quickly turned to Japanese, but that was normal, for them; neither of them liked to have personal conversations where they might be heard, and they spoke the Asian language fast enough that you had to be truly fluent to follow it, which she wasn't. Jake had teased her a little for that, because having lived in Japan for so long growing up, she really ought to know more than she did, but she couldn't change the past. Focusing on her vanity mirror, she considered her hair as she listened and tried to see if she could catch just a word here or there. It needed a trim soon… idly she debated if she ought to try a different style. It was getting blonder and blonder the same as Jake's was doing, with how often they had been out in the fields and even on top of the amplifiers themselves…
I still needed to tell Dorothy about Wufei. She was the only one she felt she could share the information with, at this point, but the opportunity to talk to her without Jake nearby had yet to come up, and she didn't trust the other woman not to react at least somewhat theatrically, so Jake needed to not be in even the same building if she could help it. He had a way of putting things together from the most minimal details.
She wanted to be able to trust him with this kind of information the way she did everything else, but the fact was, the risk that he might give the information to her brother was still relatively high. He might not, so long as she asked, but as well as she knew him now, she also appreciated how excellent of a liar Jake was; she would hardly have any reason to convince him to keep a secret for her in contrast to his loyalty to a childhood friend. He had been more than willing to flout Milliardo so far, but he believed in the reasoning and necessity perhaps even more strongly than she did.
He had helped Zechs actively hunt the gundam pilots after Libra fell, and she knew exactly how resourceful her colonel was when he set his mind to something; she was not about to open that can of worms if she was anything less than perfectly sure. She couldn't guarantee he wouldn't be able to do something to Wufei despite the lack of proof and the distance and the pure political nightmare it would be. Jake, by his own confession, knew how to kill politicians in broad daylight and get away with it, let alone an accused criminal with a bounty on his head.
And Treize… That still made her head spin. She didn't even want to think of what Jake might think of that. The general was easily his oldest companion, second only to his dead family. The Khushrenadas had taken him in as a child… Treize had once trusted him to look after his lover and hidden daughter on a regular basis. If he had been left out of the loop on this, he would feel betrayed, and she didn't know whose loyalty he would choose if she wanted to ally with Khushrenada. And if he already knew… If Jake does know about Treize…
I need to talk to Dorothy just to try to sort this all out, if nothing else. She didn't dare trying to write it down to organize her thoughts the way she normally might; either Jake would stumble across it on accident or notice she was trying to hide something and seek it out. She needed to decide on her options before that could happen.
"Iie."
His tone was more… final than it usually was when he spoke with his friend.
"Iie," he repeated in the same monotone, launching into another string of sentences in the same voice, stopping… then seeming to cut off whatever Mitchell was saying with another retort, his voice growing colder.
They're arguing.
It took her a moment to discern why that notion seemed so ominous. She had heard the two men disagree before, sometimes vastly… but never had they sounded upset with each other, the way Jake did now. It also wasn't like him to give David a hard time when he was feeling so down…
Quickly pulling her pajamas out of the drawer, she headed back up the stairs and went to stand by Dorothy. "Can I talk to sometime tomorrow, just you and I? Maybe we could spend some time in the sauna." There was a distinct lack of clothing involved in that idea that barred Jake any entry.
Dorothy eyed her shrewdly, nodding. "That sounds wonderful. It should be fine so long as it's before you go have dinner with that redheaded bitch, anyhow."
Relena rolled her eyes, but really, after the past few days, she ought to have expected that. "Yes, most people don't have dinner during the morning hours." At this point, she was just ignoring the insults directed at Olivia, and seeing if the Romefeller heiress would lay off if she didn't get a response. Knowing the other woman as she did, Relena doubted the tactic would work, but had decided it was a good preliminary action in any case.
"I won't wake before noon; I'm going to be out all night."
"Thea, I don't need to leave until after five. I'll spend some time with you before that, I promise." She was fairly sure that it really just boiled down to base jealousy, and it was a good idea to try to smooth the blonde's ruffled feathers even if she didn't need her confidence. "Promise me you will, please?" A touch of humility often worked wonders.
She only shrugged, but she looked happier than two seconds ago. "I promise."
"Thank-you." After another moment's deliberation, she moved into Dorothy's rooms and shut the door to change. She wanted to just get her work done with already, so maybe her head could stop spinning long enough that she could try to tease apart the latest puzzle set in front of her. Maybe I ought to give in and let Mai try mixing me a drink. It was starting to sound like a good idea if she still wanted her mindless evening.
oOo
oOo
June 28th 198 – Saturday – Marlin, Texas – The United States
"Ready?"
