Crossover Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Crossing Barriers ❯ Spirit Wards, Peace Talks, Working past Loss ( Chapter 7 )

Crossing Barriers

 

Gundam Wing and Gundam Seed are the sole property of their creators and distributing studios. I have no financial interest in either series. Nor am I receiving any financial gain from this fan fiction work. I do however own all plot elements not part of the original and all self-created characters. Thank you. Enjoy.

 

Special note: Yaoi (homosexual pairings) is a plot element of this story. There will be NO explicit material but there will be sections where it is reasonably clear that sex is happening or has happened.

 

Beta Reader: T'Amara

 

 

Spirit Wards, Peace Talks, Working past Loss

 

 

Kira warily pushed the door to the new FAITH offices open. He hadn't been here yet even though they'd been assigned a couple days ago. Shiho and Commander Ito's wife had been redecorating the place. One of the more sure signs of wisdom in a man was to stay well away from women rearranging the furniture and putting out the knick-knacks. Not even Yzak had been brave - or stupid - enough to come until Shiho said it was ready.

 

“What do you think Kayla? The drum or the Kachina?” Shiho's voice carried thoughtfully from the office on the right.

 

“This is going to be Kira's space. He gets the Kachina. Charlie sent it up especially for him.”

 

Kira very quietly closed the door and headed back down the hallway. They clearly weren't quite finished yet and he wasn't going to let them know he was anywhere around until they were. He spotted Yzak stalking up the hall and went to intercept him.

 

“Where are you going Yamato?” Joule was clearly in one of his `moods'. “We have work to do and the office is in the other direction.”

 

“Yes, it is.” Kira agreed brightly. “But so are Shiho Hahnenfuss and Kayla Ito. They haven't quite finished moving the furniture. So, what do you think of some coffee down in the cafeteria? We can discuss the non-secure stuff there.”

 

Displaying the intelligence he'd been chosen for, Yzak made a smart turn and fell in beside his Second as they headed for the elevator. He didn't even bother to question the need to be somewhere else. He did hand over about half a briefcase worth of paper to Kira on the way down though. So he was serious about getting some work done. Kira didn't mind. He was ready to start tackling the job anyway.

 

They took over a fairly generous corner table and Yzak glared everyone else in the room into staying at least three tables away from them. The wait-staff, Yamato had picked the officer's cafeteria after all, did venture close enough to get their orders before they scurried away. Once the coffee and pastries had been delivered though, they vanished. Kira was using a jelly doughnut to hold down one corner of a blueprint and Yzak's empty coffee cup to pin down another when someone considerably braver than the waiter slid into the empty seat beside him.

 

“Let me guess, you two are here because the girls are still fiddling with things in the new office, right?”

 

“Ito, you can take your wife home to those kids of yours anytime now.” Yzak growled. “I want to use my own desk, not a cafeteria table, to get my work done.”

 

The tall, amber eyed man just grinned. “What, you think I'm suicidal? I'm not going up there until they're done Joule. Not when they've got a whole box of things Charlie sent up to spot around your spaces.”

 

“Who's Charlie?” Yzak grumped.

 

“Oh, you remember the very old Native American shaman who came to our wedding up here in the Plants? The one who got pollen dust all over the insides of every mobile suit in the Thoms Team when he blessed them? That Charlie.”

 

Yzak stared, horrified. “What kinds of things did he send?”

 

Adrian Ito suddenly sobered. “Spirit Wards. He must have decided he likes you Yzak because I gather this is the first time any First Nations shaman has sent up a full set of Spirit Wards for any space in the Plants other than my house. And I think I have them only because he's afraid the kids'll get into trouble if he didn't ward the place. I have one ward for my office, one for Commander Thom's office and one for Yuri's and that's it outside of this set you are now getting.”

 

“What are Spirit Wards?” Kira asked before Yzak could decide to say something nasty.

 

“Honestly, I don't know. I do know they are supposed to allow the Native American spirits to come and watch over and protect a place. But I have no idea how they are supposed to do this. I do know that they have to be pretty precisely placed to be their most effective so no matter what the office looks like, if you think it may have come from Colorado, don't move it. Kayla will not be nice to you if you do and I suspect she'll have Shiho's help.”

 

“Spirits. To watch over me?” Yzak just shook his head. “Wonderful. Do I have to symbolically feed them or something?”

 

“I don't think so. Not that they'd be unhappy if you did mind you but I don't think it's necessary.”

