Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Survival ❯ One Dark Night ( Chapter 21 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

One Dark Night

So, right, a lot of things happening in this chapter that I've been plotting for a while now, it just took a while to get here.

I'm also looking back through my EW manga, and finding more controversy on Mariemaia (I only had access to the movie while writing her previously, and yeah). It lists her date of birth as having been in 189, which is even more fun with the picture's date having been May of 189 and Mariemaia is definitely not an infant. It also says that Leia Barton is dead, but… I've written this far and so much is wrong otherwise, that I'm going to keep with different events leading up to the ending of GW not being the same, because this version of Mariemaia seems very sure that her mother is alive, and it wasn't mentioned in the movie. There are definitely some differences between the show and manga and I've been keeping to the show much more, so I'm going to continue in that vein.

Also, fxdmn, I didn't get an e-mail listed on you… it's something I've noticed the site decides to cut sometimes. I'd still really appreciate it if maybe you sent me something from your address to establish it. Actually, ff.net seems to hiccup and delete it every time I try to post my address here, but it's listed on my bio... Stupid thing, I need to go lodge a complaint.

July 6th 197 - Thursday - Amsterdam

“Kay!”

I turned around at Nicolaas' call, frowning at the panic in his voice. I'd been out all day running errands or doing jobs for seemingly the entire city since I'd gotten off my shift with Tate… I hadn't even gone home. A feeling of dread was rising in me though, suddenly… Nic was a steady guy, he didn't act like this.

Something was wrong.

I jogged over to meet the boy halfway… he seemed like he was dead on his feet, too. “What's wrong?”

“Please tell me you've seen Rina today.”

The pit of my stomach dropped like a rock. No… I had just been thinking last week… “Not since last night.” This is just a false alarm… “I dropped her off at the church on my way to work.” But Luc knew, he was coming to pick her up later, he wouldn't have everyone out searching… And Nic wasn't exactly everyone, but he was far from the first who would go out on a panicked hunt like this. Still, I couldn't help but demand, “You've gone to the Father, haven't you? He has to know where she is.” If he did, Nic wouldn't be standing here like this…

The kid let out a despairing groan and fell into a crouch. “He said he thought she went home herself, she disappeared, but she'd seemed tired so he just assumed, but then Luc came to get her and the Sister had fallen asleep rocking Renee!”

The church is neutral ground… It's right in between territories… But it was neutral ground…

“This is neutral ground.”

“So I'll knock your ass out and carry you a few blocks first.”

Wasn't that what I said?

Cal's realized he got gypped and came for his revenge… I hoped with every fiber of my being that the girl I'd come to think of as a sister wasn't dead.

“Kay?”

I looked back at Nic; he was practically in tears. I gripped his shoulder hard, looking away as I felt cold replace the ripping sensation in my chest. “You should have come found me at work,” I muttered, thinking fast. “Who has the baby?”

“She's back at the den. Anika and Harold are the ones really watching her, but Luc left Val in charge… He's out looking.”

Luc had probably been looking ever since he couldn't find her last night. I bit my lip; I had planned for this, once upon a time… expected it, almost. “Nolan, Rueben? Theresia, Christiaan?” They were the youngest in our crew, though I probably shouldn't count Christiaan as one of our babies anymore, he was almost sixteen. I focused back on Nicolaas… who was actually something like two years older than me, come to think of it. “Find them and make sure they're in the den too. Along with anyone who can't hold their own.”

“Shov made sure of that already,” Nic dismissed, seeming to calm down a little. “Luc's just a mess… Said something about Cal Slinger and I can't say I've seen him since.”

Shit… Why the hell didn't someone come get me from work?! Nic was looking to me for an explanation, though, and I grimaced. “Rina was playing double for a while, back when Luc was worried Cal might go and try to kill somebody.” He might have, too, until I showed him I'd play hardball right back… “When he found out she was really just playing lookie for Luc he got pissed off but I made him back down… We thought it was done with.” Luc had implied that that was the story before, and he could fill in the holes from there… I was certainly an intimidating figure, in this town. Odd how that worked, that I was this great guy everybody liked and knew they could lean on… but I hadn't lost the ability to become their worst nightmare.

I'd used up some of what I'd planned to have if I needed to go save Karina when we'd broken Hilde out… but I'd gone a little overkill in the planning anyhow. It wasn't in a succinct little pack anymore, but it wasn't like I didn't know how to strap and run. “Get home… you look like you're about to fall over.” I ripped my ponytail holder out and let it sit around my wrist as I started tying my hair into a braid. It was a habit I needed to get out of, though to be honest, it wasn't really a habit; I hadn't had my hair braided since I cut it off, just out of fear that someone would notice the similarity.

I was tired, though, hitting the thirty hour mark on no sleep... and the tightness of the braid against my scalp was a comfort. I still had some of the little explosives I could tuck away in there, and I wanted everything I could keep on me, just in case. I was about to start sprinting for the den, I needed to get my stuff, once I finished with my hair. I'd walk back to the Slingers' if I managed to lose my breath, but I still hesitated a moment…

“Melissa's out looking too?” They'd scour every inch of the city Rina might have passed through before resorting to breaking into a building with thirty-some ex-soldiers... They were a smart bunch.

The problem with being smart, though, is that you never get the idea that you could do the impossible. And I was good at beating the odds… I had the devil's own luck, didn't I? I didn't want to be Shinigami anymore… but I'd keep his luck. There were worse things to have in life.

“Yeah.”

I nodded, biting my lip. `Liss could take care of herself, I knew that, but… I guess I just wanted to know. I smiled a little grimly at Nic as I tied off my hair… and started running.

***

Treize's hidden compound

Treize looked up and offered a grim smile to the man who had just come into his rooms. “Sanchez, good… I need you to gather a contingent of fifteen or so of our best men that are immediately available. We need to jump the gun on Peacecraft's people, we're working off of their intelligence for this. Tell Duncan that we're headed for the L3 cluster, X-18999.”

The man nodded, but didn't immediately turn to go. Instead, he frowned at the way his superior was lacing up his boots. “…Sir?”

“We have intelligence that Dekim Barton is attempting to break the L3 cluster away from the alliance Zechs walked him into, and word has it that he's been using men who would be loyal to me if they knew I was alive. We're going to remedy that.”

Sanchez nodded a bit… but still seemed to be waiting. Treize smiled a little; he'd chosen the man for a reason, after all. Loyalty was a good thing, and necessary, but blind devotion was not a good reason to promote a soldier to be his second, he had learned during the Eve War. If Noin had not been so set on teaching, he would have happily promoted her instead of Une, seeing as Zechs held no interest in the title. Though to be perfectly honest he had been somewhat relieved when the woman had refused, because he suspected that a few more years in outright battle and she would have surpassed him, and he would be the second.

