28-May-2001
Diana was treated with considerably more courtesy this time than she had been the last time she was a prisoner (meaning that she wasn't beaten or raped). She wondered, in a sort of disinterested way, whether that was because they were afraid of her (after what she'd done to the last men) or if it was because of orders.
Diana really didn't like rapists. That particular conviction had come after she rescued a young woman from a rapist in one of the slums on Alpha, where the Alliance stuck it's enemies. Her opinion of them hadn't improved when she became the victim, either, so now her instinctive reaction was somewhat violent. She hadn't told Duo exactly what she'd done to the first rapist, because she didn't want to upset him. Now that she had some free time, she wondered if he'd survived or bled to death. His companions probably saved him. It wasn't as if you *couldn't* live without that particular body part.
She'd tried, once, to pull her arms apart, and had confirmed her belief that Velanz had told them how to make decent restraints. After that one abortive attempt to free her hands, she made no move to escape. She had no interest in getting herself killed, and there were a half-dozen men with their weapons all trained on her. As always, she kept that possible avenue of escape in the back of her mind, but it would be some time before she'd turn to it. She'd survived over six months of being tortured by the Alliance last time, and this time her people should be able to find her faster. She hoped.
Diana automatically pushed her doubts to the back of her mind. She was used to that... she was the Tiger, and she wasn't allowed to have doubts or second-guess the course of action she chose.
So she just sat in the back of the truck with all of the soldiers holding their guns on her, and concentrated on a particularly pleasant memory from when she was fourteen, right after she'd turned Brian, Andrew, and Devin. She'd already captured Kane and Shin, but they were being stubborn. It had been a very emotionally intense time for her, first she captured Brian, then she'd barely managed to stop Shin from assassinating her father, then she'd had to show Brian the truth about the Alliance, then there was capturing and turning Andrew. Devin turned himself over on his own, but when they went to pick him up, Shin and Kane sprang a trap that she barely escaped from with her life.
She'd quickly discovered that Devin was fiercely protective of Andrew, competent to handle just about everything having to do with soldiering, and nearly silent about everything else. He was even more quiet in most discussions than Brian, which was saying something. Andrew had suggested once that the difference between the two of them was that Devin didn't want to offer any opinions unless he was absolutely certain that he was correct, whereas Brian was willing to offer his opinions up to criticism.
That was why she was so shocked when Devin actually sought her out and asked to speak to her. She'd been alone in her quarters on the Rebel base, looking over a propaganda page she was about to send out, so she'd just nodded and he closed the door to give them privacy.
Devin simply stood there and stared at her for a long while. Diana was quite certain that she could wait him out if she wanted, but it had been a long day and she was fairly short-tempered, so instead of waiting, she said, "Look, if I want to play dominance games, I can go try to make Shin see sense. But you came to me, what did you want to talk about?"
"I wanted to thank you."
She blinked. "Thank me?" she repeated blankly.
"He smiles here."
There was no question who he was talking about, but that hadn't made things any more clear. Diana had blinked again, searching her photographic memory. As far as she could tell, Andrew had smiled once in the past twenty-four hours, four times in the last week, and a total of ten times in the three weeks since Devin had arrived. She searched for a more diplomatic phrase, then finally gave up and asked, "He smiles here?"
"Our commanders never allowed him to smile at all. No unnecessary displays of emotion. It is... good, to see him smile. He never had cause to under our old masters."
Diana felt the beginnings of a smile and stifled it before it could rise to her face as she brought herself out of the memory. She didn't know enough about her captors this time, she'd wait before she showed them anything, even something like a slight smile.
Her eyes snapped open when she heard a voice - a *female* voice - barking orders with the same authority she expected from all of her own commanders. As she opened her eyes, the back of the truck she'd been transported in opened up and light flooded into the small chamber. By blinking her eyes rapidly, Diana was able to get her vision back long before any of the soldiers who guarded her, so she got a good look at the woman who was standing well clear of the door. She was dressed in some sort of strange red uniform, wearing glasses, of all things, and with light brown hair done in two buns low on her head.
"Get her out of there," the woman commanded in a low voice, and the soldiers hurried to do just that. Diana noticed with some amusement that they all seemed to be quite... afraid... of the woman. A woman after her own heart. Of course, there didn't seem to be much affection or respect on the soldiers' side, which probably wasn't a good sign. It was good to establish a reputation as a very dangerous individual, but you didn't want your own troops to think that you'd ever turn on *them*. These soldiers were acting as if they expected her to snap someone's head off at any second.
