Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Lean On Me ❯ A Few Questions Answered ( Chapter 7 )

Everyone, I know nothing of Midii Une, so when I get things about her wrong, ignore them! Since I know nothing of her, I am making it up as I go along, OK?

Disclaimer: I don't own GW

Chapter Seven

"Shuttle landing in ten seconds," the speaker announced to its passengers. Vienna woke, a headache forming, and squinted in the brightness of the shuttle's overhead lights.

"We're there?" she asked sleepily.

Trowa nodded.

Vienna smiled. "Good. I'm just gonna stretch and-" She stood up, forgetting how low the ceiling cabinet that held their belongings was. She hit her head and dropped back into the seat. "Ow!" she moaned, rubbing the sore spot. "That hurt."

Quatre smiled at her. "Watch out for the cabinet."

"You're a bit late, Quatre," she muttered, glaring at him.

The shuttle landed and everyone stood, Vienna being careful not to hit her head on the cabinet again. Trowa gathered his things, plus a suitcase of Vienna's, and walked from the shuttle, waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp. She came half running down the ramp, stumbling as she went. Trowa caught her at the bottom by the arm. She smiled up at him gratefully.

"That's the second person that has saved me from a head first landing," she commented, recalling the time Heero had caught her while the hangar had been under attack.

Cathrine waved them forward. "We don't have time for idle chit-chat, so keep walking! We have a circus camp ground to get to!"

They all piled into numerous cabs, including the other circus workers (of course). It was very early in the morning. She glanced at the wristwatch on her wrist. 2 a.m.! Dang, that was early. "No wonder I'm tired," she mumbled.

Beside her, Cathrine smile. "Yeah, that's the life of a circus performer."

"I'm not a circus performer," Vienna complained. "But I'm still stuck awake at 2 a.m.!" She sighed. "Riley would be laughing her head off at me right now if she knew I was awake this early. She would say, `V, you're crazy! You will never catch me up that early'."

Cathrine smiled. "She would?" She laughed. "That's funny, considering she's part of my family, who just happen to be very early morning risers."

Vienna was glad Quatre was not in the cab she was in, or otherwise the secret would get around, but Quatre was in a different cab with Trowa. "Early morning risers? That's the total opposite of Riley! If she gets up at 11 a.m. she complains about it being too early."

Cathrine laughed. "Vienna, you sure are something!"

Vienna nodded. "Yeah. Right now though, I wish I were a piece of candy so I could bite my arm off and enjoy it. That's how hungry I am." Cathrine laughed harder.

"Whatever."

Vienna shrugged. "Whatever to you too."

A few minutes later the taxicabs' pulled onto the grounds, where all of the supplies and such had been left, packed in boxes and crates. A few workers, who had arrived before them, had started setting the circus up. The ringmaster had left two days before hand and was giving out demands to the people under him as they arrived. As Vienna and Cathrine walked up to him he smiled at them and motioned them aside. He sent Trowa and Quatre to help with setting up the tent. The girls stood off to the side and the ringmaster came over.

"Girls, I have a question to ask you," the ringmaster started. "Yesterday a girl came by here, asking when the circus would arrive. I was doing business here at the time and spoke with her in person. As it turned out, she was not interested in seeing the circus, but was searching for a girl by the name of Riley Barton." He looked directly at Cathrine. "I thought this Riley might be dealing with you, Cathrine, seeing as your last name is Barton."

Cathrine watched Vienna from the corner of her eye. Vienna looked at her and shook her head. Instead, Vienna stepped forward and said, "Ringmaster, I know her, but Cathrine hasn't met her at all. Riley was one of my friends. Who was wanting to know?"

"She didn't give me name. All she gave me was this note and told me to give it to you, once I told her there was no Riley here."

Vienna took the note the ringmaster had been holding out to her. "All right. If we may, may we go find this girl?"

"I suppose, just be back by ten a.m.. That's when everyone will be going to bed to make up for the lack of sleep." He turned to leave and then added, "You can take the circus van if you want. We won't be needing it."

The circus van had been brought over by space porting shuttles early, so it was set to go for them. They got into the van, Cathrine in the drivers seat, and Vienna quickly read the note to herself.

Vienna,

If you are wondering how I know your friend Riley, it's because she and I go way back, and we had kept in contact until a year ago. I searched for her, but found no trace until the other day, when I saw a picture of a traveling circus with a new member, Vienna Chang. I knew the name from Riley and thought you could help, and that maybe Riley was with you. As it seems she is not, I would still like to meet with you. My phone number is 000-808-2134. You can get a hold of me there. I will give more information by phone.