 

Kira cocked his head at his friend. “Adrian, you sound like you actually believe in these `spirits'.”

 

The slightly older Coordinator stole a chocolate laden pastry off the tray and nibbled thoughtfully on it before he replied. “I do. I have no rational explanation for it either. But unless I'm prone to some highly improbable hallucinations, which I seriously doubt, I believe I've seen and talked to some of them. Fortunately, they pretty much leave me alone now that the war is over again. But they sure spent a lot of time and energy giving me orders while the shooting lasted. I gather I'm supposed to support someone sometime in the future and I needed to live through the war in order to be available to do this. They don't tend to be real forthcoming with their information until the very last second so I'm still not sure.”

 

Both of them stared at Ito. He believed in some kind of native spirits? And he was a Team Commander in the ZAFT?

 

“Oh,” was the best Kira could come up with. “Well, I'm glad they aren't interested in me then.”

 

Ito smiled tightly. “Oh but they are Kira. You are one of Thunderbird's Children. Athrun is the other. Oh, yeah, you have a Spirit guiding you around all right. One I'm very happy to have ignoring me by the way! There is a scary amount of power in the Thunderbird. I'm told the reason you've survived some of the less likely events you have is because that one was protecting you. And having met it, I can believe it has the power to do everything Charlie says it has for you.”

 

He looked over at Yzak and give him a very non-reassuring grin too. “And before you decide to hassle Kira, you should know you do have a Guardian. One very suited to your personality too. Wolverine is just about as short tempered and vicious as you are at your worst. And he values his friends and defends them with the same single-minded focus you use as well. So if you should happen to someday hallucinate an unidentified animal with a pair of broad stripes down his back, a bushy tail, beady eyes and sharp teeth that stands shoulder tall on you, hey, at least you know who he is now. If he should talk to you, you might just want to pay attention. The Spirits don't offer useless advice.”

 

“Who follows you around?” Yzak snapped.

 

“Golden Eagle.” Ito replied immediately. “He's taller than I am and he's got a warped sense of humor. You wouldn't get along at all.”

 

“Who wouldn't get along?”

 

They all looked up. Kayla Ito stood beside her husband's chair, given them all a rather hairy eyeball look that said she'd heard at least some of the discussion and wasn't happy about it. A hairy eyeball that sharp an emerald green was strong enough to cut too.

 

“Golden Eagle and Yzak.” Adrian told her.

 

“Why would Golden Eagle even bother to try to talk to him?” She wanted to know. “He's so completely not Eagle's type.”

 

“I know. But he wanted to know who `followed me around'.”

 

“Told him about Wolverine, didn't you?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Was that Eagle's idea or one of your bright moves?”

 

“No, Eagle thought he should know.”

 

“Right.” She studied Yzak thoughtfully. “So, I guess then I just give you this and let you make up your own mind about it.”

 

She pulled a modest jewelry style box out of a pocket and put it carefully down in front of him. “This is yours. It's your Spirit Talisman. Why Charlie sent you one is beyond me since you haven't ever done your Journey but hey, I don't tell ranking shaman how to do their jobs. You're supposed to wear it twenty-four seven so it can protect you. What you do elect to do with it is your business but throwing it away would be real stupid. Just so you know that.”

 

She turned to her husband. “That office is done and I wanna go home. The triplets will be wanting dinner before long. You stuck to that chair or can you leave now?”

 

“No, no, I can go any time you're ready.” Adrian stood up with a warm smile and kissed her on the cheek. “They have work to do, let's leave them to it.”

 

He suited action to words and whisked her away before Yzak could think of anything intelligent to say. Kira waved as they left. He turned back to his companion and waited to see what he'd come up with.

 

“He's joking.” Joule said flatly. “He has to be.”

 

Kira didn't say anything but his eyes told Yzak he didn't agree. “Why don't you open it and at least look at it.”

 

“Don't tell me you believe in this idiocy!”

 

“Uhm, I've never been able to make up my mind on it.” Kira told him seriously. “On the one hand it's flat out ridiculous. On the other, well, there have been some things that really shouldn't have worked out the way they did. So I just wear the one Charlie gave me at the wedding and try to ignore the whole thing.”

 

“And that's your advice?”

 

“Yeah, it is. After all, you honestly don't ever have to tell anyone up here about it now do you?” Kira shrugged. “They tend to be rather attractive pieces of jewelry and you can just pass it off as a piece you're fond of.”