Diana obediently stood up and walked slowly out of the back of the truck, jumping easily to the ground and ignoring the dozen or so soldiers who had their guns pointed at her.
Instead, she looked directly at the woman and asked in a cold voice, "Who are you?" Actually, it came out as more of a demand, which probably looked odd considering her position, but that was standard procedure for her. Do whatever they least expected, and switch patterns as often and as randomly as possible.
The woman raised an eyebrow as she stared at her, then one of the corners of her lips curled up slightly. "Take her to the cell. I will speak with her later."
Diana didn't even blink as two of the soldiers grabbed her upper arms although her mind was turning. She hadn't missed the fact that the woman had practically told her that she'd be coming back. Interesting.
Even more interesting was the look of absolute hatred that Velanz had thrown at Treize when Treize stopped him from striking her a second time. Diana wasn't all that surprised that Treize had stopped him, given that he had been sorry about what happened to her the first time, but she had been surprised at how angry Velanz was. There was more to this than that single incident, and she resolved to find out what it was and use it to her advantage if it was possible.
The drive that had carried her through the exchange had disappeared now, and she was back to what she considered normal, at least for her. She was glad. She hated herself when she got like that, but didn't have a choice in the matter. When she was like that, she had absolutely no instincts for self-preservation; or rather, she did, but they were always secondary to the mission. To hear Duo talk about it, that was like what Heero was like every day, but she thought that he was missing the point. If he'd really been trying to kill himself, he would have succeeded. Heero wasn't the type to fail at something like that. When she was like that... it would never occur to her to try to survive, so that she might be rescued later. If she'd managed to survive self-destructing a Gundam (which was probably, if Heero had managed it) in that state, she'd probably finish the job with a knife or something. She knew that she frightened Andrew when she was like that, and hated that as well, but again, there was nothing she could do about it.
She mentally shrugged and pushed the matter out of her mind, concentrating on the future. She did intend to survive this experience, and there was no question in her mind that the others would come for her, and rather quickly, too. So all she had to do was survive.
Diana frowned slightly. 'Just' surviving had never appealed to her before - if it had, she never would have joined the Rebels. Once again her mind traveled back to the look on Velanz's face as he was restrained by the soldiers. It had only lasted a fraction of a second, but she had caught it. She wondered whether Treize knew how much Velanz hated him. Either way, it could work to her advantage. If nothing else, if she could cause either of them difficulty...
The soldiers shoved her into a darkened room and slammed the door behind her. Diana waited a few seconds for her eyes to adjust, then looked around. She could see, even from here, that the walls were much thicker than the ones in the first cell they'd kept her in, and there were slight ridges running up and down it that made her think they'd probably reinforced them with some sort of metal, as well. Oh, well, she'd just have to wait until they took her out of the room.
She was confident they would - Velanz had promised to break her, and even if Treize didn't let him try, she was confident that he would want to talk to her. He was a very strange man, she reflected. It was becoming easier to keep the two of them separate in her mind - they were very different, both in appearance and manner, for which Diana was grateful. The thought of there being two Velanz's in the universe was very depressing.
Diana sat down against the wall. The worst part about being a prisoner was the boredom. Diana's mind worked at a speed that some ancient computers couldn't, and she didn't like being without something to work on for any amount of time. She'd never told anyone, but boredom was it's own form of torture for her, with her mind demanding that she do something. She only slept for an hour or two a night, so that didn't help much, but she'd developed a few games to keep herself occupied.
She closed her eyes as she brought up her current score for a game she'd been working on for eight years now, or so, on and off. She'd started during elementary school when she got bored and frustrated trying to figure out how normal humans functioned, trying to see if she could figure out every single possible combination that you could start with for a game of solitaire. There were quite a few of them, especially when you considered the cards below the top cards, the ones that would be turned over. She hadn't decided whether or not she was going to count possible combinations of the deck also, or just stick with the changes in the actual set-up.
It didn't really matter, it was just a way to keep her mind busy.
<All right, I think I was still starting with the five of hearts...>
Their doubles were very quiet on the drive back to the safehouse, and Wufei wondered if it was because of the situation they were in, or because of his presence. Once or twice he caught their lips moving silently as they carried on silent conversations, so he assumed it was the latter. He felt bad about intruding on what was undoubtedly a very difficult situation and painful reminder of the past for them, but he'd had to see Treize when this was happening, had to see his expression when the exchange was made.