He sighed a little as he pulled on his second boot; they were off to get her, so he had to admit it all sometime. “When I was young, I had something of an affair with Dekim's daughter, Leia. He realized that Leia's little girl was mine sometime during the wars, I believe, and now is using Marie's connection to me to garner more support than he might have otherwise. This is partly a rescue mission.” He pulled his laces tight. “The man neglected his own children enough, and now that I've found her, he's not going to do the same thing to mine.”

Sanchez was silent for a moment, apparently digesting the new information… but only for a moment. The next, he was nodding sharply and saluting. “It will be an honor for you to accompany us, sir, and to meet your daughter.”

Treize smiled a little more at that, and gestured back at his desk. “I have some pictures in the drawer with a lock on it… they're old, but we don't have time to develop the negatives of the ones Leia sent me before the war… and I'm afraid I don't have anything more recent than that. She's just shy of twelve, now, and we'll have to guess a bit… but I imagine there aren't too many eleven year old girls on Dekim's base.”

“…Your Excellency? Aren't you only twenty-six?”

He shook his head a little, running a hand through his hair. “I do believe I said that we were young, Lieutenant Colonel.”

“Sir,” he returned sharply… and ran out to start giving out the orders.

Sanchez was a good man… though he was only his second here because he would make a terrible spy, to be perfectly honest. He was very trustworthy, but if Treize honestly had his pick of his men, he would take one of those he had out in the field… only the problem was that those men thrived best in the field, so it was better to keep them that way instead of close. Perhaps when all this business with Zechs was done, he would be able to openly keep communications with all his best, but when one had to settle for second or third hand out of fear of being caught, it just didn't work to have a second far away from you.

Walking around his desk, he opened the drawer that he kept all of the things Leia sent in, and took up one of the better pictures, smiling at it.

I'm coming… I'll see you again soon.

***

Amsterdam

Karina forced her breathing to be still for all that what she really wanted to do was cry. She was safe for now… she just had to figure out how to get back to safe ground.

She'd literally had a bag shoved over her head when she was walking to the bathroom. The horror that it had happened in the church still hadn't dissipated… even when she had half expected danger, she had always thought she would be safe inside the little chapel. Not to mention the fact that she had thought this was all over…

She had been able to fight her way free once they were out on the street, though truthfully it had been far more running than fighting. She had just had a baby a month ago, and she was actually in really good shape, all things considered… but Cal and his boys were ex-soldiers. She squeezed her eyes shut. They're like Kay… She knew Chaos was better, but against forty some odd men? There had been more before, but he always fought smaller groups, even if it was almost always groups to his one. The largest group he'd taken on by himself had been the nine when he first arrived, and he had had the element of pure surprise, then…

It had been so long already… They had to have known what had happened by now.

Wouldn't Chaos have come by now, if he was going to?

…Do they think I'm already dead? She was as good as, if no one came soon… She squeezed her eyes shut harder, and grit her teeth. Renee… If they had had no issues kidnapping her under the Father's roof, would they have any compunctions about hurting the baby? The Sister had her… Would they have hurt Sister Isabel?

What does he want? They could have killed her while they had her either time, so that couldn't be it… or at any rate, there was more to it than that.

She bit her lip as she heard someone walk past, but not come into the room. How many of them are out looking for me? They had been scouring the city so hard for her before it had only been a matter of time before they caught her again and thrown her in Cal's room before going to fetch the man. She'd tried to make it back out through his little window… she'd done it before. Unfortunately, she had just had a baby, and it had been a scraping squeeze before. She had tried her damndest for a while though before giving up, which meant that she'd scraped herself really good on the sides of it… before getting a genius idea.

Calvin had this magnificent fifth hand or something wardrobe that had come with the place that was hideously heavy and about to fall apart, somehow at the same time. She'd climbed on top of it one night while feeling impish… and realized that the way it had been set against the wall however long ago had been to cover a spot in the drywall that had been broken. She had hidden things there… it was a bad habit she'd picked up when she was younger, but she liked having stash spots, just incase. Luc teased her about it but let it lie… he'd gotten her a box with a little key for it when he found out about it, actually.

It was a break in the drywall at first, nothing special… but the old wood of the wardrobe leaned forward enough that she could slip her legs behind and kick the already damaged spot when she was upset about something, and it hadn't taken much of that before it had become a much bigger hole, then something of a crawlspace…

She had never used it as a hiding spot because she simply left if she wanted to, whether or not he had been alright with it, hence the window incident. She supposed that that was why it hadn't occurred to her earlier… along with the fact that staying was an incredibly bad idea, but hiding here had been the best alternative.

And it had been incredibly vindicating to hear Cal come in and knock a few heads together after he saw the window and realized it smelled like blood. Apparently, he had never had the nerve to tell his men that she'd used that escape route before, so they hadn't realized she could fit. Not that she did anymore, but that was hardly the point.

Your girlfriend having escaped out the window in the middle of the night did sound pretty bad, come to think of it.

The amusement had only lasted so long, though. She could only stand here, and the insulation made it hard to breathe, made her skin hurt… they had taken her coat when they left her in the room. She had never stayed in here more than a few seconds before if she needed her stash, or just dropped things from the top of the casing.

Maybe if Kay and Luc and everyone rushed the place while half the people were still out looking for her… but would they still be trying, or have just called it to an end, whatever this was? Were they all back here holding strong for any retribution that would come once she made it home and told? Our not even twenty decent fighters against their almost forty ex-soldiers… Oh God, I'm walking my family into a trap…

Genius plan, this.

She was half considering shimmying back out and trying to slink her way out a back door when someone came in… and threw something against the wardrobe. She held her breath, but the next sound was that of a boot kicking the bed…

He's pissed… Cal didn't bellow when he was mad… he took it his anger out a bit more physically. Chaos was the same way, only his temper was… what had the Hilde girl called it? His battle persona. It was the closest to mad her brother got, and while it could be terrifying it was… very focused.

He threw open the doors of his wardrobe and she slowly leaned back as far as she could, closing her eyes and making herself think about something else… Cal was one of those people who knew when he was being watched. She wasn't sure if her presence here would set that off… but today was not a day to tempt fate.

***

Brussels

“I'm bored,” Dorothy didn't quite whine. “We should find a movie to watch. Or play Clue or something.”

“I stopped playing board games when I was a little girl,” Relena returned, continuing to write. “And I need to get this done.”

The other woman rolled her eyes, then looked pointedly at Jake, who was sitting fiddling on his laptop in the recliner next to the couch Relena was stretched across. He frowned. “I don't know how to play Clue.”

“How can you not know how?” Dorothy demanded.

“I never bothered to play it growing up?”

“You need to know how to play, that's just wrong!”

“We don't have a board anyway,” Relena noted, not liking where this was going, and she thought correctly reading Jake's disinterest.