"Well, they haven't blown us all to kingdom come yet, we might as well finish," Hilde muttered tightly. Sweat was dripping down her face.
"Stop being a bitch," Xutao snapped. He didn't look any better… or feel it, by his language.
"Stop being an utter dick, first. I maintain my bitch skills with pride, motherfucker."
"Let's just open it," Adam cut in tiredly. The two rebels complimented each other's skill sets well, but over the past week he had seriously begun to wonder at the wisdom of pairing them together under any circumstance. They managed to get any job he set them done smoothly, but he was at the point of waiting for the bickering to escalate into outright violence. If it weren't for the fact that nothing had actually happened so far, he would already be questioning Sally Po's sanity; apparently they were regular partners.
He wasn't sure if he was amused or not over how he was positive that Chang wasn't lying at all when he told him those stories about crap Hilde had done to piss him off. To hear him talk, it must be her favorite hobby – and to hear her talk, it was decently high on her list of priorities. He was beginning to think they had been paired together just for the sake of comic relief, but he was still debating if that was in line with Sally's brand of humor.
Having just spent hours trying to sear, blast, and hammer their way into the bunker entrance, however, he couldn't blame them for short tempers. He would personally like to lay down and sleep for a few hours, but he didn't like the notion of how vulnerable they would be if he did. This was dangerous enough already; they might as well finish what they had started.
"On three."
It actually took far more attempts than a single count to three, so he supposed it was closer to a count of twenty, and at one point he got frustrated and took the blowtorch to it again, but after another thirty minutes of leveraging, cursing, and grinding more grime into their bodies, they forced the hinge open enough that they were finally able to swing it open. What they saw inside, though…
"Oh my fucking God, you've got to be fucking kidding me…"
oOo
oOo
Southern Sudan – Blue Nile Base
"True, but if it had been set up like that, then my route would have been this way," Odin explained patiently, pointing to a different entrance on the schematic. "You'll need to do more than that."
The tech grimaced and nodded, muttering under his breath. "Shit. Alright, thanks… give me a bit and I'll see what I can work up… I'll call the General when we have something new for you to try to break. You're supposed to stay for another few days, right?"
"Three," the ex-pilot agreed, standing up fully and flexing the individual muscles in his right leg as he settled the whole of his weight back on it, favoring his left to test its strength. It was still fine, though it was sore after his last hour's work. The security measures on this base were stronger than Noin had credited them, which she would be glad to hear; he'd been able to make his way in, but it had taken more effort than they expected. Still, there were gaps they could reasonably fill, if they were pointed out.
He left the room without saying anything more to the tech who was already happily ignoring him, staring at his diagrams while biting one lip. Hopefully that was a 'thinking' pose for him, and not the lost and frustrated, frantic one that emergency room occupants tended to get. The two could be… more difficult to tell apart than the other expressions he had begun to master.
In any case, it wasn't really Odin's problem. Noin would be in one of three places; she would want to hear what he had encountered through him. It was difficult to say exactly how long this base would continue to stay hidden with the Regime recovering the northern Africa land routes, and for all that its location was a political hotbed, that didn't mean that Zechs might not make an attempt on an obvious enemy stronghold. Additionally, despite the physical isolation it had in common with the Carpathian base, this Blue Nile stronghold was not hidden, only assumed empty; and it had nearby populations.
As Noin had noted, it was either perfect or a nightmare waiting to happen, and she was determined to keep it from becoming the latter. The situation was… reminiscent of Sanc.
"Wicked…"
"Aren't you glad she's on our side?"
Odin paused in the doorway of the room they had the simulators in, considering the four young men raptly watching the performance display readout. The cockpit shell on the machine itself was closed with someone inside.
"Did you think she led our battles because she couldn't perform?" asked a man in the more casual upper echelon Maguanac dress from where he leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the corner. His tone was dryly amused.
That answers my question. Entering the room quietly, he veered wide of the group and went to stand by… Abdul. The taller man nodded at him slightly but didn't otherwise alter his casual stance, so he nodded back and crossed his arms, settling himself to wait. Noin had said she hadn't even met a most of the recruits here, since they were mostly brought in by the Maguanac Corps, and had mentioned the she might have to show off a bit. The air routes had remained open since Libra even if the amount of traffic had drastically reduced, but with the rise of the Cambyses, the land and in some areas even the water routes through the Sahara had officially closed down, which reduced the ways to sneak through significantly.