 

Yzak eyed the box doubtfully but dutifully opened it. The Spirit Talisman turned out to be some kind of small but rather wicked looking tooth set in sliver and surrounded with small, double-pointed coral stones. Kira thought it a rather handsome piece and said so. It was strung on a fairly heavy silver chain. After staring at it for a good five minutes, Yzak just put it on and tucked it into his tunic. Neither one of them mentioned it again.

 

* * * * * * *

 

Lacus sighed wearily. It had been a long day, a very long day. But any day that involved the peace negotiations tended to be overlong and not terribly productive lately. And this latest bee in the Alliance Foreign Minister's bonnet was not helping matters at all.

 

Honestly, she could understand why he'd want the L-4 colonies back. They'd all been built by various Alliance interests after all. But his approach was so completely undiplomatic that half the Council was up in arms over it. And it wasn't just the more radical of them either. No, anyone who could get Yuri Amarfi that upset had been working at it.

 

He and Tad Elsman had only recently been reelected to the Council after stepping down while Gilbert Dullindal was Chairman. They were still moderates but if that fool Pearson didn't shut up they'd soon be turned into radicals. At least she'd been able to force them all to table the topic for a while.

 

She really hadn't wanted to have to do that. It would have been better to just hash it out and make a decision. But feelings were running too high due to the Foreign Minister's ill-chosen words. All she could do was shake her head unhappily. This was going to be a persistent thorn until they could address it.

 

Lacus wasn't happy with the man's demand for a fly-by to collect current data on the individual colonies either. She'd been in there with the Eternal. It was no place to be taking a capital ship. Too many of those places were falling apart now. The heavy cables that had once helped tie the colony sections together were coming loose and drifting. Those were dangerous enough. But the ones that were still attached to a colony at one end were strong enough to tear a ship apart if it snarled in them and didn't detect what was happening in time to cut their engines.

 

There was a quiet knock at the office door before Kira leaned in. “Lacus? Aren't you done yet?”

 

“Hello Kira, no, I'm just finishing now.”

 

He came in and perched himself on the corner of her desk. “You look tired love.”

 

“I am. It's been quite the day.” She sighed, it wasn't anything she could discuss with him yet. “How did yours go?”

 

Kira grinned at her, brightening her evening just by being there. He had her laughing in short order as he told her the story of the gift of Spirit Wards and the talisman necklace. She found some of Yzak's stiff-necked attitude grating and it was always good when someone did something that forced him to reappraise his world view. He almost always lightened up a bit after one of those sessions. Perhaps having one of these `spirit guides' would help with that too.

 

She wondered if she should check with Kayla Ito about getting one for herself. She wasn't too proud to admit friendly advice would be welcome at times. Mind, she wasn't at all sure about talking to some half-visible creature several times larger than the real creature it represented could ever be. That would take quite the suspension of disbelief before she could do something like that.

 

“I wanted to ask you, do you mind if I go over to Armory One and poke around that warehouse?”

 

“What?” She suddenly realized Kira had gone on to a completely different topic. “I'm sorry, I was following a thought. What did you want?”

 

“I want your formal permission to go over to Armory One and poke around that warehouse, the one the n-jammer cancellers were stolen from. I can't get past the feeling that we're missing something there. I'd like to do my own examination of the site.” He repeated his request patiently.

 

“Kira, you're FAITH. You can go whenever you want to.”

 

“I know. But it'll sooth the bruised egos if you send me. That way I'm not imposing myself on their investigation. I'm working under the orders of the Supreme Council. That's easier to accept than some nosey, jumped up kid.”

 

She considered it. Truth was, that investigation hadn't been going anywhere. The box they'd recovered contained slag so completely melted they hadn't been able to do more than isolate the elements that made it up. Unfortunately, just knowing the elemental makeup of a device didn't tell you a thing about how it had been built or worked. The only intact item they had was the box itself and the material it was made of had defied analysis so far.

 

A vision of that hanger and its mobile suits swam unbidden to the front of her mind. Those people had taken the cancellers for a reason. Really, just making that crossing had been a terrible risk. Something had driven a man who looked almost elderly to her to step across this unimaginable gulf to take something. What kind of desperation had driven him to do that? And where were the pilots for those suits? Surely one of them, younger, stronger, faster, would have been a better choice to send as a thief?