“I can make one, it's easy,” Dorothy negated, standing up and walking towards them to get a piece of paper.

“I really don't care to learn,” Jake noted wryly. “I'll play you in chess if you really feel the need to stay here and have something to do, but I don't feel like learning a new game right now.”

She considered that for a moment, then smiled. “I'll go find a board, then.”

“You're going to lose,” Relena noted once the other girl had left.

“That depends entirely on how much I manage to distract her. She's a better strategist, but she's also easily sidetracked. And besides, it'll keep her from being as annoying.” He closed his computer and moved to set it on the coffee table, standing up to stretch.

“She's not that bad,” Relena defended absently, frowning and scratching something out.

“No, she's not,” he agreed. “But if she's ignored, she gets that way pretty fast. In any case, I had to stop chatting with Mitch a half hour or so ago, he's with the group off to cut down Barton's attempt at annexing L3.”

“He is?” She looked up, pursing her lips. “Milliardo was saying something about a little girl involved in it all?”

“Mariemaia Barton-Khushrenada,” he agreed, coming to sit next to her and look through the outline of the address she had been working on. “Treize's little girl, apparently.”

Relena blinked, letting him have the sheet. “Treize had a daughter?”

“Looks like it; it's what Dekim's been promoting her as, anyhow, and she looks an awful lot like his mother. It was all very hush hush, though; he's been keeping the girl living under the name Benson instead of Barton. And we have no idea where Leia Barton is at this point, probably working off of a different pseudonym to save the family some face.”

“That's… sad,” the princess mumbled, hitching her brows together. “And her grandfather's just using her?”

“From what we can tell. Either way, we need to take him down before somebody else gets the same idea, and round up the people who were willing to go along with it, make sure we keep tabs on them.”

“But what about the little girl? If we don't know where her mother is…”

“Zechs was thinking to keep her here, maybe with you,” Dorothy explained as she came back in, apparently having overheard enough of their conversation to follow it. “She has a nanny who was taking care of her out in L3 before, but he's worried that if he leaves her there she might be picked up and used as a symbol of revolution by somebody else.”

“We should have the nanny hired again and brought here, if at all possible,” Relena decided. “She would be more comfortable if there was someone she knew staying with her.”

“Mm.” He grabbed her top sheet and scribbled a note about that, underlined and circled.

“I didn't know you were getting a secretary too,” Dorothy exclaimed, all mock coyness as she set up the chess board.

Jake smirked and chucked a folder at her, busily reading something when she turned to glare at him. “It's called making yourself useful; you should try it sometime, you never know, you might have a talent for it.”

“I'm not against helping,” she defended, frowning and opening the thing. “Just noting what a neatly wrapped package you seem to be… This is already done with. And notarized too.”

“My God, would you look at that, she's observant too,” the blonde man continued in a monotone, not looking up. “We have a prodigy.”

“I am a prodigy,” she protested, giving him an absurd look.

Relena grinned. “I think that's the part that makes it funny, actually.”

The other rolled her eyes, standing up and walking over to look through what they were working with… and smack Jake upside the head with the folder. He seemed to be ready for the action, however, and took it as an opportunity to tug the long braid she had coming over one shoulder as if to ring a bell. She smacked at him for it, but he dodged that entirely… and was on the other side of the room.

Relena blinked; that had been really fast… but she was reassured from any strangeness of the fact by his naughty laughter, which was the sort that you'd expect to hear from a little boy, not a full-grown man. Dorothy seemed startled as well, but was just as quickly allayed… at which point she decided to plop down on the couch and hold out one hand for something to work on.

Relena smirked, settling back. “I really am almost done.”

Dorothy gave her an annoyed look, then motioned with her hand again… and the princess sniggered before handing over what she was working on. “The press release is this Saturday … go ahead and see what holes you can find so far.”

“Mmhmm…” Her eyes were totally focused on the paper as she settled into the opposite corner of the couch. Relena looked back over to Jake, who was back in the recliner and had resumed going through the folder on actually managing the logistics of her next project. She rolled her eyes at him, and he smirked, making an odd gesture with that somehow translated to, `Don't worry about it.'

She rolled her eyes again and sat back, debating what to do with herself now that her friends had run off with her job.

***

L3-X18999

Mariemaia sighed out at the darkness, hunkering down and looking through the bars of the railing. The imagery of being in a cage suited the way she felt… for all that the weather for a colony summer night was pleasant. The grounds were beautiful… but her balcony was too high up to jump down, and someone would notice if she tried to find a different way down there. Then she'd still be allowed to go, but they would be watching her…

She didn't like being watched, she had discovered.

This wasn't a balcony off her room, though… her room was on the interior of the building. There were plenty of spare guestrooms in the manor, though. She looked over her shoulder and back into the bedroom, wondering how long it would be before someone noticed she was missing… Probably not until morning, she decided. She'd gone to bed about an hour ago, supposedly, and no one would check to make sure that that was the case either because they didn't care, or they didn't want to offend.

She had been taken up because of her father, she had decided. She still wasn't sure why, but there was something important there. Her grandfather's army all had a distinct interest in her, and she wasn't sure how far that could be pushed, yet… It would probably help if she knew why she had their respect, but asking would likely lose it. She didn't want to take that risk when she already had so little to work with.

Grandfather wanted to break away from the Peacecraft regime… even if she didn't think it would be morally wrong to do, it would have struck her as stupid. Even with the severe casualties after Libra, the number of soldiers that Earth could muster to fight in a moment's notice was more than three times what all the colonies could produce. The gundams had only worked so well as they did because of the sheer skill and power they entailed, paired with guerilla tactics… If they had mobile dolls they might be able to pull it off, but that idea had pointedly never been brought up, and she had the feeling that it was a taboo subject. Even if we had dolls, though, they have Dorothy Catalonia… The only counter to that that she could think of would be the infamous Quatre Winner, whose whereabouts were completely unknown.

…It is pretty out here, though. Even in the dark, she could make out the silhouettes of the gardens. Her mother had said her room had gardens out back when she was growing up, so when she opened the windows in the morning she always smelled wet or roses. This wasn't the estate her mother had grown up on, far from it, but… her mother's description was comforting now, somehow. She smiled bitterly into her knees, willing herself to not cry… it wouldn't help anything…

She started heaving the sobs as quietly as she could. It doesn't hurt anything either.

***

Amsterdam

“All alone, pretty boy?”

Luc spun hard and narrowed his eyes at the man, sizing him up; he recognized the blatantly worn pendant all of the Slingers had. He didn't recognize the man himself, but that didn't say much… he wasn't a bad fighter by any count, but he had been maybe the fifth best before Chaos showed up. And he was tired…

This wasn't the time to let his uncertainty be known, though. “You have something of mine,” he grit out instead.

