Part Three
Quatre's chin dropped and he looked around the room, to all the annoyed faces of his colleagues. "Um...I'm sorry gentleman...something very important's come up, and I'll have to reschedule. At that he hurried out of the room, pulling Duo after him.
"Duo, what's going on?!" Quatre said in a hushed voice, stopping Duo by the elevators.
Duo smiled and thrust the note at Quatre. He took it and read it over. Twice to confirm what he was seeing. A smile crossed his face. "Is this real?"
Duo shrugged. "One way to find out..."
Quatre bit his lip. "...You think we should?"
Duo laughed. "Of course we should!"
Quatre nodded. "You're right."
"Of course I am! Now let's get outta here! We gotta plane to catch!"
Quatre looked at him and smiled, and instead of waiting for an elevator, they ran for the stairs.
"Trowa..." a quiet voice behind him said.
Trowa turned from feeding the lion to face Catherine. "Yes Catherine?"
She smiled at him. "Sorry to bother you Trowa, but this came for you. I thought it would be best if I brought it right away."
A little confused, Trowa took the envelope from her and nodded. "Thank you, Catherine."
She smiled and with a wave, was gone. Trowa studied the envelope, made out directly to him. Opening it, he read briefly and dropped a bucket of water he was holding. It made a loud clang hitting the ground and the water spilled out, pooling around his feet. He paid no attention to it and started forward.
"Catherine!" he called out, grabbing his knapsack from a pile inside the tent. She was it his side in moments.
"What is it Trowa?"
"Catherine, I'm sorry but I have to leave for a while..."
"What for?!"
He looked at her. "Listen, Catherine, I'm sorry. I can't say, but I promise I'll be back soon. Cover for me."
At that, he turned from her and walked away, leaving her standing there and staring after him sadly.
It took only a few hours for Quatre and Duo's jet to make it across the ocean, and make it to the small suburb of Calover, England. It didn't take them long to locate the estates, either. They walked up to the large stone building, and up the huge wooden doors.
"Well...you can do the honors..." Duo said, tilting his head as far back as it would go to see how tall the building was.
Quatre slowly brought his hands up to the door and knocked, hearing the resounding booms echoing off the hollow walls inside. Their ears were soon met by the clicking of heeled shoes on a stone floor and they got closer. The door suddenly opened, and standing in front of them was a smiling girl, around seventeen, her smoky brown curls resting on her shoulders, wearing a light blue blouse almost matching the color of her eyes with a dark gray skirt.
"Ah, hello boys. Welcome to Greenlash." She threw the door open more. "Come on in and make yourselves at home."
Duo and Quatre just stood there, Duo's mouth hanging open a bit. He pointed at her. "Uh...are we at the right place..."
Shora laughed. "Yes, you are. Oh, where are my manners?! I'm Shora. And you two are Duo and Quatre." She held her hand out and shook both of theirs. "Oh, please, come in. I'm sure you'll eventually find the others."
She started off down the hall again, her shoes making the loud clicks, and Duo and Quatre hesitantly followed.
"Mighty big place ya got here..." Duo said after her, listening to his own voice echo as she climbed a set of huge marble stairs.
"Oh, yes," she laughed behind her. "Please follow me, I don't want you getting lost now."
The two boys looked at each other and quickly caught up. She stopped in front of one of many large wooden door and smiled at them, opening it and motioning for them to go in first. They did so, but froze, seeing Heero and Wufei.
"Hey guys!" Duo laughed.
Wufei glanced at him, but Heero didn't even look up from the clutter of papers in front of him.
"Well, this isn't a very enthusiastic reunion...although I must say, your friend was quite enthusiastic on putting a bullet though my head..."
Duo couldn't help laughing, but he swallowed it down and looked at her. "Who?"
She motioned at Wufei with her head.
"Ah, Wufei! That's not a very nice way to treat a lady!" he said, walking in and sitting down.
"I don't like nosy onnas." Wufei replied simply.
"Ok, boys..." Shora said stepping forward and clapping her hands, rubbing them together. "What say we explain to these two what's going on, and...we wait for the last of you."
Quatre looked at her. "Trowa's on his way too?"
"As far as I know...well, I guess I'll leave you now." With a wave, she closed the door and was gone.
"Ok...there's something I really don't get here..." Duo said after and awkward moment of silence.
"And what's that?" Heero said, still not looking up.
"Just what in God's name is going on here..." Duo laughed, scratching his head. Information was exchanged between them, and the story was told once more.
"So...what, did this girl just wait for a chance when her father went away to overthrow him?" Duo said, still a little confused after everything he had just heard.
"Just about..." Wufei answered.
"Wow...that's tough love. So, Heero, you said you got here first...what's with that?"
"She got in touch with me first, that's all."
"Oooh. So uh...had this pretty big place here all to yourselves...what ya's do?"
"Shut up Duo," was his harsh reply.
"Oh, yeah, sorry I completely forgot. You're in cahoots with Relena." he made two clicking noises in the side of his mouth. Heero's eyes finally met with his.