 

Lacus shook her head slowly. “We aren't making any discoveries. I've spoken several times with Dean Koudelka but she hasn't had any new insights to offer either. I did give her your thoughts from the meeting the other day and she has had them input into some kind of activity analysis program she's designed for this incident. She should have results in a day or so. But she also warned me that she'd set it up with an underlying assumption that they were at least somewhat like us in more than just looks. She said that was a dangerous assumption to make but it was the only one she could take if she was going to get any analysis done in less than a year.”

 

“I don't think it's all that dangerous myself.” Kira told her rather grimly. “Like I said the other day, they have military grade mobile suits. That alone tells us they have some serious points of similarity right there. They stole n-jammer cancellers. You only need those to protect a nuclear energy source. So they have that capability and their suits almost certainly have reactors for their power sources. No, I think her assumptions will probably be pretty valid and we'll prove it when we meet them.”

 

She stared at him. “Meet them? When, where?”

 

“No idea yet. But I can't shake a feeling that I will meet those suits. I'm not positive it'll be in a fight but I'm absolutely sure I'll get to see them someday.”

 

With a sinking heart, Lacus realized some part of her agreed with him. She didn't know if she could trust this feeling or not. She did know he was correct in wanting to go and make his own check on the situation. So she cut him a set of orders he could use any time in the next three days that would give him full access to the warehouse and everything relating to the incident.

 

She wondered if Yzak would want to go too. When Kira said he wasn't sure but would ask him, she altered the wording of her order so he would be approved if he decided to go. After all, Yzak might be opinionated on many topics but that didn't make him blind. And two sets of keen eyes would be better than just one. Once he had his orders in hand, she let him escort her back to her official residence and take his place in the small sleeping room just off her outer office. She felt safer again, now that Kira was back on guard.

 

* * * * * * *

 

The safe-house door smashed open with a terrific bang. Heero snapped around, gun coming up on automatic pilot. He was peripherally aware of Trowa and Wu Fei doing the same thing. But it was no enemy that came staggering through the opened portal.

 

Duo stumbled into the room, several large bags in his hands and hanging from his arms, his face white as a ghost. Quatre was right behind him, his color just as bad and his arms just as full. They were moving with the mechanical precision only ruthless training could impose over their shock. Both wavered as far as the treated sheet and their loads slithered out of their hands to tumble gently onto the bug-protected surface. It wasn't until they'd dropped the supplies that the two of them turned to their startled companions.

 

“'Ro,” Duo's eyes were huge and his voice barely there. “'Ro, they blew up my house.”

 

Heero blinked. Whatever he'd thought might have caused this reaction, it hadn't been this! Wait, blew up Duo's house?

 

“Duo, what happened?” Wu Fei asked sharply, eyes probing the hallway past the opened door, watching for an enemy pursuit he was sure had to be there.

 

“Some bastard blew up my house!” Duo screamed. “They blew up my whole yard! There's nothing left but a hole in the colony floor!”

 

Heero straightened from the crouch he'd dropped into when the door had slammed open. “So, that's what J meant.”

 

“What?” Trowa's eyes jumped between him and Quatre's blanched face.

 

“That note about getting our bad news off the regular feeds.” Heero explained.

 

“There was an attack on my home in Riyadh too.” Quatre whispered. “I, the pictures weren't good, so much damage, the family isn't saying anything.”

 

The blond looked up, “Oh, Trowa, I'm so sorry! They were your friends!”

 

Heero put his gun back in the holster at the small of his back and went to close the door. The news was obviously going to be bad; they didn't need to have some local drifter or bum hear them right now. He quietly closed the heavily soundproofed door and went to stand beside a badly shaking Duo. Trowa was holding Quatre, who was crying on his shoulder. He shot a quick look at Wu Fei, who nodded and whipped back into the den to get a news report on the computer.

 

Duo looked over at him as he stepped up beside him. Heero went very still. Because it wasn't his friend who looked out at him from those cobalt and violet eyes. He hadn't seen Shinigami since the Libra battle. But there was no mistaking who was in charge of Duo's body at this moment.

 

Rage, stellar hot and space cold at the same time glared out at him. But he wasn't the target, it slid past him. The trouble was, the target wasn't here to kill. And Shinigami needed to kill someone right now. Whatever had happened, it had awakened a part of Duo Maxwell that was capable of truly terrible things. And it didn't look like the rest of Duo was at all interested in holding it back.

