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Chapter Thirteen
Impossible
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination.
– Tommy Lasorda
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Zechs begins to realize he might be biting off more than he can chew, Duo has a hard time reconciling reality, and Jake attempts to sidestep his issues in the interest of moving on with his life. Meanwhile, gossip abounds.
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And here we are again! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter half as much as I did.
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August 28th 198 – Thursday – L2 – Leia's Condo
"Good morning, gentlemen," the blonde woman granted, offering them an indulgent smile as she sipped something from a teacup. "Your timing is impeccable; I'm nearly done."
Milliardo fought to unclench his jaw, with only moderate success. Leia Barton had barricaded her door so that they had had to spend an hour trying to gain entrance without undue property damage to the surrounding apartments, and she was sitting comfortably in an armchair with a drink, simply waiting for them. Two suitcases stood on end next to her, as well as an animal carrier. The small cream and gold colored cat that presumably went in it was curled up in her lap, watching them fearlessly with avid interest as the Barton Heiress stroked it.
"Leia," he greeted, trying to keep his temper in check.
"Zechs," she returned in the same pleasant tone as before. "You could have done the polite thing and called ahead, you know."
Yes, I could have called ahead and given you time to escape and change identities again. He wasn't about to fall for the false civility. "I prefer Milliardo, if you please."
"And I prefer Lady Barton," she noted. "You forget that this is the first time we've met, Marquise, and I do not appreciate your familiarity."
"Sir?" one of his men called from the kitchen.
He debated pointing out her own repeated misuse of his name, but she offered him that indulgent smile once again and gestured with her head towards the kitchen as she raised her cup for another sip. "I believe he's referring to something you wish to see."
He felt his jaw tighten again as he inclined his head and moved into the other room… and stared at the clear plastic tub of what was clearly some form of acid, containing a disassembled cell phone. Ah. The corrosion was impressively complete, the platters of the circuitry nearly disintegrated entirely, and if the hammer left casually on the counter beside a mask and pair of gloves and goggles was any indication, she'd taken the disassembly rather… seriously.
He took a steady breath and looked around, confirming his next thought; all of the pictures on the walls were simply art. No photographs. He took a few minutes to briefly investigate the rest of the apartment – three bedrooms, one clearly designated as a guest room, another as a master suite, and the third a study with two desks. There were no photographs hung anywhere else either. The second bedroom was clearly untouched; too neat to be regularly occupied, with a fine coating of dust on all its surfaces.
If not for the phone's very pointed destruction, he would have guessed that Mariemaia was still missing. Then again, there might be other reasons for that display, and a more thorough investigation by his men would clear at least a few things up. Leia's cooperation would likely be easier to secure if her daughter was still missing, but if she had truly been lost for so long, it was all too possible that the girl was dead.
Based on her performance now, however, he was fairly certain that no matter what the situation, Treize's ex was… going to be a handful.
She offered him a curious look as he came back into the living room. She'd already set her cup aside and she stood, pulling the cat up on her chest as she did, nearly to her chin. "Can I help you?" she asked in a tone he was sure every woman ever involved in customer service perfected at some point in their lives.
He debated internally for a moment before choosing the most civil approach he could think of. She had, after all, already complained. "Lady Leia Barton, I am sure you already know this, but I am Milliardo Peacecraft of Earth, and I require your assistance."
The woman offered him an easy, superficial smile as she scratched her pet behind the ears. "Do you require a doctor, Mr. Peacecraft? I'm afraid I'm still relatively fresh from my residency. I believe you could afford a physician with far more experience than myself, but I will try my best to help, if you insist."
His eyes narrowed, though he managed to summon up a smile of his own at her tease. "No, I'm quite alright."
Leia offered him a faint frown. "I'm not sure what I could offer then, sir."
"Perhaps you are unaware," he pointed out smoothly. "But with your father's death, you gained controlling interest in the Barton Foundation."
Her expression would have been easy to mistake for true chagrin. "Ah, I do apologize, but I am afraid you've been misinformed. You see, I was disinherited at a young age; my father made it quite clear on a regular basis that I was neatly removed from the line of succession even in the instance of my elder brother's death. He eventually conceded to my Mariemaia's inclusion, but unfortunately, she is…" She frowned as though thinking. "I'm not sure where she is right now, actually." Her smile was wry. "She's getting an early start on a fit of teenage rebellion, it seems; hasn't called in weeks."
Well, that's one question answered. Considering how easily she had given up the information, it was something he would have known shortly, however. He slowly let out a deep breath, looking back to the suitcases. "Your bags are packed?"
Her smile was a touch smug this time. "I suspected you might insist."
He nodded sharply, considering the cat. It wasn't a problem so long as she kept a hold of it, and considering how calm the little blue-eyed creature was with a dozen strangers traipsing about the apartment, he didn't imagine it would be a concern.
He suspected, on the other hand, that he might have entirely epic issues if he protested her pet's presence. "Do you have a leash for that?" The carrier was all very well and good, but the idea of a cat spooking and bolting out of someone's arms on a shuttle was vaguely nightmarish.
Leia smiled brightly and set the cat down before moving for the carrier. Surprisingly, instead of following her or skittering off somewhere into the apartment, it continued to stare at him, taking a few steps closer to sniff delicately at his boots before tilting its head up at him again as if in a question. Milliardo simply stared back, unsure of how to react. The extent of his knowledge of any kind of pet was relegated to one of his short stays with a foster family before he joined OZ.
"Heero," Leia called softly.
"Excuse me?" he snapped harshly, mind whirling… before he noticed the dangling leash and the cat calmly walking back over to its owner, making a happy noise at her.
The blonde woman raised an elegant brow at him. "You did want me to leash him, didn't you?" she asked blandly.
…She had named the cat Heero. Of course she had named it something so… He forced himself to stop grinding his teeth, and managed to stop himself from bringing a hand to his face. "Interesting name choice."
Her smile seemed more sincere this time. "Well, he has been saving me from loneliness, you see." She picked him back up and started scratching him under the chin, and a rumbling purr broke out at the renewed attention. "And pests; he's an absolute terror on the local earwig problem."
He blinked, suddenly realizing that perhaps it was Hero, not Heero, and wanted to groan that of course he had immediately made the association and jumped to conclusions. Leia had never met Heero; there was absolutely no reason why she would name her pet after him, and even if she had, it would be funny, not irritating, that Heero was a cat's name. It would be rather demeaning even if it had been intentional.
"Are you ready?" he asked instead, deciding that if she kept the cat in her arms instead of the carrier, he wouldn't complain, so long as there weren't any problems. At her nod, he gestured for her to follow. "The men will handle your luggage."
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Amsterdam, Netherlands – New Renew – 2:30pm
The sign on the door said that the shop was closed, and he paused for a moment, considering that, before knocking and immediately trying the handle. Unlocked.
He frowned with the door only slightly ajar, pausing to think. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday, normal business hours. Then again, different shops often had certain rules, and there were no hours listed on the door, so this could be normal… but it didn't feel that way. Perhaps they had closed because they had company, or for some other reason?
His instincts said to be careful. The fact that Marlé should be inside only increased his unease.
Still, she had declared this place safe, and was a semi-regular visitor, and presumably, he was expected. "Hello?" he called in a curious tone, easing the door open in a slow, non-threatening motion, even as he shifted his weight so he was ready to immediately dodge an attack.
A woman was leaning against a large desk just near the back of the small room, openly considering him. Her back to the furniture, she had one hand braced against it in a casual posture, and the other held a hammer in an equally careless grip.
Except, of course, for the fact that she was perfectly balanced to move in a millisecond, which belied her superficial body language.
Dangerous. And by her expression, she was sizing him up for a fight. She was also not meeting his eyes for longer than a brief second at a time, instead keeping her gaze slightly unfocused, watching his entire body at once so she could see the first sign of movement from him and react to it with whiplash speed.
He had literally no idea what he had done to upset her, but it was abundantly clear that she saw him as a serious threat. And while he didn't doubt that he could handle her despite what level of discipline she was unconsciously showcasing, he had no desire to fight. He needed to get Marlé and decide on their next course of action, decipher if the Regime had any way of tracking them – doubtful, given their precautions, but it needed to be investigated – and discard/change anything that might be traceable.
He didn't have time for this, but if he was coming in to this sort of welcome, he had no idea what Marlé's status was. She had misjudged something, and he needed to get them out of here… But he needed to know what condition she was in before he could do that.
"Please, come in," the woman invited after a long silence. "Shut the door."
He debated exactly how bad of an idea that was – very – before stepping inside and doing so anyway. This wasn't going to move along unless he did, he could see that much, and there was still some room for negotiation before the situation escalated. In any case, whatever was to happen next, he was no more eager for it to be in full view of the street than she was. The hostility was entirely unwarranted – unless there was history? But she had obviously been ready for him before he arrived. Marlé was usually a good judge of character…
…and had been carrying a newly fabricated alternate ID for him, with his picture. If she had seen that, and recognized him…
He took in the details of her appearance with more intent this time, debating if she was familiar. Curly hair of a light ash brown was long enough to reach the middle of her back, pulled over her shoulders in two ponytails. Grey-blue eyes, unremarkable if appealing facial features, freckles on fair skin, average height – taller than him, but not by much. She held the hammer with too much ease in a position that would be useless for work and too awkward to be casual, but would be ideal for striking as with a serrated blade.
Dangerous. And he was relatively certain he had never seen her before.
Beginning with a diplomatic route seemed wise. If she had recognized him and was after the bounty Zechs had on his head, she would reveal it soon enough. If he could get her to talk, and if talk could resolve this without that too clean tool of hers – recently disinfected – that would be preferable.
"If I have offended you," he began slowly. "I apologize."
The look she gave him was decidedly… unimpressed. "Odin, was it?"
He nodded slightly in agreement.
"I don't want any trouble," she informed him in a flat tone.
He shifted his gaze pointedly to the narrow point of the hammer before focusing back on her face, debating if he should point out the evidence against that statement. She gave him a look that bordered between exasperated and amused, but remained poised to attack. He raised his brows, keeping his hands open and slightly away from his body, as he admitted, "I am also uninterested in any trouble. I'm only here to pick up my sister." Though if she had been harmed, these people would not come out of the situation unscathed.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "You don't look enough alike to be siblings."
"We have different mothers," he explained easily. Different fathers too, but that was beside the point.
