"Here's the latest one, sir," one of his aides said as he handed Treize a paper copy of the latest article in a stream of propaganda that his people were endeavoring to fight. The pattern had started the day after the girl escaped -- once or twice a day, an article would suddenly appear all over the web, no sign of how it was spread or who wrote it, although Velanz insisted that it was the girl's work. Whoever was doing it was very skillful, always sticking to the truth but using words guaranteed to stir the blood of the civilians who supported Oz.
He quickly scanned it, then tossed it to his desk with a sigh. It was an excellently written piece on the proper and humane treatment of prisoners, one that hinted at without outright stating that Oz did not treat it's prisoners well, and that the matter should be investigated. Actually, in most cases, Treize had the utmost confidence in his people to treat their prisoners well, especially since most of their enemies now were members of the former Alliance, and their prisoners had often been comrades-in-arms before the split. It was only where the Gundam pilots and those associated with them were involved that discipline began to break down, because of the sheer number of people the pilots had killed, and because the pilots never existed before the war. Still, he had no doubts that within a few hours the Romafeller foundation would be wanting to send down an independent team to investigate the prisons. Not because Romafeller cared about the treatment of prisoners, but to appease the masses that they supposedly represented.
The last one had been about the distribution of resources within the colonies, and that had nearly sparked riots in three colonies and two major cities. Only declaring martial law in those places had stopped it, and of course, that did little to endear Oz to the people in those cities. But they couldn't have let the riots take place, or they would have lost even more prestige. It was a no-win situation, and one that he'd been very skillfully pushed into. The girl was very good.
He was halfway tempted to let slip the fact that Romafeller was the money behind Oz, if only so that the girl could target them for a while. He was beginning to see why Velanz wanted her so badly, and why he had such trouble doing so. From the brief time he'd had with her, a few of Wufei's comments, and some hints that Velanz had made, he knew that Velanz had held the girl for close to six months, probably tortured her the entire time, and had failed to break her. He also knew that Velanz hated her, and took her resistance to his methods as a personal insult.
Treize had ordered two men to follow him around at all times, and had instructed them that he was not allowed to see the prisoner under any circumstances. They'd held Wufei's double -- Shin -- for three days now. For some reason, Treize refused to refer to him as Five. Maybe it was because Velanz did. He'd been unconscious the entire time, first because of the blow to the head, and later because of a cocktail of drugs to keep him that way. Velanz had instructed some of their scientists on how to make a set of cuffs that would hold him. They were nasty things, held together by an electromagnetic field, and not by chains, capable of withstanding up to a half-ton of pressure. Until they were completed they would not wake him up, and Treize wasn't sure if he was going to do it, anyway.
There was no way that he was letting Velanz anywhere near him, no matter what. It was obvious that he was the one Wufei had been referring to, the one who'd gotten separated from the others, so he'd have no useful information about the Gundam pilots, and it was unlikely he'd talk in any case. If he had no useful information, there was no reason to torture him for whatever he did know. Besides that, Treize kept having flashbacks of Velanz calmly shooting a bullet into the boy's leg when he refused to cooperate.
The light on his comm. system flashed, and he hit the button to activate it. "Yes?"
"Your Excellency, Mr. Velanz wishes... quite strongly... to speak with you," said an irritated voice. Velanz did not like his guards, and made no secret of the fact. As he grew more irritated with them, he tended to try to make the feeling universal, and was generally successful.
"Put him on," Treize said.
"Khushrenada?" said his own voice, and Treize grimaced.
"Yes?"
"Have you seen the latest propaganda announcement?"
"Yes."
"She knows we have him."
This was the man's only real value -- he did know his enemies, Treize had to admit. "Are you certain?"
"Positive. She does this to taunt us. No one was within the organization was supposed to know about this, but she does already. It's also her way of indirectly protecting it."
As always, Velanz's classification of Shin as 'it' caught Treize by surprise. "And what do you recommend?" he asked coolly.
"Tell them that we're ready to make a trade," Velanz said promptly.