"I hope that limp is Raquel's fault," Abdul murmured conversationally after a moment. "It would be proof of at least some promise."
That… was annoying. He had hoped that that might go unnoticed; it made him wonder if Abdul's eyes were sharp, or others had simply chosen not to remark upon it, instead of not noticing. "It's not as bad as you worried."
"That is good to hear." He gestured towards the rest of the room. "It's been quiet, lately, so it has been harder to say how they progress. We're getting the occasional stragglers from the north, but nothing close to home for some time. When you've laid down such a large amount of preparation, but it remains untried…" He shrugged.
Odin nodded. Considering the crowd, he asked, "They can pilot?"
"I cannot claim to be an instructor so fine as Lucrezia, but I've honed the skills of more than a few pilots in my time," he returned in a pleased tone. "They aren't bad; enough to be worth letting them try themselves on a battlefield by now. The blonde there, Celise, I've considered sending to Lu, but I need her here to challenge the others. Her father, Errane, coaches her and two others nearly every moment he can spare, and he was one of the best that came from the L4 cluster with us six years ago. I let him choose his students, while I take them all; the heart he puts into it shows, and the family blood runs true, it seems." He adjusted his glasses slightly, looking down. "I have another three I started to work with not long before Libra who could possibly match Master Rashid now, and twelve more between the two groups."
Odin refocused on the group and singled out Celise; with her close-cropped hair, she hadn't stood out from the men. She probably would as soon as she spoke, but he had yet to hear a female voice.
"If you don't mind my asking, Lucrezia mentioned you have an apprentice? Not her words, but the little she said…"
He had never really considered Marlé in those terms, but it was accurate enough. "Yes." He didn't offer anything more than that, and after a moment, Abdul grinned and nodded respectfully before focusing back on his students.
oOo
oOo
Amsterdam, Netherlands – New Renew
"It's so cute!" Melissa exclaimed as she shut the door behind her and went to flop on the futon next to her husband.
Duo grinned back at her, wrapping one arm around her. "He's old enough for a girlfriend, right?"
The Dutch woman snickered. "He's innocent for your average fifteen-year-old, but I should hope."
"I don't know if I would say that," Duo mused. He didn't entirely agree with the 'average' age for some things that seemed to be a given in the Netherlands. "And anyway, from what I've heard over the past few days they're far more interested in picking each other's brains than making out." Which was probably a blessing. He had no idea where the little blonde girl had come from, beyond the fact that she was foreign, technically inclined, and spoke English as a first language. Amos was so excited about someone to practice English with that he seemed to have entirely forgotten that Duo hadn't grown up speaking Dutch.
Melissa and Karina had both agreed that whether or not Amos had consciously realized it, his excitement with the girl had far more to do with the cute female end of things than the English.
His wife shrugged a little. "She's a rich little traveler from what I can tell, in any case; she's leaving town tomorrow. It might get a little weird if they were more into it." Duo closed his eyes. He hadn't even thought of that… And Melissa giggled again. "Oh calm down, he's getting help with his homework, and he gets to chatter about fixing stuff while she listens avidly. It's win-win, and at any rate it should help his self-confidence without any long-term worries."
"Mm." He was going to have to remember to offer to help the kid with his homework once the girl was back out of town in any case. He'd overheard Amos say he was worried he might fail the damn language class; he really hoped the boy was exaggerating to try to get the girl's attention, but he knew Amos well enough to realize he really might not have thought to try that trick.
"She's an odd one, though… Daron was on and on about her being as comfortable with heights as a cat. Is that a colonial thing?"
"…What?"
Melissa raised both brows. "Her passport says she's from the L2 cluster, and Daron says he came across her wandering along a wall like it was a sidewalk. That's the kind of thing you wouldn't think twice about doing if you were distracted enough."
Duo frowned. "Most colonial gravities are lower than on Earth, so heights aren't as frightening, but by the same token, she ought to feel more worried about the stronger tug of the planetside gravity." Most people, when they came down to Earth, were a little nervous of their footing at first. "I suppose if she's been planetside for a while, though…" That didn't actually add to the logic in either direction, to be honest; most people didn't like walking on top of walls anywhere you went. It took a certain type of personality and confidence, as well as practice, and it either would or wouldn't happen in either place.
