Chapter 4: Reunions

The midsummer day bloomed beautifully on this world's sparkling shores as a certain young woman with old eyes lets her harried mind wander from the niceties and formalities, from the bureaucracy of endless talks and meetings she has endured the past month through--all in the name of peace.

Peace for Outer Space.

Peace for the Colonies.

Peace for the Earth.

Peace for every nation.

Peace for YOUR nation.

That still young face with an old soul gazes over the bluer than blue river that separated the modern world of the present--a bustling city full of automotives, lights, sounds--where busy city dwellers of the capital of this expansive country transported to and fro from the pristine countryside on this rural, unpaved path.

Surrounded by nature, untouched wildlife, greenery and beauty was aglow from where the banks of the Volga met the lake. It stretched miles and miles on the outskirts of old St. Petersburg, to that place of her destination.

A stately falcon lets its wingtips thrash against the lake's still surface causing one ripple then another and another...until the endless ripples reached the rustic road.

Eyes that have seen so much destruction and pain, so much good and evil alike. Eyes that have survived through the torture and the agony of the death of someone so precious to her entire world, her entire universe. Every inch of the man he was rippled back in waves through her soul with each and every breath, just as the water moves in perfect harmony with the nature about it.

His presence existed still in her being. No matter how many months, nor years, nor lifetime passed her by. Her love for him was unchanging, no matter the time, no matter that he was no longer physically present beside her in this world. Theirs was a love that would never die. Theirs a love that was eternally so true and even though he was not here she loved him as much today as she did when she first set eyes on the noble man who had rescued her from brutality. He had been that knight in shining armor for a lady who believed all gentlemen gone from a hateful world. He had drawn his sword for her heroically, nobly, and from that day onward she had pledged to do anything for him, in return for his gentleness, his devotion, his beauty and above all--his love. Even if it meant to die by the sword for him. But that was not meant to be. The ugliness of this world had tried to change the man of honor he was. It had attempted to mar his beauty and purity. But the purity of certain other individuals were able to do what she had not---to give him the strength to believe in the goodness of mankind again. To believe in the unselfish path for humans he once so devoutly treasured. And that conviction and selflessness, and those boys' purity was what had led to his demise.

He had believed his time was over. He had believed the curtain had to close on his final act, so those rebellious warriors with the wild wings and pure hearts could now take the center stage, that true peace could only be found this way, without him....

But what of me, Mr. Treize? What peace is there in me without you? My life I lived for you.

A woman found herself that in the flash of a moment's battle one can become an empty shell of a human being--with no longer a heart beating within her soul--in the moment he had left her universe.

But no, you have not abandoned me, Mr. Treize. You are here within me still.

She holds her hand to the heart that now beat so methodically, so sanely in control of her mind now. All the uncertainties that had caused her past to be split into several pieces within herself had vanished. There were no more uncertainties, only complete understanding. There were no more scattered pieces of an angry soul--only peace. There were no more doubts--only love.

You have not abandoned me Your Excellency.

The Lady known as Une addresses the man she adores to this day with the title she held him in, be forever her Prince, her brave knight in shining armor.

Indeed, you are with me still. Watching over me with this gift...

Lady Une's nostalgic eyes return to the present. She looks across to where a young girl sat. A young girl who reminded her so much of him in everything she did and said. Her short-cropped red-orange hair caught fire in the sunlight, glistening as she held her head out the window of the horse-drawn carriage. The fresh breeze on her pale face, her features the presence of such pure enjoyment, she, since the brainwashing she once was put under all her young life, was now slowly coming out of her shell. Each day, Lady Une could see improvement in her adjustment to new surroundings and she gave her the room to breathe, to find herself without influences anymore. She gave her freedom more than a normal mothe----

But I am not her mother...

Lady Une had to constantly remind her heart of this. She so wished this lovely child could really be her own. But Mariemaia Barton was not her flesh and blood. But Mariemaia Khushrenada was HIS. And so Mariemaia was part of her now, as well, because Lady Une's soul would always belong to him. Love has a way of doing that to true believers.

I am not so fortunate to be called your mother, but you--you child--are my daughter and I will protect you as I did your father--with my life. Because we are both a part of him. And he lives in us both still.

"There, Lady! Do you see it?! Is that it?!" Mariemaia's excited voice fills the air inside the carriage. She, a usually sedate child, was so brimming over in anticipation that she was nearly jumping up and down.

"Yes." Lady Une's eyes travel far in the distant, across the tree-covered countryside to where a tall peak of a structure stands out. They turn a bend in the bumpy road and there, in the distance, a magnificent castle stands on the hillside, resplendent as the sunlight shone brilliantly on it's golden beauty.