"How?"
"Leave a file in one of the reports on prisoner transport. Name it Tiger. They've probably been getting into your system without problems for days now, they'll see the file and get whatever message you put in it, and respond that way." Even over the comm. system his voice sounded sullen. "They seem to have no problems getting in an out of our computers without a problem. We haven't been able to find the back door they have, yet. I'm assuming your five can do something similar. I'll start working on something right away."
"Yes, please give me something to review as quickly as possible," Treize said smoothly, and heard a long silence on the other hand as Velanz realized what he'd just done. He had absolutely no intention of letting Velanz take care of this all by himself, and he'd just maneuvered his double into a position where he couldn't just set it up himself with the flimsy excuse that 'he hadn't known' that Treize wanted to see it.
It took Velanz several seconds to get control of himself, and Treize enjoyed himself by imagining Velanz's expression. Finally he said, "Yes sir. I'll have it sent to you as quickly as possible."
Treize cut the connection without saying another word. He had no doubts that Velanz's plan would work -- the girl struck him as the protective type, based on how she'd treated pilot 02. She'd probably willingly sacrifice her own life for one of her people. Foolish, that, but understandable. And he was looking forward to facing her again, now that they were on more equal footing, knowledge-wise. But he didn't know what Velanz would do to her if they did get her, and he found himself half-way hoping that he wouldn't have to find out.
After cleaning out Instructor H's lab (who was incredibly surprised and upset at what he saw as Quatre's changed behavior), they headed back to Earth. There'd been only one traitor there, and Andrew said that he didn't recognize H as one of the doctors on the project, for one reason or another, and suggested that maybe H had been one of the original scientists who'd been forced to work on the project and then killed. Whatever the case, it led to both Andrew and Kane being a lot more relaxed after that mission than the one at G's. Andrew had been very surprised at H's concern for him (Quatre), and more than a little disturbed, too. He was very used to seeing doctors or scientists as automatically being the enemy, H's concern had thrown him off-balance.
They got back down to Earth without any problems, ditched the transport, hid Deathscythe, and then headed back for the safehouse. They were still five minutes down the road when Andrew suddenly gasped. "Something's wrong," he said through clenched teeth.
Duo reached for the gun that lay on the seat beside him, but Andrew shook his head. "Not that sort of trouble. Just... something's wrong." He swallowed, looking a little gray, even for himself. "It's Shin."
"What?" Kane asked, looking at him.
"I don't know," Andrew said, almost moaning, pressing his hands against his forehead. "Just hurry up and get back!" He closed his eyes and sank down into the seat, his lips moving silently, his forehead creased in concentration.
"Andy, are you all right?" Duo asked.
Andrew opened his eyes. "I hate this!" he exclaimed, and slammed his fist into the side of the jeep, which dented. He stared at it for a second, then glanced apologetically at Duo. "Sorry about that."
Duo shrugged. "If we hadn't stolen it I might mind more. You OK?"
"I hate it," Andrew said darkly, his eyes distant. "If I could, I'd rip it out of my head... or my heart, or wherever the hell it is."
Duo felt his eyebrows raising -- he couldn't remember Quatre ever wanting to be rid of his kokoro no uchuu, no matter how much pain it caused him. "You do?"
"I know things are happening... I feel people's pain... and I can't do anything about it!" he exclaimed, slamming his fist into the door again. A larger dent appeared.
Duo had previously estimated that it would take five minutes to get back to the safehouse, traveling well above the speed limit but still with some modicum of safety. They made it back in three.
Andrew leapt out of the jeep before it had even begun to slow, and despite himself, Duo gasped, certain that Quatre's double was about to have his neck broken. Instead, Andrew simply rolled -- once -- when he his the ground and took off running towards the house.
By the time that Kane had parked the jeep in the back where it wouldn't be seen (it was stolen, after all), and they'd run inside, Andrew was already seated at one of two laptops, typing away as he stared at the screen, Diana looking over his shoulder. Heero was hunched over the other laptop, Brian watching over his shoulder. "What happened?" Duo asked, immediately picking up on the tense atmosphere in the room.