A thought occurred to him. "Should I go be sociable?"
"No point, really," 'Liss reassured him.
No reason to bother them, then.
oOo
oOo
Southern Sudan – Blue Nile Base
"You might be surprised," Noin returned to the cadets' compliments. "To be honest, that maneuver requires more guts and confidence than skill, and with the simulators, learning is risk-free. You won't be allowed on the field if you're above a certain ratio for damages, but there's too much you can perfect in the sims that you could never think to even try in a real suit; I've never agreed with the commanders who punish students for being reckless in VR."
A few of the rookie pilots seemed to disbelieve her, while others bit one lip or shook their heads; only two seemed to take it to heart with a calculating look. Odin noted that the girl Abdul had pointed out was one of those two.
Noin didn't miss the looks either. "Hey, everyone starts somewhere, alright? Nobody's a natural right off the bat; the modern piloting system isn't intuitive. It takes time, and plenty of hard work; I sure as hell didn't get as far as I am by goofing off." She glanced back in Abdul's direction and met eyes with Odin briefly, then to the clock. "I was in there longer than I said I would be, wasn't I? Sorry for taking your time; get back to work. Whoever's next up on this machine, go." The male that had looked like he thought he could do more quite literally launched himself into the cockpit, to the protest of at least two others. Their commander shook her head and headed over to her guest. "Please tell me you haven't been here long."
"Only a few minutes."
"That sounds promising, at any rate."
"Your head of security said he'd call you when he found something else for me to break." He realized that the group of students seemed to be more watching them and gossiping than getting back to work, but Abdul could see that just as easily and was obviously ignoring it.
She grinned. "That sounds like him. Did he-"
"Man, if only she hadn't let Peacecraft have the title…"
Lucrezia trailed off when she heard the name, cutting herself off.
"There was a hell of a lot more to it than that, man…"
"Well yeah, but she's so much better than him that, shit, would he have really ever gotten off the ground in the first place? He got his reputation because he graduated top of the class, right? Then Treize took him on a handful of missions and coined him with that 'Lightning Count' nickname, and he got taken on more and more shit after that while everyone forgot about her back at Lake Victoria. Try switching them out: what if he had been forgotten?"
Abdul shifted slightly but didn't otherwise move, choosing instead to watch Noin. Odin decided that if the Maguanac was choosing noninterference, that was probably the best option for himself as well, though he kept his eyes on the blonde young man who was… on a roll. His list of 'what if' situations was going on as he reran scenario after scenario throughout the war… and the others were listening. The door on the virtual reality pod hadn't shut yet despite the boot up having had enough time by now... and only Celise and another of the seven had seemed to realize that they had caught their general's attention.
He wondered if their hearing was compromised, or if they were just stupid.
"Well, it doesn't really make sense anyway. Maybe she just had an off day, okay? Everyone goes on like she threw the exams on purpose, but look at the guy, hey? Hell, maybe he sabotaged her. I mean, this is Marquise, he's not exactly a paragon of integrity."
Lucrezia closed her eyes and her mouth pressed into a firm line as her hands balled into fists.
Celise took a firm backwards step away from the group, then another. Abdul remained entirely impassive.
"Nobody has that bad of a day; it wouldn't have happened out the way it did if their scores were actually neck and neck, especially seeing as they were up until then. There were over thirty people in their class, everyone knew, and records say she even got called on it – she just kept her mouth shut and no one could prove it if she denied it."
"Why would anyone do that, though?"
"Because some people have the common sense to prioritize," Noin snapped coldly, finally turning around to glare at them.
They all froze, realizing they were caught out… rather late, in Odin's opinion. If you only realized after the hammer dropped, then you probably needed the beating.
"Prioritize?" The man's confusion was… very definite.
"Consider what you want in life," she ordered in a dangerous tone. "Fame or security? Adventure or safety? Politics or honesty? Comfort or notoriety? Glory, or moral sanction? Regret, or absolution?" She tilted her head slightly, walking towards them. "Instead of blindly following goals set before you, realize what each road will offer you. Will you be happy? Will you remember how to laugh and cry? Will you want to remember anything you've done at all, let alone tell your grandchildren the story? Will you live to have children?" She sneered. "Will anyone want to have your children? Will you still even believe in the comfort of another human being, or will you only wish death on yourself?