"Yes, Mariemaia, there it is." Lady Une's calm mind blames the bumpy road for the sudden skipping of her heart at the sight of her Master Treize's glorious castle on the horizon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Colony or 3 away.....

"Hey there, good-lookin'!" A virile young man leans over, covering the eyes of a beautiful young woman in the shuttle bay air center she was quietly awaiting her ride at.

Had this amorous laced, oh-so-obvious pickup line been spoken by any voice other than the gravelly, low-class, well, "hick" one and the rough hands around her face, any gentler and suaver as that of a ladies man, Cathrine Bloom may have been taken aback, panicked.

---And then pull out a half dozen trusty knives that always went where she went. And if spilt blood wasn't necessary, she at least had the threat to scare off even the most foolhardy of the male species who dared come near her.

"Wanna go for a ride with me, baby?" The undeterred man continues to flirt, however, perhaps that "most foolhardy male" was an understatement for one Duo Maxwell--and has always been. He leans over the airport seats and breathes this "invitation" on Cathrine's curled bobs of hair.

"Okay, Mister. I'm no stranger to men like you--only one thing on your mind. I count to three and you're out of my hair or else..."

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three..."

Cathrine had had enough of this game.

CHIK.

As if by magic, a thin bladed knife comes slipping out of the long-sleeved tight shirt Cathrine was sporting (very nicely too, Duo can't help but consider her shape with approving eyes.) The concealed knife was at her "attacker's" throat before he could say another smart word (and that was usually lightning speed).

"Gee--gee--geez! Cathy!" Now it was Duo's turn to be taken aback by this lovely young thing's sharp bladed knife.

"Go for it, Cathrine. Maybe he won't talk too much anymore. I'm sure he deserves it." An uncharitable voice at his obvious plight, though she didn't witness at all, busy checking their luggage in. Hilde snorts at her best friend's failed tactics with a satisfied grin. She places her hands on her annoyed hips.

"Oh, does he?" Cathrine's eyes light up at this civil unrest between the two cohabitants. Playful Cathrine in a rather giddy mood today slides the blade even a tiny bit closer to her target's neck, tightening the capturing arm around Maxwell's stiffened back.

"Hey!" Duo's usual tough guy voice squeaks almost inaudibly as he looks frantically back and forth between the two women who seem to have it in for him today.

I didn't do anything. Gulp...

"Hildey.." He squeaks out the plea. "Make her stop." He sounded strangely like that seven year old she had met once upon a time.

All right, I wanna play too. "Here, Cathrine, give the knife to me." Hilde smiles at her new friend. They met once before and she liked this knife-throwing girl's style.

"Whew." Duo gives out a little sigh of relief as the threatening knife changes hands. "Thanks, Hildey baby." His tough guy voice was starting to come back as his happy-go-lucky eyes look to Cathrine. "Pah! Not that I was worried or anything of such a good lookin' babe like you, Cathy. A good lookin' babe like you wouldn't have the guts to slit man's throat." He chuckles overconfidently.

You couldn't help it, Maxwell, could you? You couldn't help but gloat and laugh as you always do.

Hilde's eyes narrow, the knife in her rescuing hand suddenly on the attack again. "Maybe not a man's throat." Hilde, from living with Duo over a year or so now, was a little more blunt and bold than she once was with men---boys--aw, heck, I always was!

She smirks as the knife that was at Duo's throat aims down, decidedly lower.

"Hildey!!!!" Duo squeals in horror at his best friend's new attack. Looking scared into her devilishly possessed eyes in his.

"Okay, Maxwell, let's lay down the law for once." Hilde starts suddenly, feeling power over her male companion. "No goofing off while you're working. No messing up my kitchen--or the living room or the bathroom."

"Don't forget he has to clean his own bedroom too. I'm sure it's a sight." Cathrine can't help but add, with a small giggle, to the endless list of Duo's wrongs.

"Right! Clean your bedroom." Hilde adds a bit too happily. "Wash the dishes and the floor three days of the week. And....do the outside windows."
"Make sure he does some cooking!" Cathy seemed to be finding joy now in Hilde's war on her housemate/best friend.

"Oh, I don't know about that. I don't trust his cooking. Besides, he'd eat it all before it even gets to the table." Hilde smirks in his face. "Half the laundry!" Hilde suddenly remembers. "And no perusing through mine, Mister. And...and....let me see..umm. No CD player, TV or video game until you finish every day's schedule that I set up for you. And..." Hilde starts to rattle off her complaints of living with this partner.