Sincerely,

Midii Une

Vienna gasped. "Midii Une!?" she exclaimed.

Cathrine jumped with surprise at the sudden outburst. "Vienna, are you alright?"

Vienna nodded. "Yeah, it's just this note is from Midii Une! Riley told me about this girl. They were friends for awhile, but when things started to get complicated, she was forced to stop the correspondence."

Cathrine nodded. "Hm. Well, it seems we have to find her."

"Yeah and she left a number. Drive into the heart of the city and I can call her from a pay phone, just in case it's a player."

Cathrine nodded. "Got ya."

The van pulled out, heading for the city.

Meiran glanced at her watch, breathing heavily as she leaned back against the brick wall of a building. She had been running for the past hour from her pursuer, and she had finally gotten far enough ahead to rest. Her legs felt weak from running, and she wanted to drop from weariness, but if she did, it could cost her very life and her friends'. She peeked around the corner of the building and saw her pursuer standing there, looking around for her. She had not seen her yet, so it gave Meiran the advantage to size this person up. She looked thin and strong, around Meiran's height, and she moved like a cat: precise, careful, and graceful. Her hair was long and when she stepped into the faint pool of light coming from a lamppost, she could see that her hair was streaked with silver. Her eyes narrowed. Her pursuer seemed so familiar.

Her pursuer then saw her and shouted at her. Meiran jumped and took off down the street again. She was glad the streets were empty of cars and people; otherwise it would be difficult to move around freely. She continued to run, noting the street signs as she went. She found herself in the heart of the city, instead of the outskirts. She looked around for somewhere to go. She did not have much time. She ran across the street, just as the blaring headlights of a van shone on her. Meiran's eyes widened in horror; the van screeched to a halt, spinning around, missing Meiran by half a foot.

Meiran sighed with relief.

The driver of the van stepped out. "Are you okay?"

It was a girl's voice. Meiran looked up to see a young woman standing over her, waiting. "Uh, yeah, sorry," she apologized.

The woman shrugged. "As long as you're alright." She helped Meiran to her feet.

Meiran glanced over her shoulder, glad that her pursuer was not there- yet.

"Cathrine, who is it?" another voice asked. A girl, a few years younger than the woman, came over. The girl looked at Meiran and gasped. "Oh my gosh," she exclaimed.

Meiran was taken aback. "Vienna?" she gasped out.

Vienna nodded. "Who would have thought."

Ssss-thunk!

A bullet planted itself into the side of the van, followed by a few more shots. Vienna whipped out a gun and started shooting back. Meiran was about to reach for her own, but was then grabbed by Cathrine. "Come on, Vienna can cover for us until we get inside."

Cathrine and Meiran got into the van. Vienna backed into the passenger seat, aiming and shooting. At the last second, she leapt inside and shouted, "Punch it, Cathrine!" Their attacker got a shot at the windshield and the glass shattered, flying at Cathrine and Vienna. It only gave them few cuts, and they pushed the debris away.

Cathrine gunned the engine and shot off like a rocket, leaving the pursuer in the dust.

Katana cursed as the van drove away. She slammed her gun down onto the road, her blood boiling. "You can run, but you can't hide, Meiran!" she yelled at the top of her lungs after the van. "You can't escape from me! You or Vienna! Neither of you will live long!"

Behind her, her partner said, "They can't hear you, Kat, so don't waste your breath."

Katana sighed and turned around, picking her gun up off the ground. "I know. It just makes me so mad that I was so close to killing her. Again, Meiran lives to see another day, but sometime soon, she won't." She slipped the gun into the pocket looped onto her belt. "Ya know, Daryn, I really want to kill both of them, my sister and Vienna."

Her partner shook his head. "You can kill Meiran, but not Vienna. The boss wanted both of them alive, but your plan had a little problem. It went without a hitch, but you killed Riley in it. So now, we have to be certain nothing happens to Vienna."

"Great, now we are her protectors?"

"Not necessarily. We're just making sure she doesn't die before we are done with her. We would have a better chance if you hadn't killed Riley, `cause now, the boss will be killing us, for killing her. She and Vienna are the main points in this game, Kat, and you killed one of them.

"It's like a chess game. The two main points in the game are the King and Queen. Without one, you are at a disadvantage, but with both, your chance is high. And in this game we're playing, we just lost one of those pieces."

Katana spat on the ground angrily. "If you blame me again, I will hurt you, got it, Daryn?"

He shrugged. "Whatever, but if you kill me, the boss will do the same to you. Consider that."