 

“They blew up the house.” Duo said hoarsely. “Shaped charges, `Ro. Set to fire in and down. Nobody even tried to see if there were any innocents there. Just planted `em `round the outside and set `em off. Nothing left but a smokin' hole. Motherfuckin' cocksuckers!”

 

“Hilde?” Heero asked quietly.

 

Duo shook his head savagely. “Not there. Told her `n Howard to fade before I ever left the colony. She mighta been stubborn enough to try to stick it but he wasn't and he wouldn'ta let her stay either. Checked in when I hit London, they'd both already left me messages saying they were outta there. No, there was just stuff, the people were gone.”

 

Heero let his hand rest on Duo's shoulder. Just stuff he'd said. But Heero knew what that `stuff' represented to the one-time orphan street rat and Gundam pilot. It was his symbols of normalcy; his claim to being a real human being those bastards had just destroyed.

 

One more time someone with power and the arrogance to think they had the right to make the choices had told Duo what he was worth in their eyes. One more round of building, creating, and losing to some other sonofabitch's greed. One more reason to think of himself as the `God of Death'; a creature who inevitably destroyed whatever and whoever he cared about. Heero Yuy was disinclined to forgive them for doing that to Duo.

 

Maxwell was panting slightly, from stress, rage, shock or a combination of the whole. Besides Shinigami's wrath, there was a lost look in those eyes again. It was something he hadn't seen since the night after he'd detonated Deathscythe to help promote the peace Relena was beginning to spread. The business meant almost as much to him as his lost Gundam had. And now it was in even smaller pieces.

 

“Muhamed?” Trowa's cry held a terrible blend of denial and loss. “Fatima? Yusef and Ali? Dead?”

 

Heero turned instantly to Duo. He wasn't going to even consider interrupting Trowa and Quatre; not while Trowa had a look like that on his face. Maxwell's eyes were suddenly very old.

 

“The guys who blew up my place had friends.” He said leadenly. “Bunch of `em dropped by Trowa's circus. They sabotaged the rigging for the high wire act Trowa used to headline. It came apart at the worst possible time, dumped the four of them close to fifty feet straight down. They might have made it if they weren't performing in a stadium with a concrete floor and showing off without a net. Shits didn't even bother to find out if Trowa was still there. Put some sixteen members of the audience into the hospital when the wrecked rigging got thrown around and hurt `bout half dozen other performers too. Catherine wasn't among them, only good thing to be said about it.”

 

He nodded grimly. “What about Quatre? He said something about an attack on his home too.”

 

Duo's head bobbed heavily. “Yeah. Fairly large scale commando raid on the main house in Riyadh. Looks like they tore the hell outta his rooms and his office. Musta been a hellva firefight and they weren't totin' peashooters either. `Course, neither do the Maganacs. The pictures the news had weren't real good but it looks like they shot the shit outta each other. Family's gonna hafta rebuild the whole south wing.”

 

“All of which means they know who we are now.” Heero let his voice rise enough to reach them all.

 

“Correct.” Wu Fei snapped as he glared from the den's doorway. “J and Une must have set up communications because in among the things we hadn't gotten to was a message from her. Someone broke into my office desk two days ago. The only thing missing is my copy of the signed picture of the five of us and our Gundams.”

 

“That's bad.” Quatre said quietly. “And it says some very unpleasant things about the quality of the enemy that he could put together three simultaneous raids in under forty-eight hours on two different colonies and the Earth. `Crimson Dawn' is a lot better set up than I thought it could be.”

 

“Ya know, I may run and I may hide but right now I'm gettin' real disgusted that I have to.” Duo snarled. “I wanna bust these bastards like cheap beer bottles.”

 

“The problem with breaking all those bottles is the amount of loose glass it leaves behind.” Heero said with an oddly deadly quietness. “I don't want any glass left. I see no reason to risk getting cut.”

 

He caught their eyes one at a time. And they were agreed. None of them saw any particular reason to allow these creatures, animals, `things', to survive. Heero could feel his heart tearing. He'd promised Relena never to kill again. But he didn't think he was going to be able to keep that promise; not the one to her or the identical one to himself.