"AHHHHHHH! Help!!!!!!!" Duo just couldn't take any more of his do's and don'ts list, or the maliciously giggling pair of girls tormenting him. His big mouth finally lets loose, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Not able to take "the mouth" at such close range, Hilde and Cathrine's knife back off. They hold their ears at the unbearable noise, unaware the threat was gone. Duo, in frustration continues to bellow for help, though no one in the space port terminal seemed to be noticing his pleas.

"Are you ladies having a problem with this gentleman?" An extremely, official sounding voice breaks into the bellowing male banshee's cries from behind.

"Yes, sir, Officer, sir." Hilde puts on a stern, all business face, giving the Officer behind Duo her full attention (and behind her back, expertly shifting the knife in her hand back to Cathrine's who in turn, well adept with blade handling without looking, conceals it back into her handbag).

"You see Officer, I was just coming to collect my friend here with tickets," Hilde puts an arm around Cathrine's shoulder (though never breaking eye contact with Duo in a kind of dare), "when I saw this miscreant attempting to---"

"Miscreant?! Hildey, baby!" Duo, keeping the eyelock with this zonked out girl of his is shocked by her sellout to the authorities. His mouth drops a mile and he grabs hold of her shirt front, shaking her a bit.

"Hands off the lady, Mister." Duo feels a pair of strong hands pulling him back, restraining his shoulders.

Awestruck by this strange turn of events, Duo gapes openmouthed as the femme fatales before him go back to their far out story.

"Well, as I was saying, Officer, this miscreant," Hilde rubs the word in Duo's faces, stretching it out with a wicked grin, "leaned over my dear friend's seat where she was innocently awaiting my return, I might mention, and he attacked her---without any provocation whatsoever." Hilde spills the lawyer talk with a decided nod.

"Attacked?!?!" Duo's face pops out. "You were the ones!" He starts to sputter his defense.

"Is this all true, Miss?" The steady voice from behind directs the question at Cathrine, ignoring Duo entirely.

Duo, seeing his case hopeless now, falls to the ground on his knees.

"Wee---lll...." Cathrine looks from Hilde's prodding smile, to Duo on the floor. His head was buried in an expecting to be convicted slump---with his hands in an almost prayerful pose, awaiting her evidence....

Her violet eyes meet the Officer's with no fear, just a twinge of a smile. "No, none of it is true at all. We were all just teasing, weren't we, Duo? You really are a gentleman, aren't you?" Cathrine, in Duo's wronged eyes, suddenly took the shape of an angel. Her white feathered wings were pure, the golden thread of truth encircled her lovely head in a halo.

Duo, still on his knees, scoots across the ground, taking hold of Cathrine's generously offered hand, kissing it. Then, in glee and relief, gives his benefactress a hug around her shapely legs.

"Ohh!" Cathrine doesn't know whether to gasp or giggle. The adoring puppy dog eyes poor Duo was giving her caused her to wonder. So when she wonders she does as she always does nowadays. She looks up to the eyes where she can see the beautiful soul of the magnificent man she considered her brother.

"Trowa?" She whispers out to the "officer", turning to him with the new problem of the overjoyed boy grasping at her legs.

"Are you or are you not a gentleman, Duo Maxwell?" With amused eyes, Trowa Barton stoops down to Duo's low level, raising an eyebrow at one of his best friends embracing HIS Cathrine's legs so tenderly.

"Trowa?" Opening his tightly shut eyes, it finally sinks into Duo's thick skull--that all this was some dirty trick played on him by those pair of females, he used to think were his friends. And the Officer they kept holding over him was nothing more than a clown.

Aww, heck!

In a sudden burst of energy all other thought and emotion of just a minute or two ago were gone with the wind. Duo Maxwell does what he does best--forget about it and jump headfirst ahead.

He turns on his heels, letting a wobbling Cathrine go (with such zest she if not for years of balance on tightropes, would have been sent flat on her cute backside) and bounds up. Not a care or worry on his mind, not now that an old buddy was here to chew the cud with.

Not that old Trowa was ever much for small talk and reminiscing...

Duo's mind comments with a smirk to himself as he looks down at Trowa, still kneeling at where he was being comforted by Cathrine not five seconds ago.

"It is you, Trowa!" Duo was shocked. He didn't recognize earlier his friend's voice (Of course, I was busy dealing with those deceitful women). Duo can't help but slide one last gripe at them in his head.