Katana growled, shaking her head. Her partner was right. Man it sucks to be partner to your leader's son, she thought.

Cathrine stopped the van at the campground and looked over at Vienna. "I'm going to get Trowa and Quatre and bring them here. I'm not really part of this, but they are. The four of you can talk." She smiled and left.

Alone, Vienna turned in her seat so she could face her sister-in-law. They just stared at each other for a minute until Meiran broke the silence. "Vienna, what happened to you? You just disappeared those many years ago and I could never find you again."

Vienna sighed. "I don't know," she said in a strangled voice. "I've no idea. I don't remember anything at all. The only thing I remember about my past before my life on the streets was your face and voice. That's all I remember."

Meiran's eyes clouded over. "You don't know anything about it? Hmm. That sounds suspicious."

"Yeah, I know," Vienna replied. "My life on the streets wasn't too bad, though. I had friends that I stayed with. I hung out with a small group of orphans in an old house on the far side of the city we were in. We had food and all, so we were well off, I guess. I lived like that for three years when the old man, Dr. J, stumbled upon me, and took me in. He trained me, along with another girl with the name Katana Rosco."

Meiran tensed noticeably. Vienna became worried. "Meiran, what's wrong?"

"Did you say Katana Rosco?"

"Yeah, why? She a friend of yours?"

Meiran shook her head. "No. She's my sister."

Vienna's jaw dropped. "The bratty, annoying, pesky girl who is my sworn enemy, is your sister?" Vienna exclaimed.

Meiran nodded. "That's her, but you forgot to say sneak and traitor."

Vienna rolled her eyes. "How could I forget her most important qualities?"

Meiran laughed at her friend's sarcasm. The laughter faded. Vienna looked stared at Meiran wide-eyed. "But, if she's your sister, then that means that she's- holy crap! She's my sister-in-law!"

Meiran's smile disappeared. "I'm afraid so."

Vienna sighed. "Great. My enemy is a family member. What is the world coming to?"

"So, how are things going for you and WuFei? Since he knows who you are now, I would like to know how he is adjusting," Meiran asked, trying to change the subject.

Vienna shrugged. "I haven't told him. I was never allowed to. Neither was Riley allowed to tell Trowa. Dr. J made us keep our identities secret from the boys, and we kept it. But then when Riley died a month or so ago, I went to stay with Cathrine and Trowa at the circus. Trowa figured me out and cornered me in a room. I ended up telling him my last name, so he knows who I am. Later, I told Cathrine who Riley was, and then Trowa. Basically, only Trowa and Cathrine, and now you, know who Riley and I really are."

Meiran bit her lip so hard she could taste the blood. "Not anymore," she said. She hated herself now. Deep down she knew something had been wrong when she had had that short conversation with the two boys. "When I met with Duo and Heero, I told them that you were the sister of WuFei, and Riley was the sister of Trowa."

Vienna's face fell. "Oh, great. Well, I knew the truth would come out some time; it may as well be now, before all the trouble starts. Guess I have to tell Quatre now, too."

"Have to tell me what?" Quatre asked, he and Trowa standing next to the car window in Vienna's door.

"Eek!" Vienna jumped in her seat. She sighed in relief, seeing who it was. She slapped Quatre's hand, resting on the rolled down window. "Don't scare me like that ever again, Quatre."

He smiled. "Sorry."

In the back, Meiran leaned forward to the front. "Hey guys," she greeted casually as if she had met them already.

Trowa stared at her, his brow furrowed. "Who are you?"

Meiran stuck her hand out. "Meiran Chang, nice to meet you. No need for you to introduce yourselves. I already know who you are."

The boys were dumbfounded.

Vienna hid her smile. She could tell they were thoroughly confused by everything, but they were keeping quiet instead. "Guys, this is Meiran, WuFei's wife."

Meiran punched her friend in the arm. "You sure get to the point."

"It saves time," Vienna commented.

Meiran suddenly jumped. "Time? What time is it?"

Quatre looked at his watch, out of his stupor. "Four in the morning."

"Oh crud! Vienna, we gotta leave, pronto!"

Duo stared out the living room window to the street below. He let the curtain drop back into place as he turned. "Do you think they got her?" he asked Heero.

Heero looked up. "I don't know," he replied. He was sitting on the couch, thinking and waiting. Duo knew what was on his friend's mind, so he had no need to ask.

"I wonder why they never told us who they really were," Duo said absently.

"Hn."

Duo sat on the couch and leaned back.

"It was Dr. J," Heero said.