“Your girl run off?” the guy asked, smirking. “'Fraid she has something of a history of that, friend.”

“My wife was snatched,” he snapped back, really not appreciating the mocking tone. “My daughter is hungry, and I'm afraid Sin's the only one who can take care of that.” He didn't even know if the baby would take formula, she'd only had breast milk for the first month of her life.

“That's really not my problem. You're on Slinger ground. Your own space is big enough, I'd suggest getting back to it.”

“I'll go back when I have my wife back,” he returned, stepping forward.

The Slinger stepped back, grimacing. “Like I said, that's really not my problem!”

“Of course it's not,” agreed Shov in a dark tone, coming up behind the man with Nicolaas. That was good… I wasn't sure if I could actually take him alone. Probably, but not positive. “You'll have to convince Chaos that you're not his problem, though.”

“You found him?” Luc called over the guy's shoulder, not taking his eyes off him. He was shifting uncomfortably… being in a pincer didn't bode well for him and he knew it.

“Started tying up his hair and told me to go home and sleep,” Nic agreed, sounding amused and incredulous. “That he had it under control. By the time I sprinted my ass home, Val said he'd left about five minutes past, armed to the teeth with the same bag he pulled all his goodies out of when we saved Hilde Schbeiker.”

The Slinger was licking his lips… and Luc smiled hard at him as they both caught the connotation. He knew too much now; they weren't going to let him survive the night, if the half hour.

“Run and tell Val that Luc's alright,” Shov ordered Nic, cocking the gun he'd had in his hand since he'd walked up. “We've got this.”

Nic smirked at the Slinger, shaking his head a little… before turning to do as he was told.

“One man against everybody but me and two others?” he snarled, spitting at Shov. “You're all full of shit. The Sweepers handled Schbeiker.”

“Nah, it was me and Chaos and four other Devils,” Luc dismissed, smirking as he flipped out his knife. He'd left without thinking… he seriously hoped Shov had his gun. “Kay just used to be with the Sweepers, so he knew how to play it.”

“Bullshit. News says the bullets left were the same caliber Sally Po herself prefers.”

“Were they really?” Luc asked, a little surprised.

“They fought together a couple times in the war,” Shov offered by way of explanation to his leader. “I guess it's not that surprising that they like the same brand of ammo.”

“I guess.” You could see in the guy's eyes that he was starting to believe… and this was far more fun than it should have been. It was wrong on so many levels… But he hadn't started it and put the man on death row, and he was past caring… and it was fun to be able to brag now and then.

“She stayed with us for a couple weeks,” Shov explained to the man conversationally. “Hot little thing, kicked ass…”

“I still say she wasn't curvy enough to be hot.”

“And you just don't get that she just doesn't need them. I still seriously wish she'd been willing to make out with me instead of Chaos.”

“They never actually stopped seeing each other,” Luc reminded him. “She just thought he was dead.”

“And he came to hang out with us instead of chasing after her,” Shov agreed, rolling his eyes.

The guy was shaking his head. “Chaos isn't ex-Sweeper. I was a Sweeper, and the explosives I heard about for Schbeiker match fine, and his repair shit he's got going with the whore, but he sure as hell doesn't move like them. They don't have that kind of training.”

“Melissa's not a whore,” Luc snapped, fury rising in him again.

He snorted. “Sure as hell used to be. Little cunt sure can fight, though; wouldn't have thought it when I saw her back in the red-light. ”

“She's not there anymore,” Shov snapped before Luc could get any more worked up. “And I suppose I wasn't specific enough, Chaos wasn't so much with the Sweepers as they were his groupies. Smart crowd to have kept, what with his mecha.”

The man froze at that. “Duo Maxwell's dead. Or if he's not, he'd be far away from a shithole like this.” His eyes were horrified, though, and he wasn't really looking at them.

Luc felt his stomach drop. Hilde had called his friend Duo. Duo Maxwell… She had called him something Sin had thought translated to something like “devil” too, and Duo Maxwell had called himself the god of death, a grim reaper…

Shov snorted. “Dead? Nah, he just cut off his hair and decided to keep his head low.”

That braid… His church destroyed… Shit, that was the Maxwell Church Massacre…

“He likes domestic life with us a lot more than the wars, he says,” he heard himself add. “He couldn't let his old friend get caught by the Regime, though. And he's not going to let anyone get away with hurting his new family. You took her in the church too… That's all sorts of wrong, to him.”

The guy looked like he wanted to throw up. Shov raised his gun. “I think that was more than he wanted to hear, Luc.” He twitched his free hand in a gesture that meant he didn't want to use up his ammo if he could help it.

The Slinger was facing Shov now, staring at the gun but not seeming to really see it. “I think you're right.”

They left the body where it was; once the cops saw the gang pendant, they'd investigate enough to make sure he'd been part of the Slingers then drop the case, if they bothered to do that much. That fact usually made his stomach twist even if it worked in his favor… but he really was past caring. Besides, if Chaos was really Duo Maxwell, then this was only the start of the trouble.

If it was even the start; Kay might have gotten the ball rolling already.

But… Kay loved his wife like a sister, and he had gotten the distinct impression that the boy was ready and willing to do exactly as he was doing now before she had even picked him. He had noticed the stash of weapons long before Shov did; he'd searched the guy's room when Laura had found the braid, when she was looking for a music disk he'd borrowed.

Was it bad that the explosives hadn't bothered him one bit, but the hair had scared the shit out of him? Well, he'd written it off as the same sort of thing as Rina's stashing money habit only from a very different perspective. Even if he hadn't been plotting how to take down a group of forty soldiers, he probably would have kept as many weapons as he could manage at hand.

Now, considering the fact that he was used to taking down much larger groups of soldiers that were better armed, it seemed he was more reasonable about his collecting. Then again, there had never been any evidence of the pilots having a surplus of supplies when they did any of their impossible shit during the war, so maybe it was just normal.

“You look like shit,” Shov muttered worriedly.

“I've got blood all on my shirt, what did you expect when you asked me to stab him?”

“No, before that.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Are you upset that I told you?”

“No… still in shock I think, but… There's something comforting about an ex-gundam pilot doing everything in his power to rescue Karina.”

His childhood friend grinned. “I thought it might be.”

“We should go see if we can help him.”

“Luc, to be perfectly honest, you're about to fall over from lack of sleep and we'd probably get in his way. Especially if he's flinging explosives around.”

“He's just as sleep deprived, and I'm not going home without my wife.”

“He's done it before,” Shov protested, half chasing after him.

“There's a first time for everything,” Luc returned, rolling his eyes.

“You're not understanding me. Luc!” He grabbed at his leader's arms. “He's Duo Maxwell.”

Luc smirked a little. “You said that.”