"And yet she only talks about hers."
"Mine's dead," he allowed. That statement was usually a good way to get someone to change the subject, he'd found.
Her eyes narrowed further. "Let me rephrase: We do not want any trouble that might follow you here. Whatever this is about, whatever you fear might be traced through a phone line, we want no part of it, and if either of you ever comes here again, we will retaliate." Her lips twitched into a scowl. "I have a family to protect, and I do not appreciate attention from the government."
The pieces clicked into place, and he let out an internal breath of relief. There were enough implications in that statement to work with.
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"I also would rather avoid any attention from the Regime," the man's voice returned firmly. The timbre of his voice was eerily similar to Shov's. "Which is why the phone was immediately destroyed, before it could be traced. Given that the call she received was a warning from the only person we knew who could be compromised, and we had entirely different protocols in place if she had no time to destroy her own phone before being taken into custody, our actions were only precautionary. Just to be thorough, however, I wiped the cellular company's files of our devices immediately after hanging up, so there is literally no way the call can be traced back to this location."
And now I know why the girl knows so much about technology, Duo mused, trying to shove down the part of him that felt antsy. Said girl was eying him uncertainly as he eavesdropped, obviously trying to gauge his mood.
For all that she'd freaked him out and pissed him off, she'd had a valid point when she said that her brother would be coming here to get her no matter what, as she no longer had a way to contact him, and if he arrived and she was missing, it would cause a real scene.
And also, not that he didn't appreciate the notion, but when was it that everyone had started being able to hack cell phone companies?
"Even if you're capable of doing that," Melissa pointed out tersely, "I don't appreciate being kept in the dark."
"Understandable," that smooth, deep, familiar voice agreed. "I also don't know you well enough to tell you about it."
Damnably familiar. Shov had always sounded like Heero, before he got used to him. Just one of those voices, he guessed.
"Marlé will miss being able to speak with Amos," he added. "But she can move past that. I'm sorry to have upset you."
…How many people could hack the cell phone companies?
"So long as we understand each other, it's fine," Melissa returned simply, before calling, "Kasey?"
Right. That went a lot better than it could have. Gesturing for the girl to follow him, he headed for the landing and down the stairs, turning to study the mystery man so he'd know him if he ever saw him again-
…
No.
He hadn't looked up yet, watching Melissa warily, waiting until he was on the ground level and therefore more of a threat before he acknowledged him as more than movement and shape. But…
Oh fuck no. But how many people could hack the cell phone companies?
And he was turning to glance his way since he'd stopped short on the stairs, eyes flicking over the girl behind him in a rapid injury check before focusing on him… and blinking.
Recognition. Disbelief.
And a sudden, broad, very unHeero-like smile. "Duo?"
And then he laughed. A delighted little chuckle, those big blue eyes lighting up in outright joy.
…This obviously had to be an imposter. Heero didn't smile – he just stared at you until you either ran away or caved. It was just someone who looked a whole hell of a lot like him, sounded exactly like him, happened to recognize him at a glance, and-
How the fuck was Heero in here?!
"Duo?" the girl asked suddenly – the girl posing as Heero's little sister! "You mean like-"
"Honey?" his wife asked in a very tense, overly sweet voice that meant shit was about to break. Not good.
"You're alive," his old comrade breathed, still with that breathtakingly alien expression on his face, taking a step further into the shop.
"You're blonde," he pointed out, feeling numb. Something was wrong here… and he wasn't entirely sure it wasn't himself, but it definitely included Mr. I'm-gonna-kill-you being in his house too.
Heero blinked and frowned, which, despite being a more familiar expression, just made this whole charade worse, before he pointed out, "So are you."
…I… just said that.
"I'm going to guess we're suddenly not kicking them out?" Melissa asked sarcastically.
"Er… no. No, we're not." God, his face was hot. He'd decided a long time ago that Heero wasn't dead just because the guy was fucking unkillable, but at the same time, it was one thing to figure, and another to know and-
…I've been hosting a kid for him for two months. Two months! Shit, he didn't know anything about Heero either, not really, she really might be his sister, and he'd obviously been teaching her how-
You know... That made a lot of little things make sense.
The corner of Heero's mouth twitched. "You're a lot less talkative than you used to be."
"Oh, it'll wear off," Melissa noted, finally setting down her hammer and relaxing. "So long as he's still trying to reconnect his brain to his mouth, though, who are you and how exactly is it that you know my husband?"
He was so going to pay for this later.
Heero blinked in surprise, and then there was that genuinely happy smile again – it was only starting to get a little less bizarre now – before he took another step forward to offer her his hand. "That explains a few things. Heero Yuy."
She blinked a few times herself before letting out a little laugh and moving forward to shake his hand. "Wow. It does at that." She shook her head a little. "Melissa von Koll, for the record." She gestured towards the staircase. "And Kasey von Koll."
"Odin Lowe," he reaffirmed before letting go. Flicking his eyes back up the staircase, he passed right over Duo to focus on the girl. "Are you okay?"
And suddenly, the little blonde was letting out a sob and shoving past him, flinging herself down the last five steps to launch into Heero… Who'd already braced himself with arms wide open before pulling her tight to her chest and tucking her head against his shoulder as she began to cry, carding his fingers through her hair.
The really crazy part? He didn't look uncomfortable. Just upset.
Holy crap.
Melissa sighed. "I'm going to let everyone know this was just a misunderstanding. Make yourselves at home."
Aaaaaand she was leaving him here alone. With a surprisingly emotionally competent Perfect Soldier and a crying little girl.
She gave him a stern look as she walked out – yeah, she was totally getting back at him for this – and he found himself instead meeting Heero's eyes. Heero, who was looking at him with something kinda like concern.
"Hi," he whispered, not entirely sure why. His throat was all too dry.
His old friend's smile was wry this time, a little less overpowering. "Hi."
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Alexandria, Egypt
"You knew him well?" the woman asked softly, searching his face intently.
Razo Charel wanted to sigh uncomfortably under those caramel brown eyes, that sweet, heart-shaped face. The longer he looked at her the less he doubted it, but frankly that only made this worse. The woman was beautiful; slim but curvaceous, with the perfectly porcelain skin of the spaceborn and long blonde hair the color of cornsilk held in a loose, complicated braid trailing over one shoulder. In any other circumstance, she would have been exactly his type.
She had introduced herself as Inez Stanton, Robin Stanton's older sister. And the family resemblance was pretty damn undeniable.
Letters had been sent out last week, finally, to the families of those recognized. They hadn't expected anyone to show up wanting to meet the friends of the deceased, at least, not so soon… and the fact that he knew that Robby wasn't dead was eating away at his insides. This solemn, gorgeous woman deserved the truth… and he couldn't give it to her.
"I knew him about as well as anyone here did," he said after a moment. "He hid himself away inside his head and put on a big act to fool most people into thinking he was something he wasn't, but he did it to protect us… and he let me in, sometimes." There, not a lie. "He wasn't always kind, but he was when he could afford it, and he took punishments meant for us that might have killed us…"
He sighed. I'm not phrasing this very well. Trying again, he finished with, "If he hadn't collected us together and looked after us, fought to keep us sane, I don't think we would have made it."
And he believed that. They would have either become like the monsters so many of the men taken by Cambyses had become, or they would have been weeded out as 'weak' or 'rebellious' when they couldn't stomach what was happening. Under Robby's protection, they had been allowed to hold onto their humanity, however tenuous that grip had been. It had been what kept them going.
And he was still keeping twenty some of them going… somewhere. Maybe he'd get to see him again someday, and thank him properly; reentering the real world made it clear just exactly how far they had fallen, even if he'd already known on an intellectual level. By the same token, it made it obvious just how much further they would have fallen if not for Robby's intervention.
Robin. No wonder he'd always insisted on 'Robby'. It was a perfectly good name, but combined with his altogether pretty looks, it would have done him no favors in the desert.
"That sounds like him," Inez murmured. "He was always kind to the point of martyrdom…" Her smile was wry. "And to have survived here, he must have had to change, but if he did it to keep his people alive, then… Well, that's very like him. He never could bear to allow suffering to continue if he could do something about it."
And… he felt like an ass all over again for not telling her. Briefly, he considered who was nearby that could possibly overhear… how likely it was that she would make a loud enough exclamation over the news to draw attention.
"I was also hoping to offer assistance to those that he led, if they were feeling displaced," Inez continued, unaware of his dilemma. "He obviously cared for you all, and if anyone is having a hard time with getting a job, or wanted to go back to school, well… Our father left us quite well off before he passed, and I've been careful with the investments." Her smile was gentle, and genuine, if also a touch melancholy. "I think he would want that."
Razo fought the urge to blink in surprise. He'd never gotten the impression that Robby had been well off, especially with his survival skills… but he'd never seemed as though he came from a poor family either, given the education he must have had, to speak so many languages. And Inez had arrived here, obviously from space, in under a week after the condolence letters had been sent out…
Languages.
"Are you sure?" he asked quietly in French, frowning. Personally, he was happy to attach himself to Colonel Mitchell's Strike Force for a time, and so were a number of others – for a sense of direction if nothing else – but others, like Nick, just wanted to forget that the past few years had happened at all. However, having been out of the real world for a few years… It would probably be impossible for Nick to go back to college, just on his own.
"Absolutely," Robby's sister answered in the same language without hesitation. "In truth, it's more than a considerable sum, and it does no good sitting in a bank." Her smile had lost its melancholy now. "And the future is always a worthy investment. If a man has the strength of will to survive what you have, then he can accomplish anything he sets his mind to."
Well… There was still no one else nearby, and he was relatively sure that French was uncommon among the soldiers. "Are you really his sister?" he asked quietly.
"I am," she agreed. "Though I admit we are not so close as I have suggested."
Present tense. All the same, he made sure to choose his words carefully. "I am sure that, wherever he is, it's a better place than here."
Her smile turned a little mischievous. If anyone watching didn't know their conversation, they might have said it was flirtatious. "He does know the Sahara like the back of his hand. I do not, but I don't doubt that he could find refuge… wherever he is."
He suddenly had the feeling that Robby had faked his own death before; or at the very least, he'd done something that made his sister disinclined to believe he was gone without personal testimony… and with that, her very sudden appearance after the announcement made a lot more sense. He had already gathered that Robby had done something militant that clashed with the current government sometime in the past; in the end, he supposed it wasn't that big of a leap. That knowledge took something of a weight off of him. "He wasn't comfortable with the military," he pointed out.