"They have Shin," Devin said shortly, and Kane's entire face fell. For a moment he looked incredibly pained, then that expression was replaced by one that the others would have probably called Shinigami if they saw it on his face. It didn't look any prettier on Kane's face than it did on Duo's.
"Are you sure?" Duo asked.
Brian shot him a look that could have withered gundanium. "They're constructing the type of cuffs that the Alliance uses on us. The only reason that they'd do that would be to hold Shin. They're covering up his location pretty well, though. We're looking through their files now for a clue, though." His gaze returned to the screen.
"How did your mission go?" Diana asked.
"There were three traitors in the first place, and one in the second. There are more in all the other stations, though," Kane said, glancing at Andrew. "They're tracing you guys through the people at the other stations, and they'll keep doing it until we get to them too. They're also tracking us through that girl... Relena something."
Quatre suddenly turned very red and started choking. Trowa helpfully slapped him on the back as he set down the glass of water he'd been drinking. "What's wrong?" Duo asked.
Quatre shook his head, looked at Relena, and then covered his eyes with one hand.
"Oh. Her. We might not have as much trouble with her anymore," Diana said thoughtfully.
"Why not?" Duo asked suspiciously, and noticed that most of the room was staring at her.
"She came by here yesterday," Diana said with a slight grin. Then she glanced at Quatre, who was still bright red and refusing to meet anyone's gaze. Duo wasn't sure what to make of that. With what he knew about Diana, he could think of two possible reactions: the first would be horror and disgust at Relena's actions, accompanied by an off-hand (although completely serious) suggestion that they kill her. The other reaction would be amusement. Duo doubted that Quatre would be reacting this way if Diana had suggested that they kill her, but he couldn't figure out what would cause her to react that way.
"So what happened?"
"She must have seen Brian and me coming in, because she demanded to see Heero," Diana commented, and Duo barely held back a wince. He could imagine the reaction that would have gotten. Diana didn't react too well to being told what to do. "I told her he didn't want to see her. Then she wanted to know who I was."
Quatre let out a low groan and buried his face in Trowa's chest.
"Well, what did you say?" Duo asked when Diana showed no sign of continuing, watching Quatre with an amused expression on her face.
"I told her that I was the prostitute you five had hired to participate in a massive orgy," Diana replied, a hint of a smile on her face.
Heero actually stopped typing to stare at her, a slightly incredulous look on his face. Trowa blinked several times as Quatre continued to bury his face in Trowa's chest. Duo's jaw dropped.
"You what?!"
"Well, I had to give her some excuse -- she wanted to know who I was, and I couldn't tell her the truth."
"And that was the only excuse you could come up with?"
Diana shrugged. "It was the first thing that came to mind. But I might have frightened her off when I told her how good the five of you were in bed."
Wufei made a choking sound and suddenly spun and marched out of the room. A hint of pain crossed Diana's face before she got control of herself, and Duo suddenly realized that she'd thought that he was Shin, for a second.
"I told her that the two of you were definitely together, too," Diana continued, all amusement gone from her manner. "I didn't get too graphic, but I think she might have finally gotten the message. I guess you'll see. If nothing else works, try inviting her to join you two."
"Are you nuts? I don't want to touch her!"
"Do you honestly think she's going to accept the offer. I offered, and she practically ran away."
"You offered?" Duo asked, trying to picture Diana doing something like that.
"Yes, it looked something like this," Diana said, opening up the first four or five buttons of her shirt and leaning forward, exposing an obscene amount of skin. Yup, he was quite positive that there wasn't a blemish anywhere on her entire upper torso. Then she leered at him, and he backed up a step, because there was nothing of Diana in that expression, and in his experience, that was a bad sign.
"That was about her reaction, too," Diana remarked in a normal voice, closing up her shirt and standing straight up again. "Except that it was because of disgust and horror, not a healthy fear reaction."