"In fact...I bet that's where you came from. You were that close, so you were the first one here!"
Heero suddenly stood up, a file stuffed with papers in his hands. He walked over to Duo and threw it in his lap, Duo letting out an "Ooph" and holding his stomach.
"I have a lot of work to do here. The least you could do is help instead of running off your mouth." Heero said as he walked back to his table.
Duo made a face at Heero and sighed, starting to shuffle halfheartedly through the stack of papers.
"Any luck?" a voice from the doorway said. They only ones to look up were Duo and Quatre. Wufei and Heero were used to her checking in often.
"Oh, uh..." Quatre looked at Heero who said nothing.
She shrugged. "As I said before, I don't know what you'll find in there. But all those files are from my fathers office. You never know..."
"Hey, hey, why are you doing this in the first place?" Duo asked, chewing on a paper clip. "I mean...he's you dad..."
"Well...I suppose the reason is...because I know it isn't right. This can't happen all over again; there has to be peace. And forgive me, no, I'm not quite a pacifist, but in instances like this, it's called for. I don't think my father knows quite what he's doing..." she shook her head.
"Then why don't you talk to him?"
She laughed quietly, her head falling to the side. "He's a government official...do you think he'd listen?" she asked, voice serious.
"You got a point." Duo sighed, going back to his papers.
There was a sudden knocking echoing through the halls and Shora turned her head.
"Looks like your other friend is here...I'll go get him."
"No, allow me, please." Quatre said, standing up. "That is, if you don't mind. I'd like to see the look on his face when I open the door."
Shora smiled. "Sure. Of course, as long as you don't get lost."
"I won't!" Quatre smiled as he started quickly down the hall.
She turned back to the others. "Hm...those two seem like good friends."
"Uh huh." Duo said, not looking up.
"Well...I would say you boys could take a night off and go celebrate, but...there's no party places around here, trust me. I've lived here all my life."
"Aw, that's too bad!" Duo sighed. "I could use a party about now..."
"Well, you're welcome to relax here...just...try not to be too conspicuous." She turned to go but Duo's voice stopped her.
"Hey! Where do ya think you're goin?" he asked. She looked at him questioningly. "Well, if we gotta sit here through this, so do you! Be a polite host and sit down and endure what we gotta!"
She smiled and sat down. "Hm...your friend has been gone for enough time now...maybe I should go look for him..."
"Nah, Quatre'll be ok." Duo laughed.
Glancing at Heero to see if he was looking, Duo took one of the rubber bands he had collected on the plane, he had a total of twenty, and shot it at Heero. It hit him right in the head and Heero picked his head up, automatically looking at Duo, who was trying to contain his smile.
"Don't start." Heero said coldly, looking back down. Duo's laugh finally escaped him and he rolled the paper clip in his mouth around.
"There you are!" Shora's voice said. She stood up as Trowa and Quatre walked into the room.
"Oh, don't worry about filling him in, I told it all on the way." Quatre said, taking a seat next to Trowa.
"Shora...what exactly is your father trying to accomplish?" Quatre asked, turning to her.
She looked down. "Exactly what the last OZ tried. He knows how horribly they failed, but he won't listen to reason! I can't make him understand either. I don't know who else knows or how long he's going to be able to keep it a secret for. Plus...there's one other thing..." Even Heero looked up finally. She hadn't told him anything else. "I...was waiting for everyone else to get here to tell."
"What is it?" Duo asked, looking at her.
She looked away from all their glances. "Well...to my knowledge...they're...planning to blow up the Sanq Kingdom."
Everyone's eyes were on her.
"Do to the incidents last time, they can't afford it to happen again, so..." She shook her head. "I...just thought it better to tell when you were all here..." There was the sudden sound of a shutting door and a loud voice bellowed,
"Shora! I'm home, where are you?!"
Shora gasped and stood up, eyes wide. Everyone else stood up.
"What the hell was that?" Duo said.
"M-My father..." she whispered.
"Oh, lovely!" Duo nodded.
"Is he supposed to be here?" Trowa asked.
"Uh uh." she shook her head. "Not this early anyway! When he came here, we were supposed to have a plan devised and everything to capture him!"
"Shora!" the voice yelled again, making her jump. It was at the top of the stairs now.
"Where are you, girl?!"
"Oh my God..." she panicked, waving her hands at her face. "Umm..." She thought fast.
"The closet!" she pointed.
Duo followed her stare.
"Huh?"
"Get in the closet!" she ordered, running over and opening the door. It was a fairly large closet, and empty, but still, the idea...
"Are you serious?" Duo said.
"Do I look bloody serious?!" she whispered harshly. Duo held his hands up in surrender.
"O-okay! Okay, I'll go! After you, boys..." He motioned and the other walked in first. He glanced at her as she shut them in and ran over to the door, but it was suddenly opened.
Shora froze.
"F-father..." she stuttered quietly.
To be continued!!!
