January 18, 2001
Sequel to 'Have You Ever...'
Standard Warnings and Disclaimers apply.
"Report," Jack barked, slipping into the copilot's chair again. She pulled at the long dark strands of hair, tugging them into a ponytail before looking over to the girl in the pilot's seat. The spiky, short cut platinum blonde girl shared one brief glance with her console, making sure their course was set and everything was in the clear, before leaning back in her chair and swiveling to face her younger sister. The door to the cockpit slid open, Blaire, Nita, and Katalynna Behr walking in and taking seats--Blaire and Nita in the two remaining chairs, Kat on the armrest of Nita's. They waited to hear what Devenley had to say with an eagerness that glinted of adrenalin rush.
"Well?" Jack snapped expectantly.
"Pretty much what you already expected," Dev answered, frowning as she tried to remember the vague details she'd managed to gleam from the encounter. "They're Gundam pilots, all five of them--"
"Shit! But they're all so young!" Kat hissed, twisting her black cherry hair into a bun and tying it up.
"So are we," Nita snapped back, grinning. "The younger they are, the less suspicious they look, right?"
"War cultivates warriors," Blaire mused, more for her own benefit then her sisters'. "Besides, we already knew about the one kid. Why should the others have been exempt from suspicion?"
"Quiet," Jack bit out. She nodded to the younger blonde sibling. "What else?"
Dev continued to frown, as though she found concentrating difficult. "The blond boy..." she said slowly, her frown increasing. "Winner," she looked up. "He's a center focus for the other four, they're all protective of him--" She paused and frowned again, something not making sense in her mind. "They're protective of each other, but mostly him," Dev continued. She was about to say more when her mind went blank, like a white screen that only moments before was scripted.
"He's so young and innocent looking," Nita mussed. "They're all..." She sighed looking up at her sisters. "You know they can't be much older than Rini."
"They might be young," Blaire spoke up. "But they're far from innocent... At least not anymore."
Jack heard their words but more importantly, saw the befuddled expression plaguing Dev's normally frozen face and she felt her pulse quicken. "What is it?"
"He's... different from other people..." Dev murmured, her mind reaching frantically, trying to scale the wall she only just realized was there. She looked up, feeling lost in a large ocean, bobbing dangerously between two existences. Her aquamarine eyes sought out her mirror-like image across the cockpit.
"Focus," Blaire told her, a small smile playing at the older girl's lips.
"They're all different... special... but... he's..." The short, spiky haired blonde looked up, her Aquamarine eyes suddenly unclouding. "He's like me!" she gasped, suddenly realizing what she had been feeling throughout the entire time.
"What?!" Jack sat up completely, leaning forward in her chair, looking at her sister as if she hadn't heard her right. Blaire leaned back more into her own seat, nodding.
"He's like me," Dev repeated, falling completely back into the pilot's chair, running a hand over her face and pulling at her lips. She looked to Blaire. "Like us..."
Her head fell back against the seat as she stared at the ceiling. "Shit... I wonder if he even knows... he must..." she said more to herself than to her sisters. "How could I have missed it... He must have... Damn..."
"He was blocking you," Blaire replied more calmly.
"But--I mean--Argh!" The younger blonde ran a hand through her spiky outcrop, pulling at the platinum locks.
"DEV!"
Her head snapped up. "What?"
"Well, thanks for giving us your attention again," Jack drawled. "Now would you mind telling us what's going on?"
"Quatre Raberba Winner," Dev said.
"Yes?" Jack drawled out, shaking her head expectantly.
"Don't you get it?" she asked excitedly. "Raberba. He's a Raberba!"
"Which means..." Nita drawled out, crossing her legs.
"He's psychic," Blaire whispered, green-grey eyes flaring with an inner intensity.
"Yes!" Dev practically jumped up in her seat. "And he must be a powerful one, too, 'cause I didn't even pick up on it--"
"That's because he blocked you before you could disguise yourself," Blaire informed her.
"You mean you *knew*?" Dev almost jumped down her sister's throat. Blaire just nodded. "And you didn't *tell* me? Warn me?"
Blaire just shrugged. "By the time I realized it, it was too late to do anything."
Jack sighed scrubbing her eyes. She wasn't about to get in between the two's psychoanalytical-like debates. "What else can you tell us?" she pressed. "Can we trust them?"
"Yes," Dev answered immediately, looking over to Blaire for reassurance.
"They're dedicated to their cause," the strawberry blonde added looking over to Nita and Kat before looking at Jack. "And willing to die for what they believe in."
"Well, I guess so if they're gundam pilots," Kat mumbled. "Damn..."
"What else?" Jack pressed.
Dev shook her head. "I don't know... I wasn't able to... get a very good impression on all of them," she admitted. "They're very... emotional," she said finally. "Intense."
Jack looked to Blaire to see if the older blonde sibling would add anything else, but she remained silent. Processing what her sisters had to say about to five young men they had just met only took a moment before she made her own decision about them. They would trust the boys for now. For now, they didn't have much choice. Her head snapped towards Nita, ready to move on. "What can you tell us about this base?"
"Nothing too interesting," the dark haired computer girl replied. "An old mining and research facility near L4. Small by today's standards. It was supposed to be abandoned several decades ago."
"What about recent info? Reports of anyone being in the neighborhood?"
Nita shook her head. "No one's paid any attention to it in the last ten years. No reports or even a brief reference to it since then."
"No military action in the area? Oz? White Fang? Anybody?"
"None," Nita answered.
"It would look pretty suspicious if there was, I would imagine," Kat spoke up.
Jack shot her a dark look, "Anything and everything is suspicious in war. Even a mouse hole can hide dynamite."
Nita shrugged. "Anyway, it's an old ruin now."
"Ooh, joy," Kat mocked. "That means we get to look forward to some rats and cobwebs, huh?"
Blaire shot her a look. "It's obviously not as abandoned as some would have us think if there's a mobile suit factory there."
"Do we have enough ammo to blaze the place?" Jack asked.
"Easily," the strawberry blonde returned.
"Okay, what about those three?" Jack nodded towards the back, indicating the three 'passengers' they had been required to bring along.
"They'll be fine," Kat grinned.
"Seem to know their stuff," Blaire agreed. "Shouldn't get in the way."
"Good then--"
The door suddenly opened, startling the five women from their somewhat relaxed composure.
"So, where're we going?" Carina asked, beaming towards her stunned and defense-ready sisters.
End of Part 24
Andrea Readwolf
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