"And he shouldn't be," she agreed, still with that flirtatious smile. "You really don't know where he is, though, do you?"
"I don't. He took everyone else with… interesting histories with him when he went, and didn't share the details."
"How very like him," she mused, before sighing. "And he does know this part of the world so well, I am sure that if he does not wish to be found, he simply won't. Still…" She shrugged. "I appreciate that, Monsieur Charel." Her smile was a little chagrined now. "I am afraid, however, that my grasp of the language is loose enough that I would be grateful to finish our conversation in English?"
It was a blatant lie; her French was pristine. "Of course," he agreed aloud, following her lead. "But please, call me Razo."
"As you please, Razo," she demurred. "All the same, I am interested in offering my assistance. Could you possibly help me organize it, at least at first?" The look she cast around the camp was sheepishly lost – though he was convinced, now, also perfectly false. "At the very least, you could tell me who else I ought to speak with?"
Yeah, she was definitely Robby's sister.
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Tivoli, Italy – Noin Household
Des gave him a look when his phone started ringing out the Imperial March… and Jake just grinned, debating if he wanted to actually pick up.
"Seriously?"
"Why not?" he defended happily, shifting the baby slightly in his arms.
"I hate to think of what would happen if he knew that was his ringtone," Des pointed out dryly.
"I've used it for him since we were kids," Jake dismissed, reaching over to pick it up. "He had a mask and everything, back then." Treize had certainly laughed himself into tears over it, at any rate. Zechs hadn't exactly been happy about being cast as Darth Vader, but he'd gotten over the joke after he'd seen Lu break into giggles about it.
Of course, Zechs probably didn't know that he still used it… but he could write it off as nostalgia and friendship, if he wanted to raise a fuss. Tapping the connect, he brought the phone up to his ear. "Hello?"
"Jake," Zechs' deep voice returned. "How is Relena?"
"Fine," he returned easily – never mind that he hadn't seen her in two weeks. He'd kept in touch with Hayden and had daily updates on what she was getting up to, even if he wasn't doing much with the information. He was actually heading back tomorrow, in any case, and Des and Cassie were coming with him to stay at Sarracenia for a week or so. All the same, he'd rather not inform the prince of his impromptu vacation. "What's up?"
There was silence for a moment, a rather heavy one… before the other man grumbled. Jake raised a brow, surprised, as he stood and looked to Des, who was already coming over to take Lyle back from him. Duty calls, he thought wryly.
Well, he really was heading back in the morning. "Zechs?"
He blinked, startled, as the man groaned. "Why do you call me that?" he demanded in a defeated tone.
"Because that's how you introduced yourself and I love you," he quipped back happily. "It's been over three years since you quit using it publicly, and since this is the first time you're trying to discourage me, I'm calling bullshit on any attempt at recrimination." He'd wager, however, that someone who hadn't known him through the horrors of adolescence was trying to use the name now, though. "Who's raining on your parade?"
"Leia," the other man groused.
Jake's thought processes screeched to a halt. He was pretty sure they only knew one Leia… "Leia Barton?"
"The very same."
His mouth was dry, and after a moment, he decided to sit back down. Des had left the room anyhow. Leia… "I didn't know we had any intelligence on her location," he muttered. "Mariemaia?"
If Leia was trying to peeve Zechs… which she would, given half a chance, especially with the last few years' history…
…Zechs had Leia. He closed his eyes. And considering his track record with Relena… That was not an acceptable notion. Unlike a fifteen-year-old girl, he had no doubt that his old friend's beau was more than capable of handing their friendly neighborhood dictator his ass on a platter with impressive skill and regularity, but…
He ground his teeth. Zechs had destroyed his sister's confidence, her entire sense of self, before Jake had met her, without even trying. And while Jake didn't love Leia half as much as he did her daughter, he couldn't allow her to stay in that kind of environment. He wouldn't.
And if he had Mariemaia as well, then any of his angst over the past few months was entirely moot, because he would take the child and run, consequences be damned. He could think of a few relatively clean ways to go about it, but if it came down to the wire, everything he had tried to build over the past few years could burn for the sake of his godchild.
Relena was more than capable of turning the aftermath to her own favor, he was sure.
"She's been in contact, but not recently," Zechs dismissed. "We're checking over her laptop for any traces, but considering the state of the apartment and the tin of acid she dropped her phone in, I doubt we're going to find anything."
The world started to spin again; everything was fine. This… this could be mitigated. "Did you want me to go through it?" he offered. He was pretty sure it would be a fantastic dead end – Leia knew how to limit her tracks – but he could make sure.
He wondered if she'd used the same bottle of hydrofluoric acid he'd gotten her years ago. Doubtful, but at the same time, it was a heartwarming idea.
"Maybe at some point, but by the time I could get it to you, it would be a theoretical exercise," Zechs dismissed. "I imagine they spoke and destroyed both ends of any communication sometime during the hour we were trying to get inside."
He didn't try to fight down the broad grin that stretched across his face at that little tidbit. His voice, however, he kept complete control over. "Probably, yeah. The risks wouldn't have been worth not destroying the entire network." It was certainly how he would have done it, at any rate. Even if the components were ridiculously expensive, the pros outweighed the cons – and if he knew Leia, they would have planned to be able to destroy them at any time. Acid was fairly overkill, but… it also made something of a statement. However no nonsense Leia could be for day to day matters, if you got her in a mood, she had the exact same flair for drama as her paramour.
Leia in a mood was a beautiful and terrifying thing to see – like a tiger on the wrong side of an enclosure. It was in moments like these that you could see exactly why Treize had fallen in love with her in the first place. "How do you know for sure that they were in contact?" The woman was also, at this point, quite skilled at creating red herrings to keep her father busy, and despite his bullshit, Zechs didn't hold a candle to Dekim.
Zechs made another irritated noise. "Neighbors and coworkers maintain that a girl Mariemaia's age and a young man in his late teens came to live with her last January, and that Leia pulled a few strings then paid out of pocket to get him some sort of reconstructive surgery on his leg, allegedly as thanks for finding her daughter for her. But no one has seen either of them since May."
Well, that answered a few questions as to how little Marie was. If they had been careful of cameras, then that about sealed it; if their mysterious young man was able to find a woman so hidden as Leia Barton, then he certainly knew how to hide just as effectively, and there was no doubt in his mind that they were in the wind. "Any photos?"
"None," Zechs growled. "And other than items that are undoubtedly Leia's, a few changes of clothes that would fit your average pre-teen and teenager, female and male respectively, are the most personal belongings here."
How fantastically professional. Impressive, really. Most people accumulated more than they realized; living as a true minimalist and erasing your tracks after leaving a place was something that took effort. Doing so while still having it feel like a true home to come back to… That took talent, though whether it was innate or through training was debatable.
"Well then…" There wasn't much to say to that, other than the fact that; after knowing the life Leia had lived, Zechs shouldn't have expected her apartment to be a treasure trove. Personally, he was upset that he hadn't been informed they even had a lead. That boded ill for the future. "How is she?"
"Implacably impossible."
oOo
oOo
Munich, Germany – Sarracenia
Relena looked up as Dorothy and Olivia stormed into her office, her welcoming smile turning dubious as she noted the redhead's anger and the blonde's sheepish dismay. Briefly, she debated if looking stressed and rubbing at her temples might discourage whatever fit of temper that was about to be flung about the room. It wouldn't.
She wondered if she had managed to slight the normally calm duchess somehow, but nothing in particular came to mind. Normally, after all, it was Dorothy throwing a tantrum, and Olivia vaguely trying to reign her in. Raising her brows curiously, she asked, "Yes?"
Olivia narrowed her eyes, studying her for a long moment, before crossing her arms. "I'm upset that you think you cannot trust me," she stated plainly.
Relena frowned. Over the past few weeks, the other noblewoman had become absolutely integral to her planning and negotiations. She had a talent for seeing what no one else did, for crafting good, unique solutions to problems as they arose. She put a great deal of trust in her, especially considering the fact that they had only been close for a bare handful of months. The only things Relena hadn't shared with her, she shouldn't have a single clue about…
She cast a dark look at Dorothy, who had the grace to look a little ashamed. What did she let out? Surely, if it were anything too big, then the heiress would be considerably more panicked. Focusing back on Olivia, she coolly asked, "Exactly what is this about?"
The other woman's lips thinned. "I thought I had made my intentions entirely clear," she argued.
"You did," Relena agreed.
"If you wanted more, you needed only say the word," Olivia continued, her voice going terse. "I had assumed you too contemporary to appreciate the gesture of a vow."
The princess frowned. This was leading in circles; she still had no idea what her friend was getting at. "I would never demand anything," she said at last.
Olivia studied her intently for a long moment, before the noblewoman elegantly spread the skirt of her dress and fluidly dropped into a deep, perfect curtsy. "I, Olivia Shantell Dontelaine, solemnly swear fealty to you, your Majesty. My words, my actions, my power and strength are yours to command as you will. I follow where you lead, and confront whatever opposition you require." She raised her head and those big brown eyes bored into hers. "I will not be outdone," she announced firmly, almost sharply. "Not even by a Catalonia."
...Right. Dorothy swearing fealty was what allowed up to build our friendship in the first place. Like Dorothy, Relena knew that Olivia would never make such a vow if she didn't mean to follow it with every fiber of her being… and her words were far more exacting, binding, than Dorothy's impromptu declaration, two years ago.
And the curtsy certainly looks more impressive when you're actually wearing a skirt, she couldn't help but think amusedly. Turning to smirk at Dorothy, she noted, "I think she's got you there."
"She had time to plan it," Dorothy immediately argued. "I stumbled across you digging through Milliardo's databanks and had to improvise!"
Relena shook her head and stood, leaning down to offer Olivia a hand up. "I accept," she murmured. "Though really, this is only a formality, you know."
"Of course," she agreed as she regained her feet. "But formalities are important too, and carry their own weight." She pursed her lips, hesitating a moment, before continuing with, "I am not so blind to see that the two of you have worries and projects that I have been excluded from. Which is your right," she hastily added when Relena opened her mouth to respond. "But… I wish to help, if you would allow it. I may not be powerful in my own right, but I have my ways."