“So listen! What part of boom aren't you getting?! You've seen him scrap but he's a stealth god and the definition of a weapons specialist, if he doesn't know we're there then he might accidentally blow us up!”

“Then we'll stand on the sidelines and see if maybe he needs some back-up!” the blonde man snapped, twisting out of the other's grasp. “Shit, we'll make sure they get out if he sets fire to the place! We'll call an ambulance if one of them gets hurt, shit, we'll probably need one for Rina already!”

“Alright, I just-”

“This is my wife, Shov! I finally got her and I can't lose her now! How the hell can you think that I could go home?!”

“I'm sorry, okay! Shit, quiet down, we'll go, huh? I'm just worried, we're way out of our fuckin' league… And I'm not a moron, I know what you mean, `Liss should already be close to there, ready to do any of that.”

Luc sobered at that, squeezing his eyes shut as they started walking again. “I hate it when someone talks about her like that…”

Shov sighed. “Yeah… me too.”

***

L3-X18999

Adam's chest heaved as he hid the last of the men he'd had to hurt once they had realized he wasn't one of their own… at least it was late at night and the guard had been light. Unfortunately, while a small contingent of men could be called “light,” the same did not necessarily apply to their individual size and weight.

He had already cannibalized what didn't work from his thrown together uniform from the lowest ranking of the guards. Hopefully it had been the wrong clothes and talk that had gotten him in trouble, not the wrong face. If the group was so tight knit as that, the night was not going to be without casualties… and he didn't begrudge Treize his men, even if he didn't want much to do with him himself. Eventually they would learn that the child's father was still alive, and they would be more loyal than ever.

He was here, really, simply because he didn't trust that the little girl wouldn't get caught in the crossfire of cutthroat factions, well-meaning or not. It only took one bullet to kill somebody.

It was late at night, though… He snugged a uniform cap over his head, running a hand over the M on it and smirking. Dekim had really outdone himself. Well, either that or he had embarrassed himself beyond redemption, it was hard to say. Obviously, the head of the Barton family had convinced everyone to wear it, so it wasn't as bad as it might seem. He frowned. He had never thought that men without causes were so malleable, but perhaps that was more personal experience than general consensus.

He shrugged a little to himself as he maneuvered his little shuttle to a more secluded area of the dock, behind the sight of several larger ones, but still with a fast escape route. He fully expected to be out of here by the time the situation got hot, but he didn't want to be caught unready if things didn't go as planned. The thing he liked about his dingy little ship was that it had an intelligent enough computer to manage an autopilot back to its last destination. It simply used the route it had tracked here… and he had made a covert enough flight plan that if tonight went to hell in a hand basket he could get the two of them back to Earth safety with a bullet in his gut. Not that that was going to happen, with the Kevlar he had managed to procure… but the point was there all the same.

He tucked a folder he had brought under his arm, making sure his personal weapons were hidden and the standard issue ones sitting about where they ought to be. He only had a very small window of time where this had a high margin of safety. Nodding a little to himself, he started jogging, making sure to look busy but not overly excited. He wanted to put off that aura that meant he didn't want to be interrupted. This shouldn't take too long… the Peacecraft spy had managed a hopefully accurate map of the place, and he had memorized it, give or take.

He wanted to be back on his way to Earth on the inside of thirty minutes.

***

Amsterdam

- `It's not quite built like our den, I think maybe it was a manor, once upon a time. There's more than one back door.'

`How many?'

`Four, but you won't be able to make it through one of them, they didn't want the vulnerability so they put a fridge against the old door.'

It hadn't taken much work with a crowbar to get rid of the boards over the old door, nor much noise. They hadn't put the fridge completely flush to the thing either, it would have been impossible, and he had been able to nudge it open without much convincing either… he'd managed about two inches of crack to work though after picking the deadbolt; either the previous owners had skimped on security while making everything pretty, or there'd been a problem at some point and it was cheaply replaced. Maybe they'd used the good lock on a more prominent door. Either way, it was only six pins and could be taken care of quietly.

He wanted as much of an element of surprise as he could. He'd had to blast everything open when he got Hilde out of that compound, but this place was better manned and they were expecting some kind of retribution, if they were smart.

He spaced a few explosives on the inside, running the fuse out the door. There was enough power there that it should move the appliance out of the way, and fast… It would also take out anyone in the same room, in all likelihood.

He dropped his long coat, feeling goose bumps form up as his bare arms were exposed to the cold air. He had all his holsters on, and tight, but none of the metal touching his skin… he had a few nasty burn scars already from making the mistake of holstering a good conductor against skin when there was a chance the situation might literally get hot. He doubted he'd come out of this without a few new scars, but he'd prevent what pain he could. The nice thing about what he'd worn back during the war was that it concealed well, and the bagginess gave him a margin of error too… but there was no point in concealing what he was up to right now. It was going to be obvious who he was.

And the thing he liked about this muscle shirt and pair of pants was that they were made so they shouldn't catch fire, seeing as he was about to run through a wall of flames. The way these guys fought, too, any extra cloth hanging off him would be a handhold. The straps across his body settled just right, he'd had to adjust them from their original shape… They didn't make harnesses for people as slim as him. The nice thing about the braid being short now was that it was easier to tuck under a cap that should keep it from catching in the flames…

The rest of the explosives he had were small, not something that would be likely to start up a true fire, but he needed a fast entrance that they weren't expecting and might cause enough trouble to distract a fair number of people. He didn't want the place going up in flames while he was in it, but he wanted any survivors too busy licking their wounds to be interested in retaliation. He was going to need to sleep after this.

There wasn't any sound of someone screaming or crying… no signs of upset that he could hear. That could be good or bad… but this place was also a lot more soundproof than the Devil's den. He was ready… it was time to rock.

He smiled slightly at his lighter as he flicked it open. Howard had given it to him, once upon a time, after he had brought Hilde back to Peacemillion. Something about always doing what was right instead of what was smart, and how he was proud of him. It was a nice one… said it had been a present to him when the Peacemillion had been constructed, made out of the same stock of titanium. There was an intricate yet vague design of a flying bird, a phoenix he supposed, etched into it, flames trailing from its wings and tail. On the other side were the words, `The best way to predict the future is to invent it. - Alan Kay'

He smirked, feeling himself sliding into that calm cold… and lit the fuse.

***

When she heard something explode, the response was automatic, and she wasn't in an awake enough state to stop; she screamed.

And Cal was still in the room.

She heard him freeze in his attack on his heavy bag… and she started praying.

***

L3-X18999

She wasn't there.

The bed covers were pulled back like she'd clearly gone to bed and gotten back up, but as he searched the room, he knew that she wasn't really there.

Shit… Of all the nights to take a midnight wander…

He quietly left the little girl's room and started wandering, trying to think of where she might have gone. His map wasn't good enough for this, he'd only thought of a few routes… And they were running out of time before the cavalry arrived.