"Hm?" Duo glanced at Heero. "What did you say?"

Heero looked as if he had just solved a difficult puzzle. "Dr. J. That's it!" Heero jumped up and ran to the table. He dropped down into a chair and loaded up his laptop.

Duo walked up behind his friend. "What's it? What did you get?"

"Dr. J," Heero repeated.

"Yes, I got that," Duo grumbled sarcastically, "but what about Dr. J?"

The laptop finished loading up, and Heero instantly signed online. "It's Dr. J, Duo. He's the master mind!"

Duo was thoroughly confused now. "Dr. J is the master mind of what? I don't get you, Heero! I don't get a dang thing!"

Heero's fingers flew over the keyboard, going from page to page. Duo could just watch in silence. Heero paused on one page that had one word written on it: Rebellion.

"Rebellion?" Duo repeated aloud from reading. "What does that stand for?"

Heero moved the mouse to click on it, and a whole new page came up. Heero ignored Duo's question for the moment. A listing of files ran down the screens, all different numbers and letters in no certain order flashed by until it stopped on one file folder. "The main file," Heero whispered to himself. For the first time in forever, Heero smiled.

^_^_^

Vienna drove down the road in the city, following Meiran's directions.

"Down that street!" Meiran commanded.

Vienna spun the van in a semi-circle to make the turn. "Meiran, mind telling me where we are going?"

"To Heero's place. I said I would meet them back there," she replied.

Vienna nodded. "Right."

"How do you know where they live?" Trowa asked from the front seat beside Vienna.

"I've been watching them for the past month," Meiran answered. "Where they went, what they did. Everything. A few times I think Duo noticed me, but of course, he thought nothing of it."

Quatre nodded. "That sounds like Duo."

"Stop!" Meiran exclaimed suddenly, scaring everyone inside the van.

Vienna jammed on the brakes, forcing the van to swerve. She was thrown forward at the sudden stop. She was breathing heavily as she leaned against the wheel. "What's wrong, Meiran? We could have been in an accident right then!"

Meiran smiled like a maniac. "Sorry," she apologized. "But we're here. That's their apartment building."

They all got out of the van, while Vienna parked the van correctly. She stepped out and ran after the others to catch up.

Duo stared at the screen. "Main file?" he echoed. "What do you mean?"

This time, Heero answered. "Rebellion stands for the World Rebellion Federation, but he only used Rebellion. The main file will have everything we need to figure this out. I hope."

Duo frowned. "Where does Dr. J fit into your discoveries?"

"Everything. He deals with everything."

Duo sighed. "I'm not going to get anything sensible out of you."

A knock sounded on the front door. Seeing as Heero was on the trail of something, Duo went to answer it. He was surprised to find almost the whole team standing on his doorstep.

Vienna smiled. "Hey Duo. Thought we would all drop by for a visit."

Meiran shrugged. "You guys maybe, but I'm coming back here on business."

Duo ushered them all into the living room. They all took a seat somewhere, except Vienna, who wandered over to Heero at the table and watched from over his shoulder. Duo said to her, "If you want to strike up a conversation with him, you won't get very far. He isn't speaking sensibly."

"Shut up, Duo," Heero said.

Vienna smirked at Duo. "That sounded quite sensible to me. Meiran and Quatre laughed.

Duo crossed his arms over his chest. "Pardon me. It's obvious he likes you more than me."

He got death glares from both Vienna and Heero: not a good thing. "Shut up, Duo," they both said in unison. A ghost of a smile came onto Trowa's face.

Meiran stood. "Heero, can you come over here please? I need to talk to you and Duo, as I had planned earlier."

Heero ignored her.

Meiran sighed. "Vienna, knock some sense into him."

Vienna ignored her as well; she and Heero were transfixed to the screen.

Meiran tossed her hands into the air. "I give up on the two of them."

Katana strode down the hall, her fancy black boots clacking on the solid steel as she walked along. She had just arrived back to the station five minutes before, and already she had been called to their leader's quarters. She had planned for this call, and was ready. She pushed the button beside the two main doors that led into His quarters and waited.

"State your name and office," a mechanical voice said over the speaker.

"Katana Rosco, head agent and commander."

"Enter."

The main doors opened, admitting her inside. She stepped inside, feeling the slight wind as the doors slid shut quickly behind her. She was in the main room, the office, which consisted only of plush red carpet, a long window, and a grand oak desk across the room with a straight back armchair, facing away from her. Every office her leader had (for he had a different office at every base) was exactly the same as this one.