And that, too, was all too true. Still… "I'll think on it," she decided. She knew the Dontelaine duchess well enough by now to know that her vow meant she could trust her… But she didn't want to do anything hastily. That, and if she was going to expand her circle, then Mailin was also to be included.
And Jake… Jake wasn't. That thought cut like a knife, but it didn't change the facts. In any case, most of those 'other projects' revolved around what they simply didn't know about Jake, and she wasn't ready to try to confront him.
She didn't want to confront him. She wanted him to realize he could come to her, so she could soothe his fears and they could move on…
She suppressed a sigh and smiled at her… liege ladies. What an odd thought. "What do we have on the plate for today, then?" In the meantime, there were things to do.
oOo
oOo
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amos tried not to shrink into himself over the very unimpressed look Melissa was giving him. He didn't care if she was upset with him; he'd needed some time alone after seeing Chaos lose it like that, and then the church had felt more welcoming than the Den. Father Espen and the Sister couldn't legally let him live there anymore, but a visit was fine. Even if he'd spent that visit hiding in the priest's office, not talking to anyone or even letting them know he was in the building. He'd just lost a friend over something he had no choice over and did not understand, and since Kay wouldn't let him have a say in what was going to happen, what was the point in talking to anyone?
He hadn't really figured anyone would be looking for him.
"What?" he finally asked.
'Liss just shook her head and gestured for him to follow her. "Come on."
He scowled, but after a moment, did what he was told. Maybe they would explain what was going on, finally. It had been hours now; the sun was starting to set. Marlé's brother would have come for her by now, and they'd be gone, and he'd never talk to her again. Kay had taken his phone before he'd told him to go home, while he and 'Liss waited for Odin.
They didn't talk as they walked, but after turning towards the shop instead of the Den, he began to think he was right… which was a relief. Kay always had good reasons for what he did. Maybe, if he could just explain why he'd completely freaked out… it'd be okay. He'd miss his friend, but if Kay had good reasons… Well, he'd make other friends – just probably not one as interesting as the girl who randomly turned up at odd moments and showed him how to code. He got that people could be dangerous, and he could see how Marlé's sudden need to destroy evidence or something was suspicious… but she'd been sobbing her eyes out at the same time. Really… however smart she was, Marlé was just a little girl.
But… He could get that maybe she knew some dangerous people. She certainly knew a lot of stuff that could be dangerous, if she used it the right way; he just hadn't ever figured she would. She'd been pretty quick to threaten Kay with retribution from her brother when he'd tried to throw her out or suggested he'd hurt her, but… wasn't that what big brothers were for? Nobody would mess with him because they knew Kay would kill them for it, after all.
The shop wasn't far, so it wasn't long before 'Liss was opening the door and leading him in, heading for the loft. He followed… and frowned, hearing voices. Melissa gave him a wry smile and nodded at the stairs. "Go on. Turns out we overreacted. Kasey and Odin are old friends."
Old friends? That made no… Well, no, Kasey was a new name – so maybe Odin was too? Either way, though, he could hear Marlé laughing and talking in an excited voice… and he grinned and he ran up the stairs, ignoring Melissa chuckling behind him.
oOo
oOo
Sahara Desert, Southeast Libya – Adashia
Vaska grinned as he considered his new passport. "Cool." Robby'd kept his nationality Ukrainian, which was good – his accent wasn't going anywhere any time soon. Closing the little book, he tucked it into his pocket. "What now, then?"
His leader shrugged. "Whatever you want. That was the point of all this."
Skye looked up sharply at that. "You don't have a plan?"
Robby just raised his brows. "I thought you did," he returned in a dry voice.
"Yeah, I do," the young man retorted. "It goes something along the lines of 'Follow Robby around until he tells me what to do.'" He shook his head. "I've lost track of how many times over you saved my life; you're not getting rid of me that easily."
The tall blond grimaced. "Have I mentioned I don't want to be Robby anymore?"
Grant tilted his head. "What does your one of these say, then?" he asked, gesturing with his own travel papers.
"Katriel Dimardin," he returned promptly.
"Kat, then?" Dana half asked.
"Sounds like a woman's name," Jon argued.
"It's closer to my real name than 'Robby' was."
"Not the point," Charlie pointed out. Focusing back on their leader, he asked, "Do you really want to send us away?" There was a… hurt, in his tone.
Robby – Katriel – stared at him all big-eyed for a moment before closing his eyes and moving a hand to cover his face. "I thought you had your own goals," he finally announced. "I hadn't planned any further ahead than that."
"You usually need to know something about the world before you can form those," Vaska returned cheerfully, glad to know he wasn't trying to abandon them… and amused at his leader's confusion. "And I, at least, want to know if yours are like mine before I get swallowed up by someone I don't trust." Around him, there was a series of nods, or noises of agreement.
They'd come a long way, in the months since their escape. Isolated like this, they'd been able to figure out what mattered, without any pressure to conform one way or another. He didn't personally have a history with the Regime that would have gotten him in trouble if he stayed with Razo, but he didn't like what he'd seen of the organization before he'd been taken by Cambyses either – and he knew Robby, trusted him.
Katriel. That's going to take some getting used to.
Most of the others did have reasons to avoid or hate the Regime, though, Katriel included. So, so long as he didn't want to do something utterly crazy like the hell they had just crawled out of, he'd be at his friend's back. After all that they'd been through, then the weeks living together in relative luxury with no outsiders, these men were his family, his brothers… and he'd lost too much to want to give up the family he'd found.
Everyone else seemed to think the same way.
"So… 'Follow Katriel and do his bidding' then," Skye announced, looking around mock innocently. "Did I miss anything?"
The others laughed or at least grinned, though Katriel just hid his face in one hand again.
He'd never done that before coming to Adashia, but personally, Vaska found the new mannerisms comforting. Robby had changed the most out of them, but for the better, he thought – at least, for the better so long as he wasn't planning on leaving them behind now. Cory was starting to act more like a kid too, and the others had lost their fear… Sarcasm had made a rather impressive comeback while their leader was gone, actually, and it looked as though the man didn't know what to do with that.
He'll figure it out, though. He always did.
After the laughter died down and the expectant silence was starting to become uncomfortable, Katriel dropped his hand, and leveled them all with a flat, serious look. "Quatre," he announced.
"Huh?"
His fingers clenched into fists. "My name," he ground out after another long moment, "is Quatre Raberba Winner."
…Wow. That… Well, it definitely explained why he didn't want to go with Colonel Mitchell.
"You know," Darren muttered. "When I was wondering what 'Robby' was short for, 'Raberba' never got on the list."
"That's kinda the idea," Dana pointed out as he elbowed him.
"You don't really look like the pictures, though," Grant pointed out.
A smile tugged at the corner of Quatre's lips. "That was kinda the idea," he repeated. "I had my hair dyed brown when Cambyses took me."
"You got a hell of a growth spurt," Jon agreed, eying him. "And I always thought your eyes were odd; never seen anyone with a that light of a brown before, let alone with specs of blue. You did something to them, yeah?"
The smile that had been tugging at his lips finally spread across his face. "Yeah. I was hoping it would be more permanent than it was, but I got close enough." He eyed them all for a moment before noting, "You're taking this better than I expected."
"It doesn't change anything," Charlie pointed out. "Other than Skye's declaration, at least."
"I revise!" Skye announced. "'Follow Quatre around and be his minion.'"
"And see, that's easy to fix."
"I don't want to fight anymore," Raph spoke up quietly. "But I don't want to be left behind either. If you're going to go against the Regime, there's got to be something more… behind the scenes that I can do, right? Organization, or something?" Bern and Felix made noises of agreement.
"I am pretty decent in an MS," Darren announced. "I flew an Aries, mostly, but I'm not too bad in a Taurus." He smirked. "Damn glad I never met you on the field, all the same. Or any gundam pilot. I was in on the Alliance coup, though."
Quatre frowned. "Treize is alive, you know; just in hiding."
"Treize never killed for me, took a beating for me, or scrounged up old voodoo medicine for me when I got sick," Darren pointed out. "I'm sure he's got plenty of loyalists under him, so I'm hardly any loss."
He rolled his eyes. "It wasn't voodoo medicine."
"Whatever," he returned cheerfully. "My point stands. I may have been in OZ, but it's not like I ever met Treize in more than passing."
"Though, while that's cool and all," Charlie piped up. "We can't all travel in a group, unless we want to pretend we're on a tourist trip or something, and even then… Twenty-three guys? That makes people nervous."
Vaska nodded. "So we need a good way to stay in touch, and move in smaller groups," he mused.
"Either way, we should stay here as a base unless we have a financial foundation to move off of," Felix decided. "I mean, no one really even knows this place exists, right?" He blinked, focusing back on Quatre. "Or you're, you know, Winner, and we do have finances?" he asked curiously.
Their leader just frowned at him for a moment, before covering his face again and sighing. "Maybe. I'll look into it."
oOo
oOo
August 29th 198 – Friday – Prague, Czech Republic
Sally picked up her phone as it chirped cheerfully at her that she had a text. She wasn't expecting anything, but communications were a near constant, so it was probably some sort of update…
'Sally, you probably already heard that I had to get a new phone. This is my new number. -Odin'
She nodded a little to herself as she went through the process of saving the number in her contacts. "Did you ever find out what your boyfriend did to his phone?" she asked curiously. The previous 'it caught fire' excuse had certainly been memorable, but it had already been implied that this time wasn't accidental. Lucrezia had just informed her upon arriving back on base that she'd had to destroy her own for safety precautions, which was surprising, seeing as it was Heero's security… but, well, better to be thorough than sloppy.
Lu shook her head, leaning forward and gesturing impatiently for the device, and Sally gave her an amused smile before handing it over. "He was in a rush; wanted everyone he had talked to on either his or Marlé's phones off the network ASAP. He said it was precautionary, but, well…" She grinned as she leaned back in her chair and started tapping away a response. "The man doesn't do things halfway." Shrugging a little, focused on the screen, she added, "He said he'd have me back online within a few days, and I'd already said I was interested in his system, so the only real annoyance was that I had a few hours before I got in and could tell you that I was technically incommunicado. You already knew where I'd be when, so…"
Sally nodded, leaning back in her own chair. It wasn't that she disagreed with the action; quite the opposite. She just wanted to know why. But presumably her general was asking the pilot that, and would have better luck getting details than herself. They'd been in the middle of discussing supplies and what Howard had said about the effects of Zechs' little romp through space on their assets there, but she was curious enough to wait.