What he had seen had told him quite a bit - Treize intensely disliked his own double, probably enough so that he would do his best to irritate and work against the other man as much as he could without actually breaking whatever pact they had made. That could be useful...
As they pulled up in front of their current safehouse and climbed out of the vehicle, Andrew said to him, "Wufei, could I talk to you in private for a few minutes?"
Wufei nodded agreement and followed Andrew into one of the rooms. It was the one he and Diana had been sharing, Wufei realized with a pang. Andrew turned to close the door behind them, and Wufei heard the distinctive sound of a lock clicking. He spun around to face Andrew, and came face-to-face with the barrel of a gun.
Andrew stood there and stared at him for a couple of seconds, his head tilted slightly to one side as he examined Wufei's face, his expression never changing as he held the gun to his head. Wufei knew better than to move. He was good, but Andrew did have a gun at his head. What the hell did he think he was doing? Was Andrew some sort of traitor...
"Why?"
The question caught Wufei off-guard. "What?"
"Why did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Betray the Gundam pilots."
Wufei blinked, and his mouth opened and closed once. Finally he got his mind to accept the statement that Andrew had just made, and his eyes narrowed to two dark slits. "What the hell are you talking about?!" he demanded hoarsely. "You, standing there with a gun pointed at me... and you call me a traitor? I would never..."
"You're sleeping with them," Andrew cut him off coldly. "*Both* of them, too. That seems a bit excessive, don't you think? In my world sleeping with the head of the enemy forces and his right-hand man would be considered betrayal, yes."
Wufei's eyes widened and the anger left him as quickly as it had appeared. "How..."
"I'm an empath," Andrew reminded him, still expressionless. "You're lucky that Quatre never saw the three of you together, it's fairly obvious. There's a link connecting all of you... you vibrate together." He raised his chin slightly. "You never answered my question. Why?'
"I have not betrayed anyone."
"Then what do you call what you did?"
"A personal matter."
"It isn't personal when it's you and your enemies, no more than it would be if we found Shin sleeping with Velanz." A hint of disgust appeared on his face at that statement.
"But Treize isn't like your Velanz. He is my enemy in battle, yes, but he is honorable."
Andrew snorted. "Honor. What does that have to do with anything?"
Wufei's eyes widened slightly at that statement, but he focused on the question itself. "It means that we are able to keep our work separate from our private lives."
"You mean that you sleep together and it doesn't bother you that you're trying to kill each other during the day?" Andrew asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"We haven't been ordered to kill Treize Khushrenada," Wufei said stiffly. "Nor Zechs Marquise, unless he interferes in one of our missions."
"You're nitpicking," Andrew said. "Zechs has interfered several times, just not when you happened to be sleeping with him, and the only reason that the order hasn't been given out to assassinate Khushrenada is because the... scientists don't think that you could get near enough to him to do any good. What would you do if the order was given?" he asked, his eyes narrowing even further.
Wufei knew that that was a distinct possibility, and it was something that he'd been trying to avoid thinking about. He raised his chin slightly. "I will deal with that on my own terms if the situation arises," he said slowly. "But I am no traitor."
Andrew tilted his head to one side again, his expression considering. Then he suddenly slipped the gun back into the holster under his shoulder with one smooth motion and crossed his arms. "If you try to leave, I'll kill you," he stated simply. "Now I want to hear your side of the story."
Andrew silently opened the door and allowed Wufei to leave his room, then sat down heavily on the bed. This was...
He searched through his extensive vocabulary and failed to find a word adequate to describe what exactly this situation entailed.
Why in the galaxy had Wufei wanted to come with them so much? If he hadn't, Andrew never would have seen the connection... Well, he knew the answer to that question. Wufei had noticed some things that most people wouldn't have about his lovers. Andrew had picked them up, because of his empathy, but Wufei had no way of knowing that would happen. His reasons were good, but the result... Andrew would have preferred not to know what was going on.
He couldn't tell the others, there was no question of that. Devin, in particular, was especially sensitive to any hint of betrayal, after he found out what the Alliance had done to them. And they wouldn't have the reassurance of knowing that Wufei genuinely felt torn by what he was doing... he was very close to his lovers, but was very well aware of the fact that they were his enemies... it wasn't a position that Andrew would have put himself in for all the power in the galaxy, but it wasn't his choice.