"Yes, Duo, you're right. It's me." The warm hearted young man known as Trowa can't help but smile at Duo Maxwell's sporadic ways. I will forgive his touching Cathy. Sometimes his brain just isn't quite all there.

Trowa finishes his forgiving thought as he stands up from a kneeling position and Duo's eyes follow him as he comes up..and up...and up...

Duo lets out a low whistle, his eyes growing even wider. "Whew! Someone's sure not vertically challenged!" In true Maxwell wit, Duo, never at a loss for words, smirks and comments on the towering man standing before him.

"Uhh, oh, well..." Trowa on the other hand, never had the power of spontaneous words for every occasion that his braided friend wielded. A rescuing hand takes over here for her circus partner's lack of verbal speech.

"Trowa is 6' 2" and still growing." Cathrine seems to claim with more than a fair share of feminine pride at her partner's tall and handsome perfect build. She places a hand up on his high shoulder.

"Tell me about it, whoa." Duo lets out another low whistle. The last time he and....

...a certain other person present here (hmph! I'm not gonna let that performance you did before just go, Ms. Schbeiker.) saw Trowa at the circus. That was only a few weeks--maybe a few months---was it that long ago? No way! He was about the same size as always! Nothin' like this!

"What are you complaining about, Duo Maxwell? You're not doing so bad in the growth spurt department yourself." Hilde, kept silent all the way up to this point, jabs Duo's familiarly in the ribs, figuring before all was forgotten by now in this new height development question.

Maybe we can still go on this vacation without any bad blood or arguments.

No luck.

"Unlike your cute little self, Short Stuff." Duo places a fatherly hand upon Hilde's head--the head that visible steam starts to stream from.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!" Hilde's shout might be even a pinch louder than Duo's bellowing before.

"I said--" Duo starts to back away from where volcano Hilde was about to implode.

"--I said, CUTE AND SHORT!" With that devilish grin and gleeful laughter Duo grabs the tickets for the two of them (conveniently held out in Hilde's hand) and bolts through the airport. He crashes into every single passerby along the way, leaping over suitcases and airport security guards, trying to catch the wild boy who seemed to control the devil himself.

The only one who was frightening to this particular devil right now was a smallish young girl with black-blue hair. Her entire (very cute and very short) 5' frame plunged in after the "miscreant" who had offended her. Angry as she was cute, she screamed for her "ex-friend" to come back and apologize at the top of her little lungs. Both of them knocked people and things out of their way as they ran.

The footrace only lasts until the final security checkout in the long line of travelers unwilling to budge an inch from their long-waited for spot on the queue. With Hilde hot on his trail, a frantic Duo has no way out, no escape, no----

"Oh yeah!"

LEAP

Hilde, just getting to where Duo was standing, trapped by human bodies all around, watches angrily as her target makes a dash and leaps straight up and onto the conveyor belt going right into the shuttle's baggage loading department on the plane.

"See ya later, Shorty!" Duo can't help but gloat at his triumph over his sparring partner once again. He blows her a fake kiss as he's carried up farther up and away where Hilde Schbeiker could not catch him. She watched helplessly from below. Duo was sure that her lips moving weren't just uttering a fond farewell to him, from the look on her fit-to-be-tied face and her fist shaking at him over her head.

"Ha ha! Fast as fast can be, you'll never catch me! See ya, Hildey, baby!" Victorious, his arms, hands and braid all wave at her triumphant and mischievously. Duo's smug face was enough to make Hilde sick as she lets out a few choice words, loud enough for him to hear. (Also, some shocked old ladies nearby were shocked at the sweet young girl's mouth).

"Bye! Whoa......ahhhhhhhhhh!!" Duo's gloat was cut off by his taken off guard cry as he descends backwards into a loading chute moved along by air pressure.

Hilde flies to the window, watching Duo's feet disappear as the conveyor shoots it's air missiles through a clear, see through tunnel and dumps the luggage onto a compartment on the ship. There goes a black clad and brown braided missile. His arms and legs were flailing and certainly the mouth was going as he whooshes in and...

PLOP!

Hilde can't suppress the giggle any longer. Danger past, she sees Duo get deposited and sealed up in the finished loading luggage compartment on the shuttle. He shook himself off, trying to escape was the last thing she sees as the shuttle bay door closes him off inside.

"Good. Serves you right for calling me short...and cute." Hilde wipes her hands of Duo as Trowa and Cathrine join her with puzzled amusement.

Looking to one another, concerned about their friends' trouble getting along with each other at times.

"Shall we go, you two?" Hilde puts the mischievous smile back on her face, just thinking of no doubt all the lovely luggage companions Duo was currently holding company with.