She couldn't help but raise her brows, however, when she spotted a nearly naughty smile on her friend's face as she continued to tap at the screen. "What?"
"He wants to know what phone model I want, so he can set it up," she returned brightly. "Marlé wants to play with the functionality of one of the high end ones."
Sally's lips twitched, but she wasn't sure if it was in amusement or annoyance, this time. "The security breach?"
Lu frowned a little and continued in her nearly nonstop tapping, then grimaced. "Personal," she muttered. "Marlé's mother was just taken into custody, apparently. The way she went about it meant they should have had buffer time for her to thoroughly destroy her phone, but she didn't clarify, and he wiped the cell records of every device they had frequent contact with to be sure." She shook her head. "Poor girl."
The older woman frowned. "Do we know why Heero became involved with her in the first place?"
"No. I'd assumed it was random circumstance, but if her mom was a person of interest to Zechs, then it's probably more involved than that." Her fingers still hadn't stopped moving.
The leader of the rebellion watched her for another long moment before declaring, "No sexting on my phone."
Lu snorted. "I'm asking after Marlé. The kid turns thirteen next month, and from what I heard her say before, she's pretty close to her mother; this is probably hitting pretty hard." She paused and raised a brow. "Sexting?"
She laughed, glad to finally get a reaction. "You're looking a little too happy," she pointed out.
The other woman rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous, and fishing for information." She considered for a moment before adding, "Badly. You need a life."
"I don't get out much," Sally mused by way of agreement. Really, she couldn't get out much; she was far too well known, and her features too distinct. "I'll just live vicariously through your exploits," she decided.
Her friend snorted, beginning to type again. "It should be interesting to see you accomplish that, what with me not talking."
"I'll wear you down," she returned cheerfully.
"Or make it up as you go." She smirked. "I'm altogether curious to see what torrid fantasies you manage to come up with."
"That could be fun," Sally agreed with an absent expression, tapping her lips. "And it might give you ideas to try."
Lucrezia started laughing outright, dropping her hands to her lap to give her an incredulous look. Sally smirked and gestured. "Give me back my phone." The other woman just rolled her eyes… and started typing again. She scowled. "Noin."
"Hush, I'm giving you ideas," the other woman returned in a conspiratorial tone.
Sally grinned at that. "Are they dirty ideas?"
"Extremely," Lucrezia assured her in a dry tone, face hidden behind the screen. "Just give me a minute to come up with an appropriately disturbing way to describe a octo-core processing chip."
Sally considered that. "Dual core sounds more romantic?" she offered, fighting to keep a straight face.
"But less intense," her friend returned in the same clinical tone.
Sally's lips twitched in spite of herself. "I doubt you're having any problems with his intensity."
Lucrezia's shoulders shook as she fought down a laugh, still looking pointedly at the screen she was typing away on.
"Besides," Sally added. "You've already made it clear that you have no intention of sharing, so stop trying to sidetrack me with orgy notions."
The other woman dropped the phone in her lap again, giggling. "You're terrible."
Sally gave her a bright smile. "Give me my phone back."
Lu made a face at her, bringing it back up to type. "In a minute."
She narrowed her eyes. "In the end, though, I imagine it all comes down to RAM."
"Just let me finish what I was saying!" the other woman protested as she laughed. "So I can actually get my new phone!"
Sally rolled her eyes, even as she smiled and leaned back. "Two minutes," she compromised. "We've still got work to get done."
"Whatever goes on in that head of yours," Lucrezia noted dryly as she finished her message, "I do put my job first." She raised a brow at her. "It's a little hard to get things done without personal communication." Shaking her head as she focused again on the screen, she added, "Fixing that is something of a priority. That fact that I'm getting said phone from a man I'm seeing has little to do with it."
Mm, point. Some of her annoyance abated.
"I also feel the need to point out," she added after another moment. "That the man is a professional." She smirked. "And I assure you that he's quite good at everything he tries."
Sally guffawed, not having expected the switch back to innuendo.
"Not that I've had the opportunity to vet him thoroughly," the dark-haired woman continued in a bland tone. She tapped once more at the phone with a sense of finality. "There, done."
"I think I might just hate you," Sally informed her cheerfully, reaching out for her phone once again.
"If it helps you sleep at night," her friend returned serenely, leaning forward to hand it back… only to stop and sit back in her chair when it chirped again.
"Oh come on!"
Lucrezia laughed delightedly, eyes again focused on the screen. "Oh dear."
She resisted the urge to sigh. "What?"
"Hilde's talent for finding trouble has struck again," her general noted. "That or Adam's, depending on your perspective." Her lips twitched. "Who did you have her watching, again?"
Sally frowned, debating taking the damn thing back, but unfortunately it would require a rather awkward and undignified launch across her desk – which probably also wouldn't work. And truthfully, if Lu had had a phone, this was a report that would have gone straight to her anyway. "One of the more extremist cells that's a little too heavily armed for my liking," she admitted. They couldn't go around eliminating other rebel cells because the nightmare of reputation would hurt their cause too much, but at the same time, she couldn't leave some of them unchecked either. The group she'd sent the girl out to surveil was one of the few she was getting dangerously close to assassinating anyway. "In southern France."
"Mm. Well, apparently Adam's tolerance runs lower than yours. According to her, he went in something like guns blazing, and she decided he was being stupid and followed him in as back-up." She pursed her lips. "Hard to say if she was overreacting or not, with how Trowa's always done things, but he hasn't tried to lose her yet, so he's probably at least a little appreciative."
Sally rolled her eyes. Doesn't it figure. Not that she wasn't appreciative of all the help herself, but her life had admittedly been a bit more predictable before those boys had started popping up out of the ground like daisies after rain.
And in any case… She sighed, knowing she was opening herself back up to this, but really, there wasn't any other option. "See if he'll agree to being tagged with a phone if Heero designed the system," she ordered resignedly.
"Actually, Marlé did." Lucrezia's grin was broad as she punched in the request.
"Heero can clarify that at a later point if he feels like it," she groused.
"Odin," Lu corrected.
"Odin," she agreed tiredly. Odin, and Adam… God only knows what the other three are using for names anymore. I'll never manage to keep track. "Did he ever explain where he got Heero from?" She'd already heard the explanation about how he was using his birth name now, and it was only fair that she start remembering it, but really…
"Assignment," Lucrezia dismissed. "Right before Operation Meteor." She made a face. "I get the impression that he didn't really have a name at all while the Bartons trained him, but decided to not ask. Dr. J gave him the code name Heero Yuy, and apparently he didn't really have anything to fall back on until he started reverting back to his childhood for direction. He's not really sure about Odin either, to be honest, but apparently it was his father's name, and he means to keep it."
She frowned. "He remembers his father's name, but not his?"
"Apparently he always said he wasn't his father," her friend returned blithely, leaning over and dropping the phone back on her desk. Her expression was faintly amused. "And always called him 'Kid'." Her shoulders shook slightly as she suppressed another chuckle. "True to form, however, he's decided to ignore what anybody else says and do what he wants… So yes, he remembers his father's name, but not his own."
Well, no one had ever claimed he wasn't decisive. Even when he passed the buck, he damn well did it, and God help anyone who stood in his way. "Well, it makes more sense than 'Adam', at least." She gestured at the papers still littering her desk. "Shall we?"
oOo
oOo
Toulouse, France
Hilde puffed out a breath, trying to get her hair back out of her face as she shifted the weight of the duffel on her back. "Where exactly are we going?" she asked, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice.
Adam continued to look around thoughtfully for a moment, before turning left. "This way."
Making a face, she soldiered on after him. Really… she only had herself to blame. She hadn't had to come with, but she'd wanted to know what the man was going to do next… and his solution had been to shrug and hand her a bag full of guns and ammunition he'd taken from that rebel group.
A bigass duffel bag full of heavy artillery. She was half excited over the fact that he'd said she could keep whatever she wanted, and half disgusted at the idea of carrying it another ten feet, let alone back to Prague. She was going to have to make up her mind about that soon… before they got to wherever the hell they were going.
"Mm…"
"What?"
He gestured at an overpass. "Up there, I think."
"…You think?" she deadpanned. She'd been really trying hard to not consider this option from how he'd been acting for the past half hour, but… "You have no idea where we're going, do you?"
"I have several ideas," he disagreed, starting towards the structure. "They're just not very organized."
...How is it that these guys are all so much more whimsical than Duo ever realized? She'd thought Heero was bad, but now it looked like Trowa was just wandering around armed to the teeth and suspicious looking to any authorities just because he could. With her in tow.
Sighing, she decided to just… roll with it. Seemed to work well enough for the General, right? "Do I get to know any of these ideas?"
"This looks like a good place," he returned easily. "I like it. That's usually a good sign."
Well, so much for that. Maybe gundam pilot logic only made sense if you'd been hit with a couple doses of the Zero System. If this doesn't get anywhere in the next hour, I'm so gone.
oOo
oOo
Munich, Germany – Sarracenia
Relena beamed as she dashed out into the driveway. Whatever shadow hung over her relationship with her bodyguard, she had missed her best friend these past few weeks, and he was finally back. And, based on his broad grin when he saw her, he was doing much better. Laughing, she ran over and pulled him into a tight embrace, which he returned with equal enthusiasm.
That stiffness, his careful precision, had disappeared, and she reveled in it. She had no doubt that it would be back soon, probably within the hour, but for now… "I missed you," she announced quietly, face buried in his chest. She fought to keep herself from fisting the material of his shirt in her hands; that would be too much, and might start to undo what peace he had managed to find in the Noin household. She was pushing her luck as it was, she suspected. "But you look better."
He inhaled deeply in that way that she knew he did when trying to stay calm, when taking in her scent… and his body relaxed further. "I feel better," he admitted just as quietly. "Sorry."
She shook her head, decided any longer this close to him would become awkward, and stepped back. "Everyone needs a vacation, sometimes," she dismissed. Even if it's a vacation from me. That still hurt, but not as badly as when she'd sent him away. If even half of what she and Lin suspected was right… Well.
His smile was grateful as he shifted back, tucking his hands into his pockets. "Any trouble while I was gone?"