 

Bitterness threatened to swamp his mind at the realization. He was going to have to return to the Perfect Soldier. He wanted to scream. He'd been adjusting! He'd been able to live without weapons, without death, without new blood on his hands! He'd been . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

It didn't matter what he'd been. All that was going to count from now on was what he would be. The hell of it was, he wasn't going to be the one deciding who that was going to be. Heero already knew that. The training of his early teens was already kicking back in. It had sent him into Sanq five days ago when they'd stopped near the border at their fifth safe-house. He'd retrieved his gun and three gundanium boxes of ammunition then. The boxes had hidden their deadly contents from airport security scanners as they'd traveled. He wondered savagely if he hadn't known then how this was going to go.

 

“Before we go on, I have more news.” Wu Fei said clearly.

 

They turned, wondering what else was going wrong. “Relena has gone missing.”

 

“WHAT?!” Heero shouted.

 

Wu Fei stared at him darkly. “Relena is missing. Voluntarily it seems. Her man Pagan reported an attack at the Residence, about ten hours before the other three. Given the way he worded it, I would say the target was someone else but he's making it look like it was Relena. He's telling everyone it was thwarted by a pair of visiting Preventer agents. The implication is she's gone into a high security retreat in the face of the threat.”

 

The Chinese pilot turned to Quatre. “What is a `Clydesdale' and why would we want to find one in Chicago?”

 

The blond Arab blinked, his mind quite obviously not on whatever a `Clydesdale' was. It took him several seconds before he had a coherent answer.

 

“Ah, it's a shuttle. Well, a class of shuttles really. They were named after various breeds of draft horses, the size and power of the individual class supposedly corresponding with the relative capabilities of the horse. They haven't build any of the Draft Horse series for over fifty years and the `Clydesdale' hasn't been built for almost seventy. But they're very sturdy machines and that's part of why they stopped building them. They just lasted too long. The `Clydesdale' was one of the largest in the series. If you stacked them like logs, you could load six Gundams in one. Winner Enterprises owns at least twenty-seven of them. They're capable of lifting huge loads and were one of the major means of bringing building materials to the sites where they build most of the colonies.”

 

He paused thoughtfully. “And yes, there are three of them kept at our shipping facility at O'Hare Space Port, just outside Chicago. I wonder why J wants a `Clydesdale'. Capacity aside, they are horrible fuel hogs.”

 

“How fast are they?” Heero asked.

 

“Oh, not very.” Quatre replied, then stopped. “Well, not very with a full load that is. I have no idea how fast one would be empty. They drink so much fuel, it never seems to have occurred to anyone to try racing one. But I would imagine they would be fairly respectable empty. The engines are terrifically powerful, they had to be to move the loads they were built to haul. So if they're running lightly loaded, I'd have to guess they could probably match an `Emery Five' for speed. Why did you want to know Heero?”

 

“If we're supposed to travel in one, it never hurts to have an idea about the speed. It doesn't sound like they're capable of outrunning much trouble though.”

 

“No,” Trowa agreed wearily, “you aren't going to be making a high speed escape in a `Clydesdale'.”

 

“Maybe not.” Duo agreed, “but the damn things are huge, almost impossible to break, and they're faster than you'd credit them being just by lookin' at one. I've flown a `Clyde'. They're dead stable in the atmosphere due to their size and some of `em are fitted out to take passengers. It was sorta fashionable about forty years or so ago to tour the colonies on a `working' ship. And honest, they can call `em shuttles if they want to but they're really freighters.”

 

“I gather we're supposed to go to Chicago and take one of Quatre's `Clydesdale's from there?” Duo asked as he turned to Chang.

 

“Yes.” Wu Fei replied. “And we're supposed to meet another group and make sure they get off with us.”

 

“Who?” Heero asked instantly.

 

“J didn't say. But he did note that we'd recognize them all.”

 

“Relena.” Quatre said flatly. “She can't stay here any more than we can.”

 

“Makes sense.” Trowa agreed quietly.

 

“Then let's get the new supplies sorted and packed. I think the sooner we reach Chicago the better.” Heero told them.

 

Quatre nodded. “Duo and I picked up an older but very decent converted van from a lot holding some kind of huge sale. There were people everywhere and vehicles moving all over the place. Really, it was a perfect invitation to a thief and I don't think we were the only ones there. It'll be missed eventually but if we're lucky, not until someone takes inventory and matches sales sheets with a record of what's left on the lot. And they may go looking for it among the ones the locals were taking too. It's set up for passengers and has a bed if anyone needs it. It would be tight quarters for all of us but we thought maybe not staying in a safe house would be a good idea tonight. That was before we saw the newscast at the mall. I don't think we'll be sleeping in it any more.”

