25-Feb-2001
Note: The arc is currently under a massive revision, and will be under revision for at least another four to six months, so there will be some discontinuities until I can get everything fixed.
Author: Dan
Genre: epic AU
Pairings: NA
Disclaimer: not mine, don't sue.
Warnings: AU, a positive plethra of OCS, high
supernatural and yech factor, angst
Further Note: terms from such literary gems as Laurel
K. Hamilton are used and then twisted beyond all
recognition.
Dorothy's words stuck in my head as I stared out at the sea of faces turned up to me like I was their savoir. Like I was the one who had come to make everything all right again. I wanted to tell them that nothing was ever going to be all right ever again, but they didn't want to hear that. I really didn't believe in the ideals I was supposed to embody, but I understood what was expected of me.
I sighed a little when I came to the end of my speech, and smiled a little at podium. I was tired of it. So weary of having to carry everyone's ideals that I wanted to just fall asleep and never wake up. I brushed back my hair and excused myself from the reporters who jumped up like excited dogs to bark their questions. Sylvia waited for me at the wings of the stage. She held the files for my next meeting close to her chest.
"Do you honestly believe in what you're telling them any more, Ms. Relena?" Sylvia Noventa's voice carried worries the way other people's held laughter. I gazed down into those cerulean eyes and saw her conviction and her innocence. I wondered briefly if that's what Heero had seen when he looked into my eyes all those years ago. It just made me tired to look at her, to talk to her.
"Does it really matter, Sylvia? As long as they believe in it, it's enough." I kept walking down the hallway, my black heels making soft clicking sounds on the polished marble. I had stopped wearing pink after I'd been turned.
"NO! No, it's not enough! You'll be just like Treize if all you are doing is manipulating the people." The anger and denial in her voice stopped me, made me think a moment. Was I just manipulating people the way he had? Playing games with them? No, Treize had believed in his vision of the future with far more passion than I believed in mine. Sylvia looked away from me to the floor. "If you don't believe, then just stop. Don't lead us on like this if you don't believe in it."
I stayed quiet and thought about just walking away. I didn't have any answers for her, but I'd be doing her the same injustice that Heero had done me if I just left her there with no explanation. I walked back to where she stood, fragile and afraid. When had I grown to be so tall? She barely came up to my nose; she was so tiny.
I tilted her chin up and smiled at her. "I don't believe in the abstracts anymore. They don't mean anything by themselves." I watched her bottom lip tremble for a moment and laid a finger over them. "BUT, I do believe in the people. I think the people will do what is right and they'll be able to do it on their own soon. Soon they won't need me for their figurehead."
Sylvia stared up at me and then nodded slowly. "I'm sorry, Ms. Relena. I'm sorry for doubting you, for questioning you."
That made me laugh. "Please, Sylvia, please, question me if you think what I'm doing is wrong. You keep me honest."
She blushed a little at that and nodded. Sometimes it was hard to believe that we were the same age. I felt so much older than her. I felt so tired. I watched as she took a deep breath, smiled up at me, and then continued down the long hallway away from the auditorium. I looked back for a moment to where we had just held another of those repetitive press conferences. I kept saying the things expected of me, but somewhere along the line I had just stopped caring anymore. And after my attack, I had stopped believing in the words. They didn't mean anything to me anymore. I just wanted to quit.
"Ms. Relena?" Sylvia was waiting for me at the end of the hallway. We had a meeting with industrial group that was looking to colonize Mars to attend, and we were late.
"I'm coming."
I was staring at the papers for the proposed Mars colony when a sharp knock stole my attention away. I sighed and pressed two fingers against my temple. I couldn't really think of who would possibly want to see me. "Enter."
"Well, isn't that a little imperial?" Duo stepped into my office and I fought the desire to sneer at him. I didn't hate him. I had for a while after he and Heero had just taken off after the war without a word to anyone, but I certainly didn't care for him much.
"What do you want?" I didn't bother with trying to sound civil. We had made it abundantly clear during the war that we disliked each other. The animosity hadn't gotten any better during the intervening years. He thought I was trying to steal his boyfriend, and I pretty much thought he was a waste of time.
"You asked for a new bodyguard; what's the matter? Hilde ain't doing a good enough job?" Duo disliked the fact that Hilde and I had become best friends. He seemed to think that she had betrayed him when it was more the other way around. He tossed a thick file on my desk. "Here's his file. Une asked me to bring it over."
I shuffled it to one side without looking at it. "Thank you."
"Why him? He seems like nothing but trouble." Even years of animosity between us couldn't keep his curiosity at bay. It almost made me smile.
"The same could be said of you, Maxwell." I replied without looking up at him. Duo hissed at me, and I gave him a sweet smile. I really hoped that he would leave soon because I was starting to get annoyed. It makes it hard to play human when I'm pissed.
"Hmm? Seems I'm already causing problems for you, Geri." Aidan's smooth voice rolled into the room like a warm wave. He smiled that boyish smile of glee at doing something wrong and knowing he wouldn't get punished. I pressed two fingers to my temple. Hard.
"Aidan." All the frustration that I felt went into his name. Duo was watching us like a spectator at a tennis match.