"I think Dorothy took Daniella clubbing," she admitted. "But I have no solid proof." The girl hadn't been wearing any make-up yesterday, but it was a little thick this morning, and she was more drowsy than usual. "Beyond that… no trouble, no, but it might take you a little while to catch up." She smiled. "I have a new project running with RLTT concerning the Cambyses survivors – reintegration and counseling, to say nothing of a rather massive PR campaign."
He nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense… Someone had to pick that issue up before it became a problem."
She watched him carefully as he spoke, but even as she did, he knew he wouldn't give anything away; he was too practiced for that. There was even the chance that this was the first he was hearing of her involvement with it; Mailin's research on the colonel's work history had certainly been enlightening, but not definitive.
"As for the clubbing," he continued with a grimace, "I'm surprised it took this long, to be honest. Frankly, they probably only waited to be sure that everyone knew you had a look-alike in the area." He shook his head. "I'll talk to Addie, but she probably already knows; chances are she was part of the group. She's always been a believer in education through supervised mayhem."
He had told her when they first came across the sisters that he'd met Adelia Fonne during a reconstruction project they'd both worked on in L2, back in 191.
He hadn't mentioned that it had been an RLTT project.
Addie had a slim silvery bracelet that she'd only been too happy to show off when asked, with a charm bearing the same phoenix pattern and the same quote etched into the band as Relena's necklace and Delilah's bangle. She hadn't been a candidate, for all that she'd done a great deal of the administrative and hands on work. The bracelet had simply been a parting gift from Jake when they went their separate ways; a trinket of little worth but great sentimentality.
Leia Barton, Sita Freeman, Lucrezia Noin, Edgar Atene, Yihsuan Shan, Carley Secody, Delilah Criel, Desmond Rocke, Kahea Etsitty, Rae Haskan, Franklin Harvey, Howard Oclaire… All were prior candidates for the RLTT fund, and she was now positive that they also all had some piece of jewelry or trinket with the same quote and sigil. And from the work history Mai had been able to piece together for him, she was also certain that all of them had met Jake at some point, though whether or not they remembered him was anyone's guess. They hadn't been able to find direct involvement from him in every past project, but he was there in a position with some degree of power, always just too useful to replace, in far too many to be coincidence. She had met Jake maybe a month before being selected by the Fund, and from that day onwards, he'd been deeply involved in every step she took, running logistics, arranging contacts, helping coerce her brother to do what she wanted…
If she hadn't received responses from RLTT while the man was asleep next to her, or when she knew he couldn't have otherwise possibly be the source…
No. She was convinced that he was deeply in bed with the RLTT Fund, but from what they had pieced together, his position in that web was likely much the same as it was within her own organization. Absolutely integral and highly influential, but not sitting the throne, as it were.
He worked far better from within someone's shadow, after all.
Her knee-jerk response to first realizing her necklace from him was but one of many had been offense, but once she'd had a moment to think it over, she realized how silly that was. He had barely known her… and it had hardly been a present – more of a necessity, after her stunt during their first trip to Munich. He had gone out of his way to make her something beautiful and fitting – something that, as Delilah and Addie had proven, he usually only gave with a farewell – after only knowing her a few months. She had gotten her first glimpse of the man that lived under his many masks that day she had saved the boy who reminded him of his dead brother, but however revealing it had felt at the time, in hindsight, it had been only the barest tip of the iceberg. And since then…?
The clothes, this beautiful home… her heirloom furniture. He had carefully handpicked her guard not just for her safety, but for future political acumen. He had taught her to defend herself from any threat including someone as skilled as himself – especially someone as skilled as himself. Before hiring Vaughn, he'd driven her everywhere, had catered to whims she hadn't even recognized before he showed up with the results, been her closest friend and confidant through everything that had happened this past year and a half…
She couldn't imagine life without him anymore. It was hard to even remember who she had been before she met Jacob Miller. Trying to recall the patterns her thoughts had run in was nearly impossible. She'd been such a girl at the time, and everything had changed so much… It was hard to believe it had really been less than two years since she returned to Brussels. It felt like an entire lifetime.
And… she was utterly in love with this dangerous, secretive man, no matter the consequences.
All things considered, it was probably a far less devastating conclusion than if she had managed to finish falling for Heero. Jake was capable of refashioning the world around him to suit his needs, whereas Heero… That could have ended rather badly. For all the trouble between her and Jake right now, she knew it could be managed, and in truth, the gundam pilot she had fancied herself in love with had been little more than a stranger. She knew Jake, inside and out, and he her.
And based on what they knew now, the argument she and Lin had overheard with David was just… heartbreaking. She knew he loved her, he showed it in every little thing he did, everything he had done since waking from his injuries last December… and he did it all with the firm belief that she would scorn him when she learned he hadn't been entirely truthful.
~~oOo~~
"I'm not so naive as to think this is going to end without something shattering. The best case scenario is the only one who burns being me, so forgive me if I'm not ready… …Dave… I can't let it happen again… Gamble with your own soul; mine's got a bit of mileage."
~~oOo~~
…He was such an idiot. As if she didn't have her own secrets. As if she wouldn't welcome an alliance with Treize; they even had a history of working together, what with the whole stupid Queen of the World nonsense. After everything that had happened, she couldn't think of a single reason why their interests wouldn't coincide, and even if they didn't, really, did he doubt her ability to play the politics with the man, after all she had accomplished? With the exception of Mu, he'd already gone to great lengths to make sure her people would only ever be loyal to her, after all. He'd been preparing for her to learn the truth ever since the formation of the Strike Force.
She was half tempted to call Mitchell and ask him to arrange a meeting. She really was. The only thing stopping her was the fact that she knew, if she could get her colonel to calm down and realize that this was not the end of the world, he'd heal from all this faster than if she slammed it in his face or went behind his back.
In any case, Des had gotten out of the car while the two of them were talking, and she went to impulsively pull him into a hug as well as Jake offered a hand to Cassie as she climbed out with an armful of baby. Noin's father chuckled lightly as he returned the embrace. "Hello again," he murmured.
She pulled away with a bright smile. "Hello." Glancing briefly back to Jake, she added, "Thank-you for looking after him."
"Always a pleasure," he dismissed. "Sometimes, we all need a hand or haven." His serene smile was so achingly like his daughter's that it felt like a physical wound - but only for a moment. "Next time, though, you should come too." He gestured at the grounds. "Get away from all this."
"That sounds lovely," she agreed, for all that she couldn't see herself as being able to take a vacation any time soon. There was a reason her father had tried to treat taking her along on business trips as vacations; it was as close as he had really ever managed, even though it was a poor substitute.
I'll make the time, she decided. However devoted to his career her father had been, what had it gotten him in the end? How well had he known her, really, even when she had gone out of her way to spend every moment of time she could find with him, working alongside him? The only time he ever seemed to spend with her mother was when they went to bed, and considering the fact that she had never had any siblings…
Actually, she wondered how healthy the Darlian marriage had really been. They had always been quietly affectionate when together, but… that had been it. Her mother had arranged parties and visited with friends, spent time with Relena… But in retrospect, she rarely even spoke of her husband except in passing, or when Relena had asked a direct question. They had both loved her, she knew, but…
She resisted the urge to sigh as she turned to Cassie. These were questions she would never know the answers to, and all she could do was hope for the best… and use their example for what she did or did not want in her own life. Seeing the way Des watched his young wife every time he glanced her way… That was what she wanted for herself. And the way that Jake idolized Des, had in some ways modeled himself directly after the man, the way he was even when trying his best to keep their relationship strictly platonic, boded well for the future.
She could see why Noin had turned out so well; she had had an excellent role model.
"Hi!" Cassie greeted cheerfully. "I'd hug you too, but-"
"Here," Jake interrupted, reaching over and deftly plucking the infant from her arms.
Cassandra Noin laughed and took a few quick steps forward to throw her arms around Relena. "Thank-you for having us!" she gushed. "Your home is absolutely gorgeous, and we haven't even seen the inside yet! I'll have to make sure I'm not such a bother that you don't want to have us over again." She leaned back and offered her a wink. "That or I'll just bribe you with baked goods so that even if I'm obnoxious and my son wails endlessly, you appreciate my company anyway."
"We do have a detached guest house," Jake noted, clearly amused. "And, like, four kitchens."
"And there is another baby in the house somewhere," Relena added, shaking her head. "With that preamble I'm a little hesitant to say it, but I will anyway: you're welcome here any time you like, no bribery necessary." Jake considered them family; that was enough for her.
"Oh, you'll want the bribes," Des argued good-naturedly, moving around her to wrap an arm around his wife. "Lyle's a quiet baby, but no one sane passes on playing guinea pig for a pastry chef." He grinned and offered in a stage whisper, "And she really does get out of hand if you try keeping her out of the kitchen."
The princess smiled. "In that case, I'm sure you'll find plenty of appreciation for your talents here," she decided. She'd caught that Cassie baked, obviously, from her visit to their house; she hadn't realized the woman was talented enough to warrant a title, though. "But let's get you settled in before you get too far ahead of yourself," she suggested, turning back to Jake… and freezing.
It wasn't anything that most people would find unusual, or dramatic, really; he was just standing there holding a baby. It was a slightly incongruous image, considering how the tender, practiced care he was obviously taking with the child contrasted with his faded, baggy blue jeans and worn grey t-shirt, but not truly out of place; plenty of men were fathers before their twenty-second birthday, to say nothing of brothers or uncles, or…
…His expression was so focused, so delighted, content, as he gazed at his godson. He had always shown a deep love for children everywhere they went, but… he was entirely enraptured by this boy who wasn't even three weeks old. There was something incredibly right about the sight, almost holy…
He looked up at her and his smile was oh so bright, happy, yet still only a candle compared to the bonfire it had been for the child in his arms. "The guesthouse is good, right?" he asked by way of confirmation.
Her breath only caught in her throat once before she managed a smile and nod. "I'd assumed as much," she agreed, trying to calm her whirling emotions. Summoning up a smirk, she made a shooing motion. "Lead on, you."
His laugh was one of his genuine little cackles as he winked and turned to do just that. Cassie darted after him and started to talk excitedly about something or other, but Relena just couldn't make herself pay attention, instead watching her colonel walk away with no lines of tension in his body at all, feeling her heart sink even as she knew she was being silly. Nothing had changed… She knew how he felt about her, and Lyle was his godson, it made sense, but…
"It's really something, isn't it?" Des muttered as he moved up beside her, a suitcase slung over one shoulder.