"Fear? Who's afraid?" Duo asked.
"Not fear, then, wariness. That's a very good instinct to have. You saw me acting in an unusual way, and reacted appropriately. That makes you smarter than most of the Alliance, who still judge me solely on appearances. Their loss."
"Yeah. Whatever. So you did that to Relena?" Duo couldn't help but grin at the expression he could imagine on Relena's face. "Man, I wish I could have been here to see that." Wufei came walking back in on that last comment and snorted in disgust.
"Tiger," Brian suddenly said, and Diana's eyes swung back around to the screen, and abruptly all the emotion drained from her face and eyes. Duo knew her well enough by now to know that that was her reaction -- actually, they all reacted the same way -- when she got very upset.
"What did you find?"
"They left a message for me," Diana said, silently touching Andrew on the shoulder. He immediately rose and let her take his seat, although his eyes never left the screen. Diana's hands flew across the keyboard. Duo walked over to look, but all he saw was a bunch of random numbers and letters.
"It's in code."
"Yes."
"Then how do you know they left it for you?"
"I designed the code," Brian said suddenly, walking over to examine the screen. "When I was still with the Alliance. They know that."
"It's Velanz," Diana growled, and it was amazing how much hate she managed to put into that one word. She finally stopped typing, and just stared at the screen, although it was still in code.
"Can you read that?" Duo asked.
"Yes. I got rid of the top encryption. This is easy."
"Well, what does it say?"
Diana closed her eyes slightly as Brian let out a low curse. Bad sign.
"It's a ransom demand for Shin."
"What? Where did you find this?"
"It's in the middle of Oz's computer. Specifically, their prisoner transfer files. Velanz must be behind this -- this is how we operate back home. I guess he got my message. I should have seen what he was planning," she said, sounding very angry with herself.
"You sent him a message?" Heero asked sharply, and Duo knew exactly what he was thinking. If she'd actually gone far enough to communicate directly with him from this location, then there was a strong chance that this safe house had been compromised and that they should move out immediately.
"No, not that kind of message. What sort of idiot do you take me for?" Diana asked, looking disgusted and a little hurt. She was switching in and out of that emotionless stage every couple of seconds now, which wasn't a good sign, either. "Latest propaganda message I sent out was on the ethical treatment of prisoners, to let Velanz know that we knew they had him."
Duo blinked. "That's sort of... um, roundabout? Are you sure he got the message?"
"He got it. We usually operate this way," Diana replied, eyes still on the screen.
"What did he ask for?" Quatre asked softly, and Duo noticed that he had one hand pressed against his chest again.
"Only one thing, actually, in return for Shin."
"What?" Duo didn't like the sound of that.
"Me."
Andrew barely managed to hold back a wince when Diana calmly announced what Velanz wanted. She was right -- they should have anticipated this. Velanz even more fixated on capturing and breaking Diana than she was on killing him. He'd never forgotten that he once held her for half a year and couldn't break her, and she'd never forgiven herself for letting him escape when she had him and could have stopped his killing. The two were more alike than made him comfortable, except for the fact that Velanz had no soul (he meant that literally -- he'd touched Velanz's mind with his own once, and it was an experience he didn't want to repeat) and Diana wasn't technically human.
"What are you going to do?" Wufei asked her, but Andrew already knew the answer to that question.
"Don't," he said abruptly.
"I have to," she replied.
"He's going to try to destroy you. He hates you."
"Well, the feeling is mutual. I have to do this."
"Shin wouldn't want this."
"I don't remember asking his opinion in this matter," Diana said coldly, and he knew that he was shutting herself off, become 'the Tiger', the brutally efficient rebel commander who so terrified the Alliance soldiers. "Or yours. This has to be done. The Rebels won't survive long without us -- we need to get back at the next juncture. Shin is the only one who can figure out when that is. That way, if something goes wrong, the five of you can get back."
"We're not leaving you," Kane said stubbornly.