***

Amsterdam

She tried walking deeper into the wall, but it was slow going, and it was tight… the insulation was ripping into her clothes, but she was almost away from her spot…

Everything was much brighter as he managed to heave the wardrobe on its side and her space was exposed to light. Almost away…

He caught a hold of her hand.

“You little bitch,” he snarled, wrenching on her arm so she screamed, her shoulder was going to come out of place… Still, she held onto the wood framework, she did not want to be pulled out from the safety of the drywall.

“Bastard! What do you want from me? I thought you knew we were done with!”

“I don't appreciate being used,” he snarled in that ice voice of his… and slammed his boot through the part of the wall she was in.

She gasped in pain, losing her grip on the wood… and he yanked her out into the open.

***

L3-X18999

“No guard,” Treize mused as they landed, his eyes narrowed. No immediate guard, rather… they hadn't been unnoticed. He hadn't bothered to try, honestly. Still, someone should be manning the post. He left Duncan to finish landing and stepped out onto the platform before the craft had come to a complete stop.

There was blood on the control panel.

He frowned, looking around. He had been relatively confident that he had gotten here before Zechs' people… and there was no sign of a ship that could belong to him. And he would need more than one ship, for settling an uprising. He himself had only brought a handful because he knew that the moment his face was seen, Dekim's men would be his.

It was unpleasant to think of how this situation might have ended had he actually been dead. Was there an uprising within the group already? That… could complicate matters somewhat.

Men came rushing into the room… he had thought he had set off an alarm coming in. He merely turned to face them, smiling in the bemused sort of way that he felt… and they froze. He smirked slightly, raising one eyebrow, and stood up straight, running his eyes over them.

Almost as one, they saluted.

He saluted back and started towards them. “I've heard that my daughter is in residence,” he explained coolly. “I'm afraid I haven't seen her since before she began school.”

“Sir,” one muttered, licking his lips. “You're… you're alive.”

“Allowing Peacecraft to believe I was not has made subverting him far easier than it might have otherwise been,” he noted. “I had something of a close call, and it was too good an opportunity to let pass, considering the circumstance.” He raised one brow. “But what's this madness about breaking away from Earth's line of support?”

“The rig's secured, your Excellency,” Duncan announced as he and the others he had brought came running up to them.

Impeccable timing. He wondered if the man had done it on purpose; Dekim's men looked like they were starting to sweat. “Good. Let's move along, then.” He focused back on the soldier who had spoken before, smiling and tilting his head generously. “Name, soldier?”

“Cameron Lampey, your Excellency.” He still looked nervous, but a little less so.

“I believe I'm past due for a meeting with the man who as done everything in his power to keep me from seeing my family for the past twelve years,” he decided. “If someone could go and wake Marie, I would appreciate it if you would take me to Dekim.”

Lampey licked his lips, eyes wide, but didn't argue. “Morray, Freidman, please go wake Miss Mariemaia and inform her that her father has arrived.”

“Duncan,” Treize muttered, glancing to the man. There was blood on the control panel, and he knew his man's capabilities. If they had anything resembling time on their hands he would order it be immediately looked into.

“Sir.” He followed after them.

If they had time, Treize would have gone to wake his daughter himself. She couldn't have remembered him from when she was toddling, and Leia had been too cautious to tell a talkative child any secrets, so in a lot of ways it would be a first meeting. Unfortunately, it would have to be postponed until he could take care of the madman that Leia had the misfortune to call father.

“Did the alarm I tripped rouse the base?” he asked calmly as he walked briskly alongside Lampey. “Or will there still be a need to wake everyone?”

“I'm not sure, your Excellency,” he admitted, and motioned at another two men. They set off jogging in opposite directions.

“We're going to need to evacuate,” he went on to explain. “Peacecraft is sending a strike force.” He looked frankly into the man's face. “There are a great many things that the Lightning Count does not need to learn about tonight.”

***

Amsterdam

Melissa slapped her hands over her ears when she heard the explosion, suddenly reconsidering her position. It wasn't over the part of the building she was on top of, but the place had three stories, so it would be hard to say anyhow. Staying on the roof was probably a bad idea now, seeing as the structure might now be compromised.

She grinned a bit as she heard yelling moving in that direction… She imagined Kay was using a different route, so that was a wonderful distraction. She hefted her hammer in one hand, considering her options…

…And through her ringing ears, she heard a woman's scream.

Cursing, she bent her knees and brought the hammer down on the skylight with all her weight. Shov had said to stand aside and watch, but there were a lot of Slingers… and Karina was screaming. She could hold her own, maybe even get the other woman out while her boyfriend had them distracted. Jumping down, she rolled to kill some of her momentum, and landed without so much as a pain in her knees.

Besides, Shov really should have known better than to give her Luc's gun then tell her to stand back and wait. She wasn't great with the weapon, but she wasn't horrible either. She slipped beside a doorframe as she heard someone coming, probably to investigate the noise she had made, and swung at his head as he came in. He went down hard, not moving. Swallowing hard, she dropped her weapon and picked the man up under the armpits, dragging him the rest of the way into the room so he wouldn't be immediately visible from outside the room.

She could thin them out a little for Chaos while she tried to find their friend.

***

L3-X18999

The compound had gotten really noisy really fast… and Mariemaia actually had no idea what to do. There was something dangerous about the air… and hiding seemed like a good idea.

That was, at least, until someone down in the yard looked up… and saw her. She was suddenly glad that she had put on jeans before leaving her room, because she wanted to run now, and not being dressed would be bad if she ended up off the manor grounds. Her slippers would work for walking outside, they weren't any sort of silly fluffy things.

The hall was empty when she darted out of the spare room, and when she heard footsteps again she found a different room… but hiding didn't seem like enough anymore. Her heart was racing… and it occurred to her that this might be her chance out of Grandfather's cage. She could get away from here… All she needed was a ship. And she knew how to get to the docking bay… And Uncle Trowa had let her help him fly with him before, she'd sat in his lap and he'd explained the controls and let her do it. That had been years ago… but it hadn't been too hard.

The hall was empty again; she started running for the hanger.

***

Amsterdam

Karina screamed bloody murder when he picked her up by her hair, grabbing onto his arm with both of hers and hoisting herself enough so she could kick him in the gut. She couldn't hit him hard, hanging like she was, but a moment later she managed to plant a foot on his chest and she kicked him as hard as she could in the head with her other foot. He grunted and loosened his grip enough that she could wrench away.

She could hear gunfire… Chaos was here. She only had to hold out long enough for him to reach her. She started running for the door, if she could get some solid wood between him and her…

Cal grabbed her from behind, and she couldn't help but smile grimly as she moved into the over the shoulder throw she'd seen Kay do and that she'd gotten Hilde to teach her… and he landed hard against the damned armoire. She dashed for the door again.