In any case, if he hadn't felt that, he probably would have killed Wufei himself.
If he didn't realize the possible dangers and consequences of his actions, he was too irresponsible to be a Gundam pilot anyway, and if he didn't feel guilt about that, then his loyalties were in question. However, he was aware of both of these things, so Andrew let him live. The others would not be so generous.
It was a very dangerous line that Wufei was treading, but he appeared to be managing it as well as it could be. If he wanted to keep doing it, it wasn't really Andrew's business, although he might tell Quatre or one of the others before they went home. Someone ought to know, and Quatre would probably not shoot Wufei. That wasn't what was bothering Andrew.
Diana was exceedingly dangerous, probably much moreso than any of their enemies realized. His group was already making plans to rescue her, and it shouldn't be as impossible a task as it had been at home, but he knew that Diana wouldn't be relying on them to rescue her. If she saw an opportunity, she'd take it. And from what Andrew had seen, she'd be spending a fair amount of time with Treize Khushrenada, who was very different than his double. What better way to affect an escape that to create confusion by killing the head of the enemy organization?
Diana kept her face carefully blank as she was escorted back to Treize Khushrenada's office, although she wondered how stupid they thought she was, by putting her back in the same base she'd escaped previously. Did they honestly think that she wouldn't know it was the same one just because they'd put her in a different corridor? She'd had the layout memorized before she escaped, and she'd had Andrew hack Oz's main computer to make get maps of all the bases before she traded herself for Shin.
Khushrenada was looking through some files on his computer when she arrived, and Dev's double was standing behind him at attention, still wearing that stupid mask. Diana wondered idly why he wore it - what she could see of his face didn't appear to be scarred, and even if it had been, she doubted that he would let something that stupid bother him. At least, she knew that Dev wouldn't - on the other hand, this version of him was working for Velanz's double, so maybe it really was scarring.
Velanz was standing in the corner with his own duo of guards, occasionally shooting murderous glances in Khushrenada's direction. Of course, the second that she arrived, he saved all of those looks for her, sticking in a sickly smile every now and then for variety.
"What do you want?" she asked flatly when she arrived, not even bothering to glance in Velanz's direction. It was obvious he had little to no power here, no matter what he was deluding himself into thinking. In fact, if she was reading things right, he was a hair away from getting himself thrown in a cell with her. Now that was an interesting thought - it might be fun if they were thrown in together. She could play with him for a while, then kill him. It took so little to kill normal humans.
"I thought we might continue our discussion, since it was interrupted before," he said smoothly.
"Oh, you mean when I tore a hole through one of your walls, then hijacked several suits and escaped?" she asked coolly. "I apologize for inconveniencing you, by the way."
"Not at all," he replied, a slight smile dancing around the corners of her lips. That slight non-expression irritated her greatly, for some reason. So he thought she was amusing? She could understand why he would feel that way - he had very little to lose here, and very little to gain, as well. He had to know that she wasn't going to tell him anything about the Gundam pilots, and he couldn't possibly care about what was going on in her world. So he could afford to play word games with her for as long as he wanted. That could be interesting. Maybe.
"Would you please take a seat?" he asked, gesturing to the seat in front of her.
She gave him a tight-lipped smile and seated herself with none of the grace she was capable of, well aware of the fact that this time, he hadn't dismissed the guards. At least he'd learned that much about her. "And why should I cooperate with you and play these games?" she inquired sharply. "They're irritating, and unlike before, you have nothing I want. The only thing of value to me that you possess is my freedom, and I very much doubt that you'll give me that in response for playing your games." She raised an eyebrow.
"Quite correct, that is unacceptable," he replied, "however..." his gaze drifted to Velanz. "There are other things I possess that may be of interest to you."
Diana also let her gaze slide to Velanz, and was quite pleased to see the fear in his eyes under his outraged exterior at Khushrenada's veiled suggestion. She made note of that fear before she turned her eyes back to Khushrenada. "I very much doubt that you would be willing to give him to me."
"Not at the moment, no, but your time is at my disposal at the moment. Mr. Velanz seems quite insistent on getting answers out of you. For now, this is how I would choose to search for those answers. He will have his chance, of course, but if you were willing to 'play these games' as you said before, the amount of time you would spend with him would be greatly decreased."