"Make sure you realize your responsibilities before they slap you in the face; know your repercussions, good and bad, before they cripple you. Don't live so completely on a dream that you couldn't move on if it died in front of you. Don't live so far in the future that you look at your past and present and ask yourself why, because if you need to take the time to think, the time to walk away has already come and passed."
She shook her head. "Get out, and think fucking hard about what you want before you come back here." Turning her gaze slowly over all of them, lingering on Celise as well, she added, "If your own damn happiness isn't somehow at the top of that list, don't come back; I won't think any less of you if you don't.
"And consider one last thing while you're at it: when has being the 'best' at anything ever made someone happy? Truthfully, just by itself, honest to goodness joyful at being alive? Because frankly, I've seen a lot of people try, and I've yet to find a single victor willing to let satisfaction get in the way of ambition.
"Now get out of my sight."
They scattered. Noin stood watching after them for a long moment, then sighed. "I'm taking a walk." She didn't look back. Abdul shrugged and moved away from the wall to shut down the computers.
Odin stayed where he was, considering the tight ball of emotions crowding his chest. The idea of moving didn't appeal, just yet… The motion might help it slip away, if he didn't pick it apart first.
oOo
oOo
Vulkanus – Space, Barge ruins
Treize considered the woman before him as he entered the observation deck. Slightly younger than himself, he would admit some similarity to himself in that she used her age not as a shield, but to intimidate. No one enjoyed facing the newest generations; after all, if a person could accomplish so much in the first twenty-four years of their lives, when most of that was arguably devoted to childhood, what could they do in the following decades? In his opinion, the old men of their time had only made it as far as they had due to the state of constant fighting that Romefeller had been so keen on perpetuating. When there were battles to fight, the majority of young men rushed to the front lines, and the favorites were safely kept at home and groomed to follow in tradition's footsteps. There was, after all, no reason to break a system that worked in your favor.
It was probably based on these lines of logic that he had been allowed so much leeway through his own teen years – no one had seen OZ as anything more than the latest fad for the noble's sons who wanted battlefield glory. What the constantly perpetuated wars didn't eradicate were only fools trying to preen their feathers.
They hadn't planned for a man with his vision or drive to change the cycle. Stagnation, however profitable, came with a price.
"Most would consider this sight depressing," he announced once he had waited long enough that she was sure to have noticed him. "Yet I always seem to find you here."
"I find it nostalgic," she admitted smoothly, not looking back in his direction. "What happened here was tragic, but the familiarity of home has a way of winning you over. I waited and waited for the beauty of Earth to grow on me, as everyone said it would, but in truth, I can't say I acquired a taste for horizons." She turned towards him and smiled, green eyes shining, before looking back out the window and trailing one hand along the transparent plastic. Her smooth gold ring clicked softly upon contact. "It gives me hope to see something so sad made into something useful. I come here to watch and see if I can spot your men when they train. Glimmers of movement in the darkness… I find them far more elegant than the fireflies around my estate. There's a team out there now, I believe."
Treize smiled back, moving to stand beside her. "I never considered it, but I can see the similarities," he decided after a moment. "However, as an avid lover of both nature's beauty and humanity's creations, I find myself torn at trying to rank them."
"The plight of the Earthborn," Belle said in her neutral way of agreement that Treize was becoming accustomed to. "In the end, scenery is merely scenery; it is the people within that makes me treasure this. I find the nature of space more… honest than that of the planet."
"It is what it is," Treize agreed. "It offers no mask for its cruelty."
"Yes. That's it exactly."
Having only been back in space for a handful of days himself, Treize was still unsure of where he stood with this new ally of his. Belle Blaine was carefully bland, for lack of a better word, but not in a fashion that lacked for personal flair. Instead, it was more that she was quiet and withdrawn… and while amenable to conversation, she was not the type to seek it. She dressed simply and left her hair to hang loose to her elbows, and… didn't argue with anyone over anything. She didn't start conversation, for all that she didn't seem to mind it either.
Belle was an enigma, if only a mild one. Most people chose ambassadors with far more… force. Interestingly, however, the shift of tactics kept him off balance, and that was likely just as intended. Mrs. Blaine was difficult to read, past basic facial expressions.
"Less than a week now," she murmured. "Are they ready?"
"Doubtlessly."
"How unfortunate." She met his eyes sidelong, her gaze flat. "I would rather it was only us prepared, but I doubt that Peacecraft's men feel any differently than your own, at this point. It's a great loss to have waited so long, or with the disrupted timing, at least."