***

L3-X18999

“Mariemaia!”

She ran harder. Almost there…

***

Amsterdam

Melissa ran harder as she heard another scream, holding the gun ready in one hand, the hammer in the other. She only had two bullets left, but nobody else knew that. There weren't too many people here… She was on the first floor now, and so was Kay, from the sound of it. There was more than one person screaming now… but Karina's voice was high pitched. Someone appeared in her path and she shot him before he could finish bringing up his own gun.

The world had changed the spring she turned sixteen… Business had gone bad and suddenly Dad had to go to another city to find work, but the next month's rent was paid, and he had left her enough money to keep her and her twelve-year-old brother fed for maybe a little longer than that, if she was careful. It had gotten so cold, though, there was snow that stayed on the ground in late March, even out by the docks, then someone had attacked Nolan on his way home from school… She had always been in martial arts, ever since she was little, but Nolan had never taken to the same idea. They'd been some war orphan punks and had taken his coat, and she'd given him hers and stayed wrapped up in a blanket at the house… She'd hardly been the first to drop out of school that year.

And then Dad had written again that he still couldn't find work, he was moving to a different city even further away to look, he'd send a check as soon as he could… but rent had gone up. The landlord was willing to give them two weeks reprieve, but there was still nothing… They were almost out of food, and the money was gone…

The world was a very different place after the battleship fell. She would have been horrified, once, to think that she could kill a man, that she would start always carrying a hammer because it carried a much better bite than one of her small fists… She used to have pride in her fighting skill, but now it was a matter of practicality… she was one of the people who kept their home safe. It was the least she could do after Luc had let them come live in what they had eventually started calling the den.

She had just been a daddy's girl once… And she still loved her father dearly, and he was sending checks now, though she just put it all in the bank. But the fact was that he hadn't been there, even if leaving was the best thing he had been able to do for them. She'd learned firsthand how fast you could sink lower than you ever thought possible… but it was okay, in the end. Because Nolan was safe and fed, still going to school, and they were warm at night… and they were happy too, somehow.

She shot someone else and cursed mentally, shoving the weapon into the back of her pants as she came up on the door where she'd heard the screaming from and threw it open. Her family went further than just Nolan now, and someone had threatened that.

She would do what she had to to keep them safe.

***

L3-X18999

Marie flung the door in the man's face with one hand as she kept running, her eyes scanning the metal room, seeing a small ship she didn't recognize that might work, but it was far away and she didn't think she could run faster than the soldier behind her now that he was this close…

There! It was even smaller, practically the size of an escape pod, and not as far, for all that it was half hidden. She forced herself to make one last burst of speed, praying it was unlocked…

***

Amsterdam

She ducked low almost as soon as she was in the room, feeling rage rise up further in her… Sin was half stripped. Before the damn Slinger seemed to even realize she was there, she was slamming the head of the hammer into his knee.

His scream was bloodcurdling, but she didn't care as her friend escaped his grasp… it had been that particular move that had first made this gang wary of her. She ducked back out of reach incase he had enough mind left to try to grab her, shifting her grip and sliding around his back to sink the claw deep into his chest.

She had had her suspicions about what Sin may have been doing before the baby came, but whatever it may have been, she was one of their own now; the past wasn't important. She let her grip loose on the weapon, as it would take time to take it back, and delivered a sharp punch to the man's trachea. He dropped like a sack of bricks might. She planted one foot on his chest for leverage to get her hammer back out, ignoring the gasping sounds he was making, and the blood spurting out onto her leg. “Are you alright?” she demanded of the blonde woman. Girl, really… but none of them were allowed to be girls anymore, and Rina had a daughter, so she counted anyhow.

She was panting, on her knees on the floor. Her eyes were locked on the dying man. “I think so,” she croaked out after a moment. “Renee?”

“Home safe,” Melissa assured her, walking over and offering the other a hand up. She looked awful… but she didn't see any outright blood. “We should find a way out.”

Karina nodded numbly, accepting the hand and wobbling to a standing position.

***

L3-X18999

Adam almost felt like he was in a dream as he watched the girl child slam his ship door shut behind her and lock it. Both their eyes went wide as the machine started up like he had programmed it to at that signal… and in moments, she was gone.

Shit! That had to have been the last thing he had expected to happen… and another ship was coming in.

Shit! He held up one hand to shield his eyes from the bright lights, dashing back inside the compound. Zechs' men were here. Treize was still inside working his magic… and now he was the one caught between the factions with no escape.

He needed to find an alternate route out fast.

***

Amsterdam

Karina's blood ran cold, and she felt more than heard Melissa gasp beside her.

There was blood everywhere.

And in the midst of it, there was a moving black streak whipping around the last three men standing.

Her foot touched something and when she looked down she screamed. It was an arm… just a half burned up arm with nothing attached…

Where is everybody? she found herself wondering dimly, staring around the room, the floor… This couldn't be…

And suddenly Luc was there, and she threw her arms around him, sobbing. This day had just been one huge nightmare… For a moment she had been terrified that he was on the ground too, and that just would have been too much…

It was quiet, suddenly. She turned away from Luc to see Chaos standing alone in the main living room… in the blood… God, he was just covered in blood, his bright blue eyes looking like they must belong to some other creature as he looked out at them…

“Karina?”

She heard herself let out another sob before she practically threw herself at him, refusing to think what she was running over. He had sounded so shaky, so uncertain, so tired…

He had done this for her…

He caught her up in his arms and held her tight, one hand on the back of her head… and he was crying too, she thought. “I'm sorry,” she whispered, starting to cry harder. “God, Kay, I'm so sorry…”

“It's okay… You're okay…” He kissed the top of her head, still holding her tight. “I was so scared I was too late…”

“I thought you weren't coming…”

“I promised I'd come for you a long time ago,” he reminded her, pulling away slightly to offer a weak smile. He looked back towards the other and started chuckling in the same weak way. “Hey…”

That broke the mood somehow, and Melissa was running over too, pulling the demon into a fierce hug. After a moment, she grinned up at him and said, “You're gonna have to share the savior rights; I killed the bastard and took care of at least nine myself.”

His laughter was a little more true instead of verging on a psychotic break, at that. “I knew I liked you…”

Karina leaned back as Luc put his hands on her shoulders, then wrapped his arms around her. “Let's go home.”

“Home…” Chaos muttered hollowly, as if confused for a moment… then squeezed Melissa tight against him again. “Yeah,” he agreed, sounding more solid. “Let's go home.”

***

L3-X18999

Mitchell hid a smile as he led his men into an almost empty base, ordering them to spread out and search in small groups, cleanly from their end to the other, to be thorough, and broke away with just Campbell and Thorly, heading for where Treize would be if he was still there at all. They grinned openly at each other, sprinting for where Treize had planned to gather everyone and face off Dekim.