She breathed out sharply, not bothering to deny it. "Yes."
"My fault, I suppose," he noted in a quiet tone. "I knew I was raising ghosts when I named him godfather, but I don't regret it." He peered at her seriously with those deep blue eyes of his. "He needs more connections to the now, and I knew it would be good for them both." He shook his head. "What so many people fail to realize about Jake is that once he gives you his loyalty, it's yours for life, no matter what comes. And when you've only ever loved a handful of people in your life, half of which have left you, gaining a new one is… Well, I think you can see."
Connections to the present… Ghosts. "Ghosts?" she found herself asking.
Des pursed his lips, then sighed. "Jake once told me that his earliest memory is of his mother handing him his little brother, and making him promise to always keep him safe." He shook his head. "Considering how young he was I'm not sure how much of that is real and how much imagined from what his uncle retold him over the years, but no matter the case, it's what he believes. She handed him a newborn and told him to always keep him safe, and then she died… and then the boy never reached his tenth birthday. Well, at least, that's what we presume; truth is, Jake literally lost his brother just a couple weeks after the kid turned nine, and in some ways, I think that makes it worse than if he'd ever found a body. If he had, he would have been able to blame whatever had actually killed him. As is, instead, every August, he just thinks about how he couldn't hold onto his family. His mother's death, Odin's death, Junior's loss… I've known Jake since he was ten years old, and even before what happened in 188, Augusts were hard.
"But when Lyle was late and didn't come until August, I saw an opportunity… and it's ironic, really, that he has the same birthday as Junior. I couldn't have planned for that, but Jake has always felt strongly about symbolism, and with Cassie bouncing back just fine from the birth… He's reading too much into things, but I'm hardly going to discourage him. If he wants Lyle to be his chance at redemption, I can only see good coming of it."
That… really was haunting, in a way. More importantly, though, it made what she had just seen make sense, and like Desiderio, she could see the good in it. Mitchell had spoken about Jake not doing well this time of year too, and if they could overlay good important events over the bad… maybe it would be less painful for him in the future. "I'm glad, then," she decided.
"You shouldn't read too much into it either," Des added. "It's hardly the same thing."
She frowned, meeting his eyes. "What?"
"He's coming around," Des continued implacably. "His heart's been there for a long while now, and body too, for all that the man has more restraint than I'd have believed possible, especially for his age." He smirked. "I don't think you realize just how much you tease him with every glance and touch, Princess." She blushed, and he laughed softly. "No, it's his mind that's giving him trouble; paranoia is a double-edged blade."
She forced down the wild surge of frustration that rose at his words. "He's being ridiculous," she snapped.
"Oh, without a doubt. He has a tendency towards extremes of every sort, though, if you hadn't noticed." His lips twitched into another smirk. "Same as you." He only laughed again when she glowered at him. "Don't be like that," he teased. "It was a compliment." Gesturing at the way his wife and Jake had gone, he added, "We'd better catch up before they realize we've been gossiping."
She rolled her eyes, stepping forward. "You are entirely incorrigible," she informed him.
"And I take pride in it," he agreed happily as he followed her. "You wouldn't want me any other way, you know; I could have been a miserable old man with an amazing trophy wife instead of an all-seeing smartass."
She snorted at that, shooting him a disbelieving look, to which he only smiled more brightly in that way that was oh so reminiscent of Lucrezia when she was politely telling someone off. With that, she couldn't help it, and started to laugh outright.
oOo
oOo
Toulouse, France
…It was an armory.
It was an armory, tucked away in what had appeared to be a damned crevice of a freeway overpass in the middle of southern France.
Adam's smile was broad. "I thought I liked this place," he declared happily. Setting down his bag, he opened up a bin against the wall and began to rummage through it.
Okay, so, he obviously didn't know this was here… For all that she usually had no issue stealing from people who collected weapons, this made her a little nervous; usually, she knew who she was taking stuff from, and, you know, when they might come back, so she could hopefully be gone before then. "Are you sure we should be doing this?" she asked hesitantly. She felt like a coward for saying it, but… Well, she'd had a few close calls lately. It was one thing to take risks, and something else altogether to not know the risks. "What if the owner comes back?"
"Mm, I'm pretty sure this is mine," he noted without looking up. He pointed at another container, closer to her. "If that has grenades in it, then this is definitely mine; it seems like something I would have put grenades in."
Hilde stared dubiously at the big, dehydrated soup tin. "Seriously?"
"This isn't the first time this has happened," he admitted. "I have no idea how many of these stashes I made before the amnesia, but I've started taking a closer look when I notice I really like a place." He glanced up. "Does it have grenades in it, or not?" He frowned. "If not, maybe… That." He gestured to… a popcorn tin.
With a big, jolly Santa Claus printed on it in bright colors.
Which was sitting next to a neatly lined up array of assault rifles.
Lips twitching, she moved over to the soup tin and lifted the lid. "They're here," she agreed. Her eyes wandered back to the rifles. "Can I have one of those?"
"Sure," he returned absentmindedly, closing the bin he'd been going through and opening another. "I've collected maybe twenty since Libra fell anyway… Should be the same model the Alliance ground troopers used; not as light as what you probably had in OZ, but they're sturdier, jam less often."
She blinked. "How many of these places have you made since Libra?"
"At least fifteen," he returned in a distracted tone. "No… eighteen, on Earth."
Which implied he'd been doing this on the colonies too. Kinda overkill, but… She eyed the little room consideringly. Kinda awesome too. "You have got some weird hobbies, Adam," she announced after a moment.
He snickered. "My sister says I have the most barbaric packrat tendencies she's ever heard of," he noted wryly. "But she loves me anyway."
"Militaristic hoarder?" she suggested, and grinned as he laughed, even as she noted a yellow sticky note on the floor. It looked like it had fallen off the shelf next to it, and, curious, she went over to pick it up. Adam didn't exactly strike her as the note-taking type…
oOo
Trowa,
I'm told I'm supposed to tell people when I take their things.
01
oOo
…You have got to be kidding me… Scowling, she showed Adam the note, only to frown more when he laughed and went back to his cataloguing. "Doesn't it bother you?" she demanded.
He shrugged. "I must have given him access in the first place, which means I was fine with it. And it's not like I'm missing anything." He snickered. "I only found this place by luck. I'm sure, whatever it was, it helped him." He looked around, focusing on an empty space of wall. "Actually, it might have been something for Heavyarms. It would be easy enough to bring a truck in close, so the weight wouldn't be as much of a problem." He shrugged. "In which case, well, good riddance, I already gave that away, so any …accessories were just taking up space. Now I have somewhere to put my new stuff."
Hilde opened her mouth to argue – it was the principle of the thing – then closed it, looking around the crowded space… and back to the bags they'd brought with them.
He kinda had a point.
Well… at least he was practical? Making a face, she started looking through what was piled on a shelf opposite to Adam, trying to get a feel for what went where before she started to unload her pack. Though she still took a moment to snap a picture of the damn sticky note and send it to Sally, because seriously?
oOo
oOo
Amsterdam, Netherlands – New Renew
"Oooodiiiiin," Marlé whined, looking up from the phone to glower at him.
He frowned. "What?"
"You suck!" she insisted. "How hard is it to write a note to a friend?"
He blinked a few times before he put together what she must be talking about, and smirked. "It seemed like something he'd find amusing." However different Trowa was these days, he doubted his delight at blatantly obtuse statements had disappeared entirely. He tilted his head as another thought occurred to him. "How did he find it, anyway?" It had been something Trowa would have thought was funny, but he'd also expected it to never be read; the man who had come to Peacemillion at Duo and Quatre's behest had had hints of Trowa in him, but Odin was under the impression that if amnesia lasted more than six months it wasn't going anywhere.
"Did he get his memory back?" he asked curiously, stepping over and snatching the phone away from the girl – though, both to his amusement and exasperation, it took three tries before he managed it. Dropping back to the floor next to her, he unlocked the screen, and glanced up at Duo giving them that same look Quatre seemed to wear so often when watching Marlé accomplish something.
Though he supposed, in Duo's defense, he had almost broken his wrist for trying to play keep-away with a data disk, that one time while they were infiltrating a school. He'd never seemed willing to believe that it had been an accident.
It was a picture of his note, and a comment from Lucrezia, via Sally's phone, saying that Hilde wasn't impressed with his communication skills. Grinning a little to himself, he quickly asked if she was still with Trowa.
"You've heard from Trowa?" Duo asked.
"Mm, only in a loose sense," he admitted. "Some of Lucrezia's people have run into him a few times. He's using the name Adam Bloom now." The phone chirped, and he opened the text.
'Yes.'
Grinning, he typed up a quick request for the number. Adam might not be the Trowa he remembered, but it was pretty obvious by now that there were enough echoes for him to be a competent ally and, based on what Xu had said a few weeks ago, he had a similar sense of humor. If anything, it seemed to just be more pronounced, now.
Not unlike his own transformation, he suspected. He was curious enough to investigate, at least, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Though…
"Do you mind if Hilde knows where you are?"
The look he received for the question was surprisingly amused. "Hilde bitched me out last March for not having invited her to my wedding. Like I invited anyone, or like I had a way to tell her."
Odin frowned. "So she already knows."
"Yeah, I saved her hide when she got grabbed by the Regime almost two years ago. I told her it was okay to tell you and the other guys about me, but not anyone else." He made a face, not unlike when Marlé bit into something sour. "I'm done with all the politics and fighting. I figure I'll just lay low until the dust settles, and then we'll see what happens. I've got a life now, and I'm not going to put that in danger."
Marlé beat him to the next question, as the phone chirped again. "You told her to tell Odin?"
'076-54-386-543-8794-4. This should be entertaining.'
Grinning, he typed a quick, 'Yes.' before tapping the number to dial it. He only considered for a moment before putting it on speakerphone, just as it began to ring.
Marlé blinked, then, putting it together, burst into a fit of giggles that she immediately tried to stifle with her hands. Duo just smirked and moved closer, sitting cross-legged close enough that their knees nearly touched. Marlé flopped onto her stomach on his other side and rested her chin on his good leg, watching the screen as the call connected with a rather mischievous smile.