 

Wu Fei shrugged. “Doesn't matter unless they notice before we can get it to the parking lots at O'Hare. I've flown through the place; the Preventers have their own small terminal there. The public terminals are huge, the parking areas are extensive and generally pretty full. One more stolen vehicle abandoned there won't set off all that many alarms with the Chicago police. We just need to be a little careful about how much forensic evidence we may leave in it.”

 

“Yeah, Kat already thought about that.” Duo growled. “There's one of those mini vacuums in one of the bags. We can clean it out when we leave. If we take the vacuum bag and dump it in a bin about to be emptied, hey, not much chance they'll ever find it.”

 

“Ah, yes, and we managed to stop at five of the eight bank machines you preset for us Heero.” Quatre added. “You don't do this theft business by half do you? I had no idea anyone could get that much out of a cash machine. Unfortunately, it's in American twenties so the pile is rather generous. It won't be so easy to hide.”

 

“Five of eight?” Heero asked. “Then you should have picked up around twenty-five thousand. Divide it evenly among us and it won't be that hard to conceal. It also will allow us to make our own purchases, less likely to attract attention than if one is buying for all.”

 

“True, but I don't think we'll need to be buying much more.” Quatre said quietly. “Not if we're supposed to go and pick up a `Clyde'. Even more because we're supposed to meet these others, who are probably Relena and company. I think we're on our way out to space now.”

 

Heero just shrugged. “Maybe not but it still makes sense to make sure everyone has their own money. If nothing else, it won't look so odd if we're stopped by security at some point.”

 

“Yeah,” Duo said darkly, “and it might let any one of us buy our way out of trouble too without any of the others stepping in. We want to avoid making it clear we're a team.”

 

“Yes,” Trowa whispered. “We do not want to be spotted now. We have to live long enough to settle with these butchers.”

 

Heero gave the tall acrobat a long, sidewise look. He didn't like the tone in his friend's voice. It was oddly deadly, quite unlike from his normal manner, different even from his attitude during the war. But Trowa hadn't allowed himself to have friends back then. He'd been reserved even with the rest of them. Still, even back then, once the Silencer allowed himself to reach out to others, he'd begun to exhibit a protective streak. Now someone had killed four of those hard-won friends. No, this new side to Trowa wasn't anything they were familiar with. But Heero had a rather uncomfortable feeling that they would be learning a lot about each other that hadn't been there during the war.

 

“Let's pack,” Quatre suggested again. “I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to. We need to disappear so completely they leave our friends and families alone.”

 

“Face it Quat,” Duo, no Shinigami, snarled. “Our friends and families are likely to be grabbed as hostages. That's how these bastards work. And we will probably lose some of them too. Because that's the rest of how they work. So before we pack, we'd better decide if we're really going or not. If we can't accept that they're gonna slaughter those who matter to us to force us out of hiding, then we'd better not go into it in the first place.”

 

Heero turned to the tumbled bags of clothing and other supplies. “I'm going. I can afford to. The only people they could use against me are you four and Relena. And if I have to chose, I will protect her first. Because each of you can defend yourselves if you have to. She can't.”

 

Duo nodded, “Makes sense. Me, I'm coming with you. I can't help Hilde or Howard or any of the rest of my friends if I'm dead. And they'll make real sure I am if I surrender to them.”

 

“You are my friends.” Wu Fei said simply. “I, like Duo, can't help anyone if I'm dead. So I must live at least long enough to destroy Crimson Dawn.”

 

“We don't have any assurance they wouldn't eliminate our families and friends even if they took us. You've read what Heero and J sent. Those bastards have every intention of `pruning the unhealthy branches'. They sure seem to think we need to be pruned. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they extended the concept of contamination to everyone we care about.” Trowa said tonelessly as he stepped toward the treated sheet and the tumbled bags there.

 

“Duo,” Quatre said softly, his voice shaking very slightly where it escaped his steely control, “you know what's mine in there. Please exchange the new for the outfits I told you I wanted to dump. And make sure everyone packs what they're keeping in one of the new bags, all right? I need to make a phone call. Rashid will have to have that `Clyde' ready when we get there. I expect the call to be picked up and perhaps traced but it will bounce through enough servers to allow us some small amount of time to get away. And yes, I'm coming with you all. Trowa's right, we can't trust them to leave our people alone even after we're dead. To stay is to die, and the dead protect no one.”

 

“New bags?” Heero asked.