Diana studied him carefully. She didn't trust him at all, and didn't trust this offer of less torture for time spent talking to him. She was coming to understand that Khushrenada was much, much more intelligent than Velanz, and much more subtle as well. A dangerous combination. But it wasn't as if she was going to tell him anything about the Gundam pilots, and most of the information about her own world Velanz already knew. It was better than being tortured.
She raised her head slightly, crossed her legs neatly, and sat up slightly, her face assuming an open and pleasant expression. "All right, then. I'm willing to play for that. Where do you want to start?"
He looked openly pleased at her action, which bothered her a lot, but she'd never let him know that. "Why do you do that?" he asked.
Diana tilted her head slightly, indicating her confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by that." Actually, she had a very good idea what he was asking, but hoped that she was guessing wrong.
"Change like that. You do it quite often, change mannerisms, almost like you're switching from personality to personality."
"I am. It usually confuses people."
"And you like that?"
"It gives me an advantage."
"But what are your normal characteristics?"
Diana really didn't like the way that this conversation was going - in just a few minutes Khushrenada had learned more about her (even if it was just the self that she projected to outsiders) than Velanz had in six months of holding her. She decided a little bit of misdirection was in order, and twisted her lips into a bitter smile. "Didn't Velanz tell you? I'm a weapon, an emotionless killer." She was satisfied by the hint of dismay that passed across his face before he recovered his composure.
"I'm well aware of what Mr. Velanz thinks. I would like to know what you think."
Diana's smile grew slightly larger, and she knew that it was not a pleasant expression. "With me, what you see it what you get," she said turning her head slightly to give him a profile before continuing. "I am every person that I've ever pretended to be. There is no real me," she lied.
He regarded her with no little pity. "That must be very confusing for you."
"I've grown used to it," she replied calmly, then waited for his next question. This was sort of entertaining.
He also appeared to be waiting for something, and after several minutes asked, "Don't you have any questions?"
Not that caught her off-guard. "I thought you were questioning me," she replied before she could think of saying anything else.
"It wouldn't be very interesting if it was so one-sided, would it?" he replied with a slight smile, and she felt a stab of alarm. She always relied on people to give her the most information about themselves, usually by paying very close attention to their questions, to find out what interested them, and then working from there.
She thought quickly, then asked, "Why are you so set on having this conversation with me? I haven't been on this world long enough to know anything of interest to you, and my knowledge of my world would do you no good."
He shuffled through some of the papers on his desk for a few seconds before answering, and she could almost see him analyzing his choices in answering her. Well, that alone told her something.
Finally he said, "There are very few people in this world like me. Zechs is one of them, the Gundam pilots are others. When we met earlier, you manipulated me. That has not happened in a long time. It is seldom that I meet someone who can play the game, and rarer still that the circumstances will permit it. In you, I have both."
<Great, so he's just doing this for fun.> Despite her well-rooted common sense and all intentions to the contrary, Diana felt her interest stirring. She was in a similar position as he was, in her own world, with few that could keep up with her, and fewer still who wanted to bother with it. She knew that the boys humored her, but that none of them ever understood her fascination with pitting herself against the few people who could keep up with her - they'd had each other to keep busy when they were growing up and people who knew exactly what they were capable of, so they didn't know how incredibly frustrating it could be to always be around people who couldn't possibly keep up. She'd never quite gotten over that, and it was going to get her into real trouble someday.
<Like now.> Diana was well aware of her more dangerous tendencies, and this one was right up there. And she couldn't forget that Velanz was there, watching her and obviously paying a lot of attention. He might not be as smart as her, but he wasn't an idiot, and if she let anything slip, he would pick up on it and use it against her.
"All right, it's your turn again," she said carefully.
He eyed her for a moment, then asked, "Why do you hate him so much?"
"He killed my father," she responded simply, her voice calm. She was quite proud of that, actually, when the thing she wanted most was to rush across the room and break Velanz's neck, even as she thought about it. That was probably why he'd chosen to stand that far away - he knew that she was willing to die to kill him, and was giving the guards as much time as possible to shoot her if she tried.
She caught the surprise on Khushrenada's face, and openly smirked. "I bet he didn't tell you that, did he?"
Khushrenada regained his composure. "People die in wars."