"That's an order," Diana said softly. "If the time comes and I'm not with you, you are going back. And we need Shin. It's a reasonable exchange."
They all stared at her. Andrew did his best to keep his expression as neutral as possible, knowing it would get to her. She met his gaze for a fraction of a second before dropping her eyes. "It's not like I'm planning on letting myself get killed by him. I have to make the exchange in fourteen hours, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stay there. If I see a chance to get out of there, I'm going for it."
"And if you don't?" Devin asked quietly.
"Then I'm relying on you to rescue me," Diana said with a slight smile. "I'm not really interested in killing myself yet. I wanted to rescue Shin, but they're not giving us enough time. So you're going to have to get me instead."
"How?"
"I don't know, you're going to have to figure it out. You're smart boys, you'll figure out something." Diana smiled slightly. "I trust you."
Andrew knew that. He knew that she trusted them with her life. He just wasn't sure if he trusted himself.
Diana knew that, but chose not to address the issue. "Come on, we've got work to do. Can you put a subdermal transmitter together in the next couple of hours?" she asked Brian.
He nodded once. "I'll need to collect the parts, though."
"Do it. We'll scrap together as many regular ones as we can -- he'll be expecting it, and I don't want to disappoint him." She smiled again, but this smile had no kindness, no friendship in it at all. It was the smile of a predator, and in some ways, that was what she was, now. She really was the Tiger.
Andrew hated it when she got this way, which happened fairly often. He couldn't touch her at all with his empathy when she was this way, it was like she wasn't even herself. In his mind, she was really two people (at least) -- one was the person he loved and would die for, the other person was the merciless, ruthless killer who led the Rebels during their most stressful times. Diana was aware of the separation and hated it in herself, but couldn't -- or wouldn't - get rid of it. The Tiger was an integral part of her, not the best part by a long shot, but it was part of her strength, and she wouldn't have survived as long as she had without it. That didn't mean she didn't break down after those sessions -- it was hard to recognize, but he knew the signs. The last time she'd given an order that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of her people (saving thousands more in the process), he'd followed her a few nights later. She was picking fights in bars and with Alliance soldiers so that they'd beat her. She wasn't capable of self-destructive behavior because of the same modifications to her brain that had created the Tiger, but she could let other people hurt her, for a short period of time, anyway.
Brian simply saluted, showing that he also recognized the shift within her, and then left. Devin exchanged a worried glance with Andrew before following Brian, leaving the Gundam pilots behind. The pilots were obviously aware that something had happened, but they weren't sure what. Andrew saw Quatre reach for his chest and grabbed his wrist. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't try to touch her right now. You'll just get hurt."
"What happened?"
"She wasn't raised the same as the rest of us, so the triggers the scientists put in her mind, the ones that were supposed to turn us into the perfect little soldiers, they affected her differently. The result was... disturbing, and not at all what they wanted. She's managed to find a balance, but she's on the wrong side of that balance, now. Just leave her alone."
Treize stared at the monitor, examining the silent image of Wufei's double, lying on a bed in the infirmary, kept unconscious by a cocktail of drugs fed to him intravenously. He was also strapped to the bed with heavy chains, just in case.
The door to his office slid open, but he didn't bother to look up. There were only two people who would dare to enter his office without asking for permission first, and he trusted both of them implicitly. He even knew which of the two it was, because Lady Une was off touring the colonies.
"What are you looking at?" Zechs asked in a low voice.
"I'm looking at our guest. We already received a reply to the message left embedded in our own computers, you know."
"We need to work on our security systems."
"I know." Treize paused, then ran one finger along the screen, tracing the edge of Shin's jawline. "Velanz was overjoyed. He can't wait to get his hands on the girl."
"And you?" Zechs asked, knowing immediately what was behind all of this.
"I... find myself reluctant."
"Reluctant to do what?"
"I don't want to hand her over to him at all," Treize admitted after a moment's thought. "He strikes me as the sort of man who would hurt an enemy simply because he could. There's no elegance in that."