"This is your new bodyguard?" Duo cocked his head and held out his hand. Aidan flicked his eyes to me and I just shrugged. As far as I knew Duo was as psychically dead as they came. If he didn't have an psionic sensitivity then there would be no problems. I definitely wasn't expecting Duo's reaction; I would never have dreamed it possible.
Duo jerked his hand back like he had been burned and stared at Aidan. "What, exactly, are you? You sure as hell aren't human."
Shit, shit, shit, shit. Just my luck that the street rat would be psychic enough to sense a lycanthrope. "Aidan, close the door. Duo, sit down."
Duo stared at me, his hand hovering near his gun. We didn't like each other much, but we did trust each other. At least we trusted the other not to try to kill us, mostly because Heero would kill the survivor for it. Duo didn't pull the gun, but I knew he really, really wanted to. "Relena?"
I rolled my eyes before snarling at him. "Duo. Sit. Down."
He sat, eyes sharp and considering. He must have given OZ officers that look when he had been captured. Aidan leaned against the door and laughed softly. I growled at him, letting my eyes bleed into amber. "Aidan, you are in enough trouble as it is. I will deal with you later."
"And what will you do, Geri?" His vibrate green eyes were full of curiosity and challenge.
"I will kick the shit out of you, but not now." And I meant it. I could taste the truth of those words on my tongue. I knew he could as well. Duo's amethyst eyes were huge and the gun was out, but not sighted. Good, but not great.
"Relena, what's going on? I know supernatural when I feel it." That's when I felt something from him, a cool wind against my arms, raiding goose bumps. There was a sickly sweet smell in the air, like roses starting to wither. Like death. I arched an eyebrow. As I have mentioned before, strong emotions -like fear- make it harder for the supernatural to play human.
"And I know supernatural when I smell it. What are YOU?" I made sure to keep my hands in full view when I asked that question. We were playing a little game and I sure as hell did not want to spook him.
We stared at each other for a long time. Before he gave a nervous laugh and raked his hand through his bangs. He leaned back and a small rueful smile played over his lips, but the gun didn't go away. "I asked first."
That did make me smile, and a real one. I think the first I've ever given him. "I'm a werewolf. As in I turn furry once a month. So is Aidan."
Duo pushed the chair back so he could see both of us. Aidan gave him a small playful smile and saluted him with two fingers.
"Tit for tat, Maxwell. What are you? You smell like death." He gave me a considering look under his lashes. Like I had done something that raised his opinion of me.
"A necromancer. Do you know what that is?" I cocked my head to the side and thought about it. In the past two months I had heard so many new terms that I wasn't sure. I shook my head and he sighed. I was surprised when he took on a lecturer's tone. He sounded like Chang. "A necromancer is a person who can raise and control the dead, all kinds of dead. Supposedly even vampires. It's an innate ability; I don't need a ritual to do it, but it helps."
Aidan narrowed his eyes and flicked them to me. We shared the same thought in just that glance. I looked at Duo in consideration. He hated me, but I didn't know if he hated me that much. Duo had the gun leveled at my head before I could blink.
"What the hell did I just say to make your power level jump? I've never felt you before but now I'm drowning in it. What the fuck is going on?" His hands were perfectly still as he held the gun on me. Dammit, why couldn't I do that?
I spread my hands on the table in a gesture of appeasement and sent a glare towards Aidan. He stayed put. I can only deal with one paranoid male at a time. "I was attacked two months ago by a vampire and three werewolves. That's how I became a werewolf; it's definitely involuntary. When you said you could control vampires it sounded some alarms."
Duo lowered the gun, but didn't reholster it, which actually made sense. I could be over the table ripping his throat out before he could draw it from the holster and take aim. I guess none of us felt very comfortable right now. "I didn't do it. Theoretically I could control vamps, but I've never tried."
I nodded. I believed him; I could taste the truth to his words. "All right."
He sent me a suspicious glare. "All right? Just like that?"
"She can taste the truth to your words, human. We both can." Aidan's voice carried the hint of a distant threat. He didn't like the fact that Duo had pulled a gun on my. He disliked it a lot. Duo and Aidan stared at each other. Measuring each other's destructive capacities. "I could explode your skull like an egg, human."
"I could shoot you before you tried, wolf-boy."
"Stop it, both of you. I don't want blood on my carpet. They just finished remodeling my office; I don't wanted ruined already." That made them both smile at me. And this time, Duo's was real. Funny, after telling each other that we weren't quite human now we could get along. Men were so weird.
"I'd like the full story sometime, babe." Duo stood up and gave Aidan a long assessing gaze. "Something tells me that I'm about to live through interesting times again."
"It seems like we're cursed." I rested my chin in my palms and watched the two men glare at each other. "Ask Wufei for the full story. He was there to clean up the mess."
Duo looked at me over his shoulder and I couldn't quite read his gaze. "I'm sorry you were hurt, Relena."
"Get out, Duo." There was no animosity in my voice. I was just suddenly very tired. Too much was happening too fast, I couldn't handle it. He walked out and closed the door with a small click. Better than slamming it behind him like he normally did.
"Interesting friends you keep, Geri."
"He's not a friend."
End Part 6
(:./dan/wolf6)