"That's right, they do, but it should be soldiers, not innocent civilians. Not women and children and whoever else happen to be in the way. If my father had been killed for his own actions, I would be angry. But he killed him simply to get at me, and that makes me... more angry," she finally finished, deciding that homicidal was probably a better word to describe how she felt, but probably not a good a idea to mention out loud. Throughout her entire speech, her voice hadn't risen above a low murmur, and she hadn't allowed emotion to color the words.
Which was a mistake, she realized a couple of seconds later. That was nothing close to a normal human response. He would have expected her to be angry - she should have gone for what he expected, to satisfy some of his expectations might put him a little off-guard.
She looked at him, and saw a thoughtful expression on his face as he glanced at Velanz. It was possible that he might not have noticed, but she wasn't willing to bet on it.
"I think..." he said slowly, "that that is enough for today. I will speak with you again tomorrow." The way he said it made it an order.
Diana smoothly got to her feet and inclined her head towards him in a gesture of respect, and saw a flash of surprise on his face. Good. She'd managed to surprise him again. But even as she started to walk out of the room, Diana worried. He'd gotten far too much out of her in a simple conversation. She'd gotten cocky, and lazy too. She had to stay on her guard until she got out of here, one way or another.
Surprisingly, Velanz offered no comments or complaints after Diana was escorted out. He simply nodded to them and followed her out, although Treize knew for a fact that he would not be able to get within twenty feet of her, by his own orders. But his behavior was puzzling.
"He thinks he got something out of her," Zechs observed.
Treize was about to correct him, when he realized that it was true. Velanz wouldn't have been that quiet unless he felt that he had gotten something out of that short exchange. Treize had only ended it so quickly because he had work to do, not because he thought that he'd actually gotten somewhere. He began to review the conversation in his mind, and immediately one thing caught his attention - her absolutely expressionless voice as she described the crimes Velanz had committed.
He believed her, about what Velanz had done, and blamed himself for not picking up on it sooner. He'd known that Velanz was a killer, he'd just never thought about it in that way - that he would kill that easily, and those types of people.
Treize was aware of the fact that many people considered him a monster, most of the Gundam pilots among those people, but there were some lengths to which he would not stoop. Lady Une had gone too far, and more and more he was finding that not only had Velanz done that before, it appeared that he did it on a regular basis. But that didn't explain what he was getting (or thought he was getting) out of this conversation.
His mind once again returned to the dead look in her eyes when she talked about her father's death. No pain, no anger, just... emptiness. It was not a normal response, by any stretch of the imagination. It was also the only time she'd done that during the conversation.
His mind suddenly made the connection. <She only acts like that when it is something she cares about. That dead look - it's more like an overflow of emotion than a lack thereof.>
"She cared very deeply for her father," he said out loud, knowing that Zechs would be able to make the connection without him spelling it out for him. He had been honest before, about wanting to 'play the game' with someone who could keep up with him. Zechs was among those that could, but he was a subordinate, and his lover besides, which took all of the interest out of that competition. He assumed that she had the same problem, having not missed the flash of interest in her eyes when he explained himself.
Zechs nodded slightly. "I still disturb her greatly," he commented.
Treize nodded in response to the reminder. "I'll remember to ask her about that. It's possible that she knows your... double... from her own world. Did he ever mention anything about that?" There was no question as to who he was talking about.
"No."
"Find out if he knows anything."
Treize only had to put up with the man a little longer, until he finished explaining the plans for spaceflight. His scientists had informed him that even though he'd kept a lot back, what he'd given them was almost enough for them to finish the work on his own. After that...
He smiled slightly to himself.
End Part 12
Sorry this section took so long, but RL has been absolutely crazy the last couple of weeks. I'm not quite sure about where I'm going with this, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. I am working on the next section of Prophecies - hopefully I'll get that out in a couple of weeks. :)
Random notes: in my own mind (a rather scary place, I imagine), this is a crossover between a story I wrote some time ago detailing the story of Diana and the rest of her group and GW. I wrote the other story after watching GW, but it eventually veered so far away from anything vaguely resembling GW that I don't think it can even be called an AU fanfiction anymore. I had to change certain things in that story so that the two universes matched up better, (among other things the Treize character has a very small role in the other story, and is not the main bad guy) and I changed the names of most of the characters to help me keep the differences between my story and this one straight. If anyone's really interested in the original story, write me and I'll e-mail a copy to you.
(:./marika/others12)