He burst into the room, yelling, “Sir!” as loud as he could, getting immediate attention… and grinned broadly at the image of his leader. He was in simple standard issue pants from his days with the Specials and a plain white undershirt, but the simplicity of it only seemed to make him grander. He was here for them, just like them, in the end… and Treize Khushrenada wouldn't let his men down.

Dekim was dead, and his leader's expression was pointedly pissed, but he smirked and nodded at Mitchell, turning back to the crowd. The explanation that there had been fighting among the group was simple, and there was a promise that he would seek them out again when the time was right… to please get out if they could. It was time to evacuate. He nodded at Mitchell and his men, and they saluted sharply before darting back out to rush to their stations, back to the search and away from suspicion.

No one would be able to report that Treize Khushrenada had been here tonight. A separate detachment would be picking him up not far from Dekim's base of operations.

***

July 7th 197 - Friday - Vilnius, Lithuania

It was cold… Why was it so cold?

Dawn was breaking as she landed, it looked like in the outskirts of a big city… she had read something about a cloaking device on the main screen being turned on. This was Earth, she had seen it on the approach… but wasn't it July?

She had planned on making it to another colony, to tell the police who she was and where she was from, say that she had been kidnapped and ask to be taken home… But this was Earth. It would have been stupid and wrong to break away from the Peacecraft Regime, but it would be equally stupid to ask for help from a madman. The White Fang radicals had taken up residence on Earth as the Peacecraft Regime, which just proved how crazy they were…

Her teeth wouldn't stop chattering. And the ship had been on autopilot; she didn't want to stay there long enough for Grandfather to track her back here… and the cloaking system had shut down, she might be arrested if she was found in something like that. So, wrapping her arms around herself, she stepped out into the street.

It was wet.

She only had her sleep shirt and jeans, and her slippers would soak through soon… And she had no idea where to go. Still, she started away; walking would help her think, maybe.

She couldn't read the street signs… They weren't in any language she knew. The letters were right, but the words were nonsense… And she felt herself starting to lose hope. Where am I?

She found a main street that was still mostly empty and just stared. The dawn was starting, but everything was just grey… The streets were cobblestone. The people all looked so sad… Oh God… this is Earth… All of her teacher's lectures on the condition of the planet had seemed like over exaggerations… but it was so cold…

And she was all alone.

She sank down to the ground, not caring that her pants were getting wet, just staring out at it all…

This had been a horrible mistake.

***

Heero shrugged his pack a little further onto his shoulder, walking briskly down the street. He'd tracked Wufei to Vilnius, Lithuania, and it was likely that the man was still out on the sparse streets of the early morning. This was it, he was almost there…

He turned down an alley and started into a main… and saw a man with dark hair running. His pack was the right size and shape. He started to run after him, willing his leg to cooperate…

And saw a little girl staring out at the world from under a shop overhang. She was turning as blue as her eyes, with no coat… but it was those eyes that caught him off guard. They looked… blank.

…Was that me? Dr. J had said he had good eyes, but he had never figured out what the old man meant by that. He glanced back after Wufei, but he was gone… If that had even been him.

The girl was sinking down to the ground, and her eyes weren't changing… It had just finished raining, she was going to get hypothermia if she did that. Making up his mind, he started to walk toward her, dropping his duffel down onto his arm so he could shrug out of one side of his coat, then slinging it onto the other shoulder so he could get it the rest of the way off. He had a few sweaters on besides, and his duffel kept a watertight seal, so he didn't think anything of dropping it on the ground so he could crouch in front of her and settle his down jacket over her shoulders.

She looked up at him in surprise, and he tried to smile for her, bringing her hands together in front of her and clasping them inside his, blowing warm air on her fingers like he remembered Odin had done for him when they had been camping, once. She was maybe a few years older than he had been, but she probably knew less of the world.

“Hey,” he muttered as a soft greeting, making her rub her hands together. “Are you alright?”

She started crying then, throwing herself into his arms, and he caught her, though awkwardly, not sure exactly what to do. He hadn't expected that… but maybe Mrs. Srona had prepared him for this, a little. He held her tight, and was dismayed when she only started crying harder… and the coat was falling off.

He snatched it before it could fall on the ground, pulling away from her and making her put her arms in it this time. He hesitated briefly before giving in to his worry and reaching his arms in and pulling her into a hug under the coat instead of zipping it up. It was too big for her by a fair bit, and it was only nylon on the inside, not something warm and soft like his sweater was. “You're going to freeze,” he muttered uncomfortably. “Where are your parents?” Parents were supposed to take care of children.

But parents can die… His had.

“I don't know,” she whispered after a moment, burying her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around him again. “Gone. I don't even know where I am…”

…That sounded like a colony accent. It certainly wasn't Lithuanian, at any rate. Her English seemed perfect, even through the sobs.

It was then that he realized he'd already made his decision.

“I'm Odin,” he offered.

“Mariemaia,” she returned quickly.

He swallowed, looking around. “Do you have any things?”

She held tighter to him. “No,” she whispered.

His resolve hardened, and he looked around for an inn… Maybe that was one, down the street. “Let's get inside,” he suggested, pulling one arm away from her to put the strap of his duffel back over his shoulder, and only hesitating briefly before tucking his arm back around her and lifting her up with him as he stood. She was only wearing some kind of slipper, and they were soaked through. He needed to get her someplace warm… His leg complained, but if he had been ready to sprint, he could carry her.

“Thank-you,” she whispered into his neck, fingering the collar of his sweater.

He didn't answer for a moment, not sure exactly how. He didn't know what he would have done if no one had taken him up back on L3-X18999, and he had known how to take care of himself, while she clearly didn't. Leaving her would have been… wrong.

She sighed a little and relaxed into him more, and he couldn't help but smile a little. Maybe she hadn't been looking for an answer. He frowned. But maybe… “I'm from the L1 cluster,” he muttered, shifting her up a little higher on his hips.

She wrapped her legs around him, which confused him for a moment… until he realized that that made it much easier to carry her weight. “L3,” she whispered back. “It's so cold here…”

He smiled at that too. He wasn't sure why she made that so easy… but he found he liked it. “Climate control is considerably more pleasant,” he agreed.

She giggled a little at that. “Yeah… I guess we're both far away from home, huh?”

I've never really had a home… The closest thing he could think of was the Sronas… and he supposed that was far away too. “Yeah,” he agreed after a moment, looking up at the sign and nodding to himself; it was an inn, like he'd thought. “I guess we are.”

Holy shit, this chapter is twenty-two pages long. Er… read and review, I guess? Questions, comments, thoughts? I've been plotting this one out for a long while…