"I agree entirely. So what do you intend to do about it?" Zechs asked suddenly, causing Treize to spin around and stare at him.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm sorry," Zechs immediately apologized. "It almost sounded as if you were going to stand by and let that happen." The corner of his mouth quirked upwards slightly, and Treize knew that if he didn't have the mask on, he'd see that Zechs' right eyebrow had risen up near his hairline. "You are one of the most powerful men in the world, if I'm not mistaken."
"The most powerful," Treize said, slightly miffed. "At least until Romafeller tries to remove me from power."
Zechs snorted his opinion of them being able to do that. "So what are you going to do? Do you want to cancel the exchange?"
"No. I do want to see her again," Treize admitted, and Zechs sighed. "I'll decide what to do once we have her again."
"Be careful," Zechs warned. "Velanz will not be happy if he isn't given her immediately once she turns herself over."
"He does not have a say in the matter," Treize replied coldly, and Zechs sighed once more, then turned to look at the monitor.
"He does look very much like our dragon, doesn't he?" Zechs remarked in a polite voice.
"Indeed," Treize responded.
"No matter what we do, Wufei will not be happy with us," Zechs continued in the same tone.
"You're just afraid he won't sleep with us anymore," Treize accused, and was rewarded by a slight smile from Zechs.
"Well, there is that. I haven't even spoken to him since this entire mess started."
"He's feeling torn -- this sort of situation is outside the normal rules."
"All the more reason to send them all back to their own world."
"So we can get back to business as normal?" Treize asked, amused. "Us trying to take over the world, and them trying to stop us?"
"Of course."
"That's disgusting!" Duo exclaimed, looking more than a little green. "You're as bad as Heero. Ow!" he shouted as Heero gave his braid a sharp tug.
"Bad as Heero?" Andrew asked with a slight frown as he watched Diana. Duo hadn't understood what 'subdermal transmitter' meant up until a few seconds ago, although he should have figured it out on his own.
"Yeah," Duo said, wanting to avert his eyes and knowing that morbid curiosity would keep them glued to the scene in front of him. Brian had returned with Devin and had started work on some very small electrical device. When he was done, the result was a small metal cylindrical capsule, about four and a half centimeters long and about one centimeter in diameter. "He set his own leg after he jumped off a cliff."
"You can't?" Kane asked, sounding surprised, and Duo groaned.
"Not you too? Man, do I have to watch this?"
"No," Diana replied shortly, critically examining the edge of the surgical blade that Andrew had stolen somewhere. Then, as he watched, she turned the blade on herself, cutting a short deep cut in the skin and muscle of her upper arm. She examined the wound just as she had just examined the blade, evidently found it lacking, and applied the blade again, making it a little deeper before she nodded in satisfaction. Then she picked up the little capsule and carefully inserted it into the wound she'd just made, poking it around a bit before she was satisfied with it's position. By then blood had run down her arm and was dripping into the kitchen sink over which she stood.
"What are you doing?" he finally asked, trying not to stare as the wound sealed itself up before his eyes.
"Planting a transmitter," she replied, pulling out a towel to clean up the blood.
"In your arm?!"
"Best place. They never find them there. We use it on a number of our spies. This particular type is powered by heat, so the heat from my body will keep it running much longer than any battery could. Velanz will search me for trackers and transmitters when he gets me, and I will be carrying quite a few of them, but if he finds enough that way, he'll think he got them all," Diana explained.
"So, you're all better now?" Duo asked, looking at her now-clean arm.
"My skin heals faster than any other part of me -- they wanted us to be able to operate among people immediately after an operation, no matter what injuries we suffered. The muscle will heal in the next couple hours, especially since I was careful in cutting it."
Duo thought that she was probably worse than Heero. At least he didn't cause his own injuries.
"How long until we have to go?" he asked.
"We are leaving in two hours and fifteen minutes," Diana replied, a firm accent on the first word. "You aren't coming."
"What?! You can't do that!"