"Reporting, sir," Katana said, saluting him. The chair turned around to show her leader.

"I see you are here Katana, but what of my son? He accompanied you, so he should be reporting with you."

"He said he had business to attend to, sir. He begs your pardon."

The man nodded. "I see. I will speak to him later. But now, report your mission."

"Things did not go as well as it had been planned. My sister and the two boys did meet, and they talked for a short while, but then Meiran began to give out some information that was strictly forbidden for anyone to know. Daryn shot at them, and I followed suit. They separated. Daryn said for me to let them go, but I ran after my sister. I knew if she had information on us, that she was to be destroyed, or captured. I was gaining, but then she got ahead. She met up with some friends of hers and drove off in their van. I shot at them in an effort to stop them, but they escaped. One of them had a gun, and returned fire. I am more than certain that the one with the gun was Vienna Chang, the one we are after."

"She is also your sister-in-law, as well as Meiran's," the leader added.

Katana faltered. "Yes, that is correct."

He sighed. "We've got a problem. I assume she is going to get together with the boys again and refer information. This is not good, not good at all."

"No, sir."

"We must do something about it then. Rosco, go and talk to the old man. See if you can get something from him." He turned the chair around to face the window again. "You are dismissed with your orders, Rosco."

"Yes, sir." Katana turned stiffly and walked from the room. Once the doors had closed behind her, she let out her breath and leaned against the door. "That was too close for my comfort. Sometimes Raphael can be too annoying and hard-headed."

Taking a few good breaths, she walked to the bottom level cells. She used the elevators to reach the level. The elevator doors opened with a hiss and she stepped out. She grabbed the cell keys from a hook beside the elevator and continued down the solid steel hallway to the cells. Near the end of the hall, she stopped and slipped a key into the lock of a cell. The barred door opened and she walked inside, closing the door behind her.

"Feeling all right, old man?" she asked, her voice echoing.

The stiff shape of a man sitting on the raised steel bench moved. "Quite, Katana."

"You will address me by Commander Rosco, not my first name," she hissed.

The man rose to his feet, leaning against the walls for support. He walked slowly into the light so she could get a good look at him.

Katana winced. "J, you certainly do not look so great."

The man smiled. "Is it rather scary, seeing your ancient trainer looking like this?"

Katana shook her head. "Not exactly. After you threw me out, all I wanted was to see you in pain."

He sighed. "You got what you wanted though. And I am not talking about my pain."

Katana chuckled. "Yes, I suppose I did. I got your plan into my leaders hands, and now, the plan is no longer yours."

The man, now known as Dr. J, tensed in anger. "If you had not taken most of my files and plans, I would have had them destroyed by now."

Katana put on a face of mock sympathy. "The poor man has found feelings for those two girls. Yes, poor Riley and Vienna. They were going to be used as weapons in your plans. The main keys in the whole plot they were. Yes, I can see why you would have destroyed it. You never wanted to destroy it when the training was in action. You suddenly wanted to destroy it when you started to like these girls as daughters, instead of machines in your evil plans." Dr. J's mouth twisted. "So, old man, now that your worst nightmares are coming true, what have you to say for yourself, seeing as these plans were once yours."

"You can't accomplish the plans, you know," Dr. J said. "You may know where one of the girls are, but you don't know of the other. With one, you won't get far. The two of them complete the other. Without one, the other is off key."

Katana removed her gun from the waistband of her pants. "You're going to tell us where the other one is, J. Where is she?"

"She's dead," Dr. J said. "You know that."

Katana dug the barrel of the gun into his neck. "Is she really, Dr. J? Or is this just another game of yours? Answer carefully, since your life depends on it."

Vienna stared at the screen as another list of files rolled down the screen. "What are you looking for now?" she asked.

"The weapons file, to see exactly what their main weapon, or weapons, are," Heero replied. "I have a hunch, but I need to make sure."

Meiran shook her head. "I don't get it," she stated.

"Don't get what?" Duo asked.

"Heero will talk to her, but he won't talk to us!"

Quatre shrugged. "Well, Heero will be Heero. You can never understand him." Trowa nodded his agreement.

"Okay then, whatever you guys say."

On the screen, it stopped on a file, and opened up the files pages. The list of weapons needed was there, plain and simple.

Vienna's eyes widened at what she saw listed. "What the- that can't be! Heero?"

Heero nodded. "I was right," he whispered.

Meiran and the others at the couch ran over to see what their friends were talking about. Meiran glanced at it and smiled grimly. "That's what I thought," she muttered. The other pilots looked at the screen in complete shock.