Inwardly he agreed, but he could not have helped what happened. It would have been better to coordinate with Po and her people, but she had never given him an opportunity. Instead, they would simply have to stay outside of the other's sphere of influence to avoid future problems. "I'm afraid that April was simply too soon to move and still have worthy assurances."
"I wholeheartedly agree," she returned. "I only find myself wishing that the footing were less… equal… than it appears to be. We can afford a war of attrition better than our enemy, but expenses add up all the same. The less time we spend in that stage, the better." She met his eyes again, long sandy brown bangs trailing across one cheek. "Has the evening post allowance begun yet?"
"We have twenty minutes more," Treize reassured her. Mail or any communication to the remote base was sent in mass packets coupled with a time allowance for real-time outside communication. "Are you expecting a message?"
"Always," she promptly dismissed. "But hardly an urgent one. No, I was considering calling my son… his grandmother likely has him finishing his dinner right now. Perhaps I could sing to him as he lies down. The timing comes out about right for it maybe three times a week, and I try to catch them all. Heather is stepping in for him as a mother until we're past all this, and I trust my husband's mother enough for his safety and a helping hand, but every baby knows his mother's face and voice. They say he sleeps better after I sing to him."
"He will be three soon, correct?"
"In October." Smiling again, staring out at the forever night, she mused, "I wonder if he will prefer blue skies too, when he's older. He was born under them, after all." She pursed her lips for a moment, seeming to hesitate. "I'm sorry we've had no progress finding your own child, Treize. The only comfort I can offer is that if you are correct in your assumption that someone is protecting her, they are doing the job well. Your photographs of Leia Barton will bear fruit eventually in either scenario; we know enough of her adult facial structure and that of her family's that aging her image appropriately wasn't a far reach. It's a shame that you only know she went into medicine, not the field or position."
"She wanted to be a doctor," Treize murmured, though he knew the brunette already knew the information by heart. "But she would go through phases where she wasn't sure she would go through with it. The last time I heard from her, Dekim was taking Mariemaia away from her just so she could go to medical school full time, but that was…" He shook his head, marveling over the lost years. "That was six years ago, in 192. If she kept at it without break, she would be done with school, of course, but the length of a residency varies widely… and then, if she went about her coursework more slowly, the timing becomes blurry. Then there are the factors of if she decided to do something else after all."
"Hence why we are looking at newly established physicians first, but also at residents and students, and the entirety of medical populace made up of women in their mid to late twenties." She shrugged slightly. "In the end, it's the only viable approach to take. We are starting by screening hospitals and practices and of course the governmentally employed for similarities. Age and gender easily more than halve the original sample size, but it will still take time." She tilted her head towards one shoulder, looking towards him out of the corner of her eye. "Especially as we do not want to move quickly enough to alert anyone, including her; she has no reason to think we are not those who would do her harm. The colonies are nearly as numerous as the stars in the sky, and frankly, we have more urgent priorities for the time being. If she is alive, it can be assumed that she has made herself safe."
"That is all true," Treize agreed coolly. He had run his own mind through circle after circle and long since came to the same conclusion.
"I admire that you refuse to divert the resources away from her search, all the same," Belle added, offering him a sweet smile. "Speaking as a woman, I can tell you that she will appreciate it."
"Thank-you."
She nodded slightly, moving away from him. "It was a pleasure to speak with you, Treize. I imagine I will see you tomorrow. Good night; I pray you sleep well."
Treize smiled and offered the noblewoman his own smile and a slight bow. Her tendency to immediately use his first name was slightly disconcerting, as few enough did it, but it well within her rights. "You as well, Mrs. Blaine."
oOo
oOo
Altered Insight
oOo
For the record, the word "iie" is Japanese for "no". It occurred to me that I just know that, and Relena, having lived in Japan for the majority of her life would know that, so I couldn't think of a good way to add in her thinking that without it sounding stupid, but I do realize that not everyone watches subbed anime as religiously as I do.
Thoughts? I rather enjoyed the Noin's speech, personally, and thought it was about time that Relena started to wonder about a few of her bodyguard's details; it seems… very like her that she doesn't actually distrust him, despite realizing that her perception might be entirely compromised. Kailì was fun, Quatre's childhood more telling than I expected it to be, and Marlé… Marlé is trying to make everything just blow up in my face for shits and giggles, I swear.