"We have no guarantee that they won't try to ambush us when we meet to make the switch," Diana pointed out. "If it is, we'll try to fight our way out of it. In that situation, you would be more of a burden to us than an aid. Besides, you need to keep going. You can't let us interfere."
Damn it, she's sounding more like Heero every time she opens her mouth.
Duo would (reluctantly) admit that they were more likely to slow up their doubles, as long as they were on the ground and fighting hand-to-hand, but that didn't mean that he had to like it.
"I am going," Wufei said suddenly.
"No, you're not," Diana replied matter-of-factly. Great. This ought to be pretty, Duo thought, looking at the stubborn set of Wufei's chin. He wasn't about to back down, and Duo didn't think that Diana knew the meaning of the word.
"I take full responsibility for myself," Wufei said quietly. "If it is a trap, you do not need to worry about me."
"No."
"If you attempt to leave me behind or knock me out, I will make an immediate attempt to rescue you as soon as I wake up," Wufei said calmly, and Duo felt like strangling both of them. Wufei was telling her that he was practically going to turn himself over to Oz if she didn't let him go along on what was possibly a trap?!
Diana looked as if she was about to start with her own threats, when Andrew suddenly leaned over and tapped her shoulder. He cupped one hand around his mouth so only Diana could see his lips, and spoke silently for a few seconds. Diana stared at him, then transferred her gaze to Wufei, her eyes suspicious. "Fine. You can come." Diana spun around to glare at Duo. "And don't even think about trying the same trick. You're not coming. I know you wouldn't carry out that ridiculous threat -- you're not as crazy as he is."
That was a first -- usually Duo was the first person that they looked to when the word 'crazy' was being tossed about. But in this case, she was right. Duo was far too much a pragmatist to follow up on a threat like that, especially if it was already too late to do anything about it. Wufei would do it just to be stubborn.
"Does she always make a point of being late, or is it just us?" Zechs remarked into the silence that encompassed the empty warehouse that Velanz had chosen to make the switch in. He and Treize were standing apart from the group of soldiers clustered around Shin, and Velanz was standing halfway between them and the group. There were approximately eight soldiers standing in a circle around Shin, all with their guns aimed directly at his head.
For his part, Shin seemed utterly contemptuous of the threat to his life, and of his company in general. He simply stood there, his face carefully void of expression, his hands cuffed in front of him, waiting.
"She's here," Velanz said slowly, his eyes traveling around the room. Treize noted that Shin's eyes flicked once around the room before returning to the glassy-eyed stare he'd worn since they took him off the drugs and he woke up. "She's trying to retain control of the situation for as long as possible before she loses it entirely." He sounded smug.
"No, actually we were just checking to make sure that you didn't have any extra people or suits hidden around here," said a calm voice from the other end of the warehouse. Treize spun just in time to see a figure step out of the shadows. He hid a shudder as he watched various colors flow like shadows across her skin, although there was nothing that could have caused those shadows to appear. "I never did thank you for the enhancements you gave us," Diana remarked in a casual tone, holding up a hand that faded from white to black and back again. "They make sneaking up on you so much easier."
As she spoke, several other figures emerged from the darkness. The other four doubles of the pilots stepped up to flank her, gazing at the Oz soldiers and Treize himself with identical blank expressions. Every single one of the boys carried a firearm in his hand. Then... his breath caught momentarily in his throat as he recognized a fifth figure when Chang Wufei also stepped out of the shadows. He made no secret of what he thought of the situation, leveling a hostile glare at their group in general and Treize and Zechs in particular.
"Watch it, Tiger," Velanz warned, pointing to the soldiers who still kept their guns trained on Shin. Velanz did not carry a gun, or a weapon of any sort. Not only did Treize not trust him, he'd discovered that he wouldn't be particularly sorry if Velanz got killed if there was a fight. "Or he dies."
There was no visible change in her expression, or in those of her comrades, but the sense of menace in the room suddenly increased. "If you touch him, you die," Diana stated matter-of-factly. "Are we making the switch or not?"