He was of the same opinion as Lucrezia, truthfully, and didn't see how this would really require his own participation beyond arranging the circumstances.
"Hello?"
"Yo, it's Marlé," his protégé greeted immediately. "And dude, you totally suck at, like, communicating."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm kinda with the kid on this one, Hil," Duo added. "Seriously, what the hell?"
"…Kasey?" she asked tentatively.
"No, it's the fucking ghost of Christmas Past," he snarked.
"I could never get him alone!" she defended instantly. "What was I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, maybe ask if you could talk to him alone for a minute?!"
There was silence on the other end of the line as she considered that, and Marlé whistled lowly. "Wow. And for the record, Odin, like, doesn't keep secrets from me anyway."
"Too much effort to no purpose," Odin agreed absently.
"And let's not forget that she's apparently BFFs with my kid!" Duo snapped. "Shit, Hil, I was hearing all about your little adventure in some weird forest the day after it happened because she called him up to bitch about you!"
"That wasn't why I called!" Marlé protested.
"No, you called him because you talk on the phone at least twice every damn day, and have been for months." Duo scrubbed a hand over his face. "Damn it… You alone?"
"Trowa's here," she negated immediately.
"Not really," a male voice noted in the background, sounding amused. "Who's Kasey?"
Odin perked up at that. "Adam, right? We met back on Peacemillion. I was going by Heero."
"Duo, here," his old comrade added in a resigned tone. "Or Kasey, whatever."
He made an amused noise. "It's been a while. Thanks for clearing some space, by the way."
Odin laughed. "I never actually thought you'd find that note, you know."
"There appears to be a fine line between irrational like of a place and memory," Adam noted happily. "Nostalgia leading me by the nose turns up interesting, sometimes." He paused. "I hear you chased me through Europe?"
"Give or take," Odin hedged. "I saw a glimpse of Xu and recognized your methods, so I thought I was chasing Wufei."
"Hm. I don't remember him very well. Has anyone heard from him?"
"No. But Quatre's okay, I talked to him yesterday." After everything with Wing Zero, it had mostly been Duo and Quatre who interacted with Trowa. He hadn't really bothered, himself… He'd been busy. And the hesitance in the other man had convinced him that any effort to find his friend in this new stranger was likely pointless.
"Hey!" Hilde snapped, and he heard Adam laugh…
…He knew that laugh. Something stirred deep in his chest at the sound…
"Why Adam?" he found himself asking.
"Why not?" He could practically hear the man's shrug in his tone. "I hear you're Odin now?"
He smirked. "It felt right."
"Mm, alright." A breathy sort of chuckle came through the line. "You didn't really think that would work, did you?"
"You're an asshole!" Hilde snapped, her voice muffled; evidently, she wasn't next to the mic anymore.
"And?" Adam asked, his tone genuinely curious.
"If you're not going to give it back, at least put it on speakerphone! I haven't talked to Duo in months!"
"Hm." After another moment, the sound quality changed. "Though really, I think he was calling for me."
"I was," Odin agreed before Hilde could start on something else. "Do you want a secure phone? I'm setting them up for the others already."
"Only if you don't expect it to be turned on most of the time."
He shrugged. "It's your phone."
"That's good, then." His tone was happy. "Cathy will like it. You have the email I gave Sally's people?"
"I can get it."
"Give me the details through that." There was a long pause, before he asked Hilde, "So why didn't you tell me about Duo?"
"Yeah, I was about to ask that myself," Duo agreed.
She sighed. "Because I wanted to check first, what with the amnesia."
"I had amnesia the last time we saw each other," Adam pointed out in a mild tone. "It stands to reason that he assumed I still did."
"You're claiming to be someone else entirely," Hilde argued.
"…Because I am? I was never Trowa Barton either, you know. I was just what was available after he antagonized one of his men into shooting him over the original Operation M."
Odin focused on Marlé at that, but really, this wasn't news; with Leia's help, they had pieced together the Barton Heir's probable fate – and the girl had been horrified when she found out what the original Operation M had been. He had gathered that she had fond memories of her uncle, but Leia's open scorn of him was probably… healthy.
Leia and Marie seemed to be the only decent human beings to come out of the Barton family, at least recently.
"I thought you had amnesia," Hilde argued, voice suspicious.
"I thought you just followed me to a stockpile that I shouldn't have known how to find."
Marlé started laughing. Duo grinned as Hilde spluttered. "Kinda hit or miss, huh?"
"Give or take," Adam agreed. "It's a long way from black or white, at least. I have flashes, or I know things with no idea how, and emotional memories seem pretty exact but aren't much use out of context. Everything physical is there, but even the doctor said it would be, the first time I woke up; the area where you store motor skills wasn't where I took the brain damage."
"Damn," Duo muttered. "I hadn't realized it was that bad."
"There's a reason Cathy bit your head off when you first found me," Adam pointed out, tone amused again. "I hadn't been out of the hospital for long." He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before asking, "How have you been?"
Duo's smile was bright. "Pretty good. There's been some bad stuff, but a lot of good too. I'm married now, and have a pretty extended family that claimed me. It's a bit like you and Cathy that way, I suppose."
He's more talkative, still, Odin mused, listening to the conversation with half an ear. But then, so am I. The way he talked, the word choices, they were very different too. The undertone of the conversation, however, the mood of it, and the lines his reasoning followed… those were Trowa exactly, and the longer he listened, the more comfortable he grew with the idea of befriending the man a second time.
He looked down to meet Marlé's eyes when she double-tapped on his leg with two fingers, and offered her a smile. Her expression was curious, but concerned, too… She wanted to know what he was thinking. 'Later' he mouthed, and she eyed him for another long moment before nodding and sitting back up, reaching for the laptop she had been tinkering on before she'd gotten Lucrezia's text.
She was doing well, really. For all that he and Leia had laid out a plan for if she was ever discovered and informed Marlé of the details, it had been obvious at the time that she didn't think it would ever come to this. Leia had been hopeful, but nearly certain that it would all the same, and had outlined a different set of expectations should she be taken into custody. The rules had changed… and he wasn't sure that Marlé had realized it yet.
Then again, she had taken the rules into her own hands and effectively swapped the outline he was working with when she had introduced herself to Lucrezia. The only difference was that he could no longer let her wander on her own when fancy took her; she had to either be with him, or with someone he trusted absolutely.
Good thing I suddenly found myself with an overabundance of those. He fought the urge to grin as he looked over to Duo, talking more and more animatedly, gesturing nonsensically as he did. She had found Duo for him months ago – they just hadn't known it yet. Now the only one of them still missing was Wufei, and, well… Wufei had avoided the rest of them even on Peacemillion, let alone before that. The idea of having a network to fall back on, that included not only Quatre, but Duo and Trowa, Adam? Lucrezia?
It was… exciting.
So, phones first, and that shouldn't take them much longer. After that, there were still a number of Zero drives he needed to collect from space. He'd need to take a few more trips to America too, but he wasn't going there without backup, and that was going to require planning, so he could start laying down the groundwork, but overall it would have to wait. Otherwise…
…He really wanted to go find his old passport. His search on Odin through the databanks in Bolivia had been about as helpful as he expected; for five years, he had been with OZ, and his work had been classified. He'd left in 179, and his body had been identified in 188 on the colony where he had died. That was it. Even his date of birth had been missing.
Odin had always preferred to keep his records thoroughly sanitized. He hadn't really expected to find something useful, but trying had let him know that any other searches for his father's information would also be dead ends. The man had believed in being thorough. Therefore, his only way to find a lead was to use his own information, and that passport would be the easiest way of it. He was fairly sure he could go into a welfare office and offer his fingerprints to earn a wealth of information, but he also suspected that that would set off flags of some sort, and he would rather have more to work with before that, incase it turned out poorly. He doubted it would, but…
For all that he wanted to know, he was aware that coming into the open with it would almost assuredly cause complications. He couldn't think of a reason why his life would have to change at all, once he did… but it also struck him as something that might change everything.
There were too many unknowns for him to feel comfortable. Finding the passport was the safer option, at least as a starting point.
For now, though… there was something comforting about Marlé being in his peripheral vision; in listening to Duo and Adam chatter like old friends. In Lucrezia being only a few taps away… and that he could talk to her for literally no reason about anything, or ask her to meet with him even if he gave no explanation, just because he wanted to feel her beside him, lose himself in the intoxication of her scent as her laughter vibrated through her skin…
…It had been a day since they parted, and already, he wanted that back. More than he could remember wanting anything in his life. It was… disconcerting.
Dangerous. Only, he was having a hard time grasping why.
Abruptly, he wanted Duo to finish the call, so he could-
No. Duo had asked that Lucrezia not be informed of his whereabouts. He wouldn't call her until they left Amsterdam, and they weren't going to leave for another couple of days, when they finished the network.
…That thought had no right to feel so… depressing.
Suppressing a sigh, he moved the phone to Duo's knee instead of his own and laid back on the floor, head settling next to Marlé – who automatically tipped the screen so he could see it a little better from his angle before continuing to work. He gave the code a cursory glance, but didn't bother focusing on it; he'd comb it through properly before they put it to work.
She was making good progress, though, taking to his request that she start from scratch on the new system with enthusiasm. Her memory of what she had done before was good, and she had excitedly outlined the differences she wanted to include because it was a wider network before he could suggest them.
After a moment, she asked, quietly enough that the mic shouldn't pick it up, "Bored?"
"Mm," he grunted in agreement. He wasn't sure that was exactly what he was feeling, but it equated well enough.
"You could go buy the phones," she suggested. "I'm working on this, and it'd look weird if the locals did it then didn't have them in a week."
That was a good point. And he'd want to buy from a handful of different places, decently far apart, to not seem terribly out of place himself… And he needed to do some research; Lucrezia had requested some decently high stats. Nodding sharply, he sat back up and stood, moving for the door, waving off Duo's curious look.
Coffee sounded good too.
oOo
oOo
Impossible
oOo
So… Thoughts? Review?
This one was seriously the most fun I've had in a damn long time… And Odin and Duo's reunion is one that's been in my brain since 2008. And yes, it's always planned that the 1st thing that comes out of Duo's mouth is "You're blonde." On another note, I didn't realize just how loyal to/protective of Mariemaia Jake was until Zechs scared him this chapter… sometimes, the way that man's head works is just… stunning.
Yay for culminating plots! Finally!