 

“Q-bean's idea.” Duo replied as he began to carefully dump the contents of the large shopping bags onto the sheet. “The one's we've been using are getting a bit worn and are a little too individualized. If these pricks are as well organized as they seem to be, they could have eyes in a lot of public transit places. They know there are five of us. Five traveling together with identifiable luggage will get their attention now. So we pitch the old stuff and start using new today. `Specially since we aren't going to be hanging around airports and the like from now on. They'll never get the chance to spot the new stuff as ours.”

 

“I see.” Heero helped him sort out what was supposed to go to who, although he and Trowa were the only ones to divvy up the new makeups and other disguise elements. He approved of the quality of the clothing the two of them had selected and the styles they'd gotten for him. He noted there was a reasonable amount of purely masculine gear on his pile now. He caught a sidelong glance from Duo and knew who'd picked out his new clothing. He almost laughed when he found a tightly packed plastic bag with a set of black spandex biker shorts and a green tank top neatly folded inside. Someone had let his mind run in a very old rut indeed!

 

It was the rich burgundy skirt that caught his eye next. It was sitting in the neat stack Duo was carefully packing, a matching top of some sort with it. Heero grinned, a very small one but a very real one. Someone had listened to his last order. And someone else, because he was dead sure Duo would never have bought it, had picked up the hair remover he'd requested. He pulled it out of his smaller pack and bounced it in one hand. They needed something amusing right now and he thought this just might do it.

 

“Maxwell!” Heero ordered crisply. “Use this. Change. It's too dangerous to go back out in the same outfit you were wearing when you stole the van. Someone might remember a pair of girls as attractive as you and Quatre.”

 

He tossed the hair remover into Duo's lap. The American looked at like it was a live scorpion. He pushed it off onto the sheet with one careful fingernail.

 

“Uh, no way! I like me just like I am!”

 

Heero looked up at Trowa and Wu Fei. They both returned small nods. Heero turned a very small and very evil grin on the suddenly nervous Maxwell.

 

“I said forget it `Ro!”

 

“Oh, I think it's a very sound idea.” Trowa said evenly, having moved with his usual silence to a position on Maxwell's right.

 

“I will not permit your squeamishness to endanger our mission.” Wu Fei told him portentously as he moved in on Duo's left.

 

It was a hopeless move but a predictable one. Duo made a sudden dive to evade the other two. It was a significant error. He neglected to consider, or simply overlooked under the more immediate threats, just how close Heero had moved. The Japanese pilot had him pinned to the floor almost instantly.

 

The other two grabbed his legs. Heero got a grip on his wrists. The three of them picked up their madly squirming friend and hauled him off to the questionable facilities of the kitchen. Trowa managed to snag the needed bottle off the sheet as they went.

 

There was much cursing, kicking, and howling. But three against one, especially when the one wasn't willing to kill anyone to get away, was pretty much of a foregone conclusion. And he really did look outright delicious in the burgundy skirt, vest and a lace decorated white blouse. Quatre, who didn't get back from his call until it was all over but the dressing up, managed not to laugh in his face.

 

Heero Yuy was satisfied with the results. No one had forgotten anything, especially their anger or their grief. But they had loosened up again. They would be able to move in public without giving off whatever it was that so often caused other people to recognize when someone else was truly and deeply upset and trying to hide it.

 

Besides, Maxwell honestly came off as drop-dead beautiful in that outfit; although the scowl kind of spoiled the whole effect.

 

Thirty-two minutes later they were packed and on the road. They tossed Quatre's now dangerously traceable cell phone into the first creek they crossed. Their discarded clothing found its way into a charity drop-box outside Kenosha. The suitcases and duffels they'd been using found their way into a similar box in Lake Forest. Now they had ditched all the items that would be recognizable to anyone who might have been tracking them. Heero could only hope the changes in clothing, hairstyles, jewelry, and in Quatre's case, apparent gender, would be enough to get them past the unidentified eyes one last time.

 

When they parked in the multistory garage reserved for long term parking, they paused only long enough to do a fast but careful vacuum of the van and to wipe down all the surfaces they could remember touching that could possibly hold a print. The small bag from the vacuum found its way into a trash bin just moments before the maintenance crew pulled the trash liner and replaced it with an empty. Two hours eleven minutes after they'd slipped out of the safe-house, they stepped into the nine story vastness of Chicago O'Hare's brand new central terminal.

 

 

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