"In the middle, you know what to do," Velanz instructed, a slight smile on her face. He nodded towards the group holding Shin, and two of the soldiers stepped away from the group to escort Shin to the middle of the room, while the rest kept their weapons trained on him. As soon as the trio started moving, Diana, flanked by two of her people, started to walk forward at the exact same pace, so they would meet exactly halfway between the two groups. Treize noted that the two who'd accompanied her were the doubles of pilot 01 and 03, and wondered why she'd chosen those two. He knew that she must have planned every aspect of this encounter, even if she never openly ordered them to do anything.
The two groups met in the center of the open space, and Velanz hit the button that would unlock the cuffs around Shin's arms, and allow them to transfer the cuffs to Diana. His finger also hovered over the button that would detonate the explosives within the cuffs if they tried anything funny. Treize had been exceedingly unhappy when he found out about those additions, but Velanz insisted that they were necessary to keep them under control.
The cuffs fell off Shin's hands, and 03's double caught them before they could hit the ground. Diana quietly embraced Shin, then said something to him, too quietly for them to hear. Treize was somewhat surprised by the gesture -- somehow, he'd never thought that affection, love, even, was part of the bond between this girl and her comrades. Whatever she said to him, Shin backed up a step and made a quick half-bow to her. Diana nodded back, then held out her arms in front of her while 03 carefully closed the cuffs around her forearms. Her eyes flicked to Shin as he said something, then she nodded again.
Treize saw one of the soldiers lean forward and say something to Diana, and then the other soldier grinned. Diana gazed at them both dispassionately, and then glanced at 01 as he said something. The corners of her lips curled upwards, and she gave a slow, graceful nod.
Suddenly both of her escorts sprung forward at the soldiers, each slamming a flattened hand into the throats of the soldiers, instantly crushing their throats. The two soldiers fell to their knees, hands grasping at their throats in a vain attempt to get air. The four children stood over them, watching dispassionately as they died. As soon as they did so, Diana nodded once more to her people, then neatly stepped over the bodies and walked back over to the soldiers, who looked very angry and ready to punish her if given the slightest excuse.
She didn't give them the excuse, however, merely presenting her hands to them so that they could examine the bindings. While they did so, she turned her head towards Treize.
"My apologies about your men," she said conversationally. "However, they were slightly... impolite, and my men are somewhat overprotective of me. I'm sure you understand," she said with a cool smile.
"I had given instructions that you not be bothered," Treize remarked, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her statement. "I'm disappointed that they were unable to follow such simple instructions."
She gazed at him without speaking, then her eyes shifted to her group. The three who'd been with her and returned to the others, and now they all stood, watching Diana. It was especially disturbing to see Shin and Wufei standing right next to each other. They looked like mirror images of each other, one dark, the other light, both dangerous. Wufei gave him one more poisonous glare, then turned and slid into the shadows. After a few moments, the other five turned at exactly the same moment and also disappeared into the shadows.
Treize spun around when he heard the sound of flesh striking flesh. Velanz was drawing his hand back for another punch when one of the soldiers grabbed his arm and restrained him.
"You will not touch the captive," Treize told him calmly. "If I hear of another occurrence like this, you will have no access to her whatsoever."
He was expecting Velanz to explode, so he was unpleasantly surprised when Velanz suddenly became quiet, stopping his struggles entirely. All of his attention was directed at Diana, who stood in the middle of the same circle of soldiers, her face unreadable.
"Very, well, Khushrenada," Velanz said with a cruel smile. "We'll try it your way, first. You do your tests and things, and you'll see that it is what I say." Once he'd apparently calmed down, the soldier let him go. "I'm surprised at you, Khushrenada. That creature just had two of her lackeys kill your men. I thought you cared for your men more than that." And with that, he turned and walked out the back door.
As Treize turned to go to his own car, he caught a glimpse of Diana out of the corner of his eye, and saw cold calculation in her eyes.
End Part 11
(:./marika/others11)
