Quatre's Home
The social media. Heero wanted to forget it all, why did it have to go so deep into his past? He turned off another rumor that popped up on his computer while he tried to figure out where to go. What to do. He could only stay with Quatre so long, he couldn't live his life out there with Relena.
He heard his phone beep. Wufei. He read his text. It could be false? What? Wufei said that Hilde Schbeiker wasn't pregnant, and the woman carrying his supposed child was negative so far too. Heero didn't know about space pregnancy tests, but Earth pregnancy, that should be correct. Revenge of the Lost. They wanted to spare innocent children, or the technology wasn't as perfect as they thought. "I'll be back, Relena. Don't answer the door. I'm locking it." He'd get at least three different brands. "I'll unlock when I come back, I won't knock." Without saying anything else, he left.
Three pregnancy tests. If she had been false, he could safely get her to Zeches. Her brother would make damn sure no one got near her again. Zeches would stake his life on it, and she could have her own back. Meanwhile, Heero and the others would take down Revenge of the Lost, once and for all.
Please. Let him have Duo and Wufei's luck.
"Heero!" Quatre ran in from behind on him. He was breathing rapidly. "I just got a text from Duo."
"Yeah, I got from Wufei. I'm going now," Heero insisted.
"Wait, you're wanted," Quatre insisted. "Let me get some help to go for us instead. We can't risk anyone being discovered."
Heero would not have been discovered, but if Quatre went out there too, he might be. He doubted Quatre wanted to just send him for extra tests either. "Three different brands. Early, the most expensive, and the least expensive. Nowhere near here, we shouldn't risk any nearby pharmacy being in a coup with Revenge of the Lost."
"Doubtful. They'd come after us in the first place." Hmm. "You mean, you think whole pharmacies in any nearby vicinity to a gundam pilot could have been bribed?" Oh yeah, that look. Wow. "Got it. We'll get it all the way from the other side of the colony." Quatre risked a smile. "Let's hope we have the others luck. That this whole thing was just about damaging our feelings and manipulating us."
"Yeah." Heero wasn't so sure about that though. That was risky, doing such a thing. One out of the way pregnancy test would reveal the truth. That didn't seem like a fault RTL would let slide through.
Maybe there was something wrong with the technology that guaranteed perfect invitro Quatre believed it to be.
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Revenge of the Lost Headquarters
"Crystalia?"
Crystalia turned her head to one of her workers in the computer center. They were making great progress in everything, but her assistant showed her something disturbing. "Oh no." They had technology to track where the footage they gave Li Zhang had gone. It was to the new Long colony. "Bring up the hidden footage near Chang Wufei's home."
Crystalia's assistant keyed her way into what was needed. Footage of the outside of Wufei's home, a little far, but close enough to visually see. Wufei and Mei-Lin were both leaving the house and walking away. If he didn't trust that footage? Why wouldn't he trust that footage. There was a reason he even wanted the footage.
"Crystalia?" Her assistant looked toward her. "Now what?"
"Check the process outside of the Maxwell home." Also, a similar setup. Less concealed since they wouldn't even know it didn't belong there. They were only on Earth for the pregnancy. They went back several hours and watched Hilde Schbeiker leave with Catherine Bloom. No Duo Maxwell around. "That must be it."
Why? Why did they have to check? It was foolproof. Why waste time with cheap tests when doctors confirmed it? When it happened to all the others? "Damn it!" It didn't work? "Move forward 'til they get back." The screen wasn't blank for too long. "Zoom in." The camera zoomed in on their expressions. Catherine Bloom was uncertain, but Hilde Schbeiker's look? Determined. Angry.
It wasn't perfect.
"Crystalia, what is going on over here?"
Her superior from Support of the Loss. "Checking surveillance videos," she insisted. "Standard procedure."
"Up close?" She moved closer to view Hilde Schbeiker's face that was frozen on screen, zoomed in. "What's standard procedure of this zooming in then? What's she so concerned about?"
Shit. "The technology we used was still under research. Very great research," Crystalia insisted. "I suspect she may have taken her own test and come up negative. Nothing's perfect."
Her superior grinded her teeth. "She isn't pregnant? Why did no one say she was not?"
"All of the doctors were told to lie about the same thing, just in case," Crystalia's assistant said. "We didn't need to go through the whole nine months, so I don't think it really-"
Crystalia watched as her assistant was no more. Her superior had shot her, then and there, straight through the head. Crystalia didn't show any unexpected surprise. It was a rare gift she always had, and right now, it was a life saver as that same gun was now pointed at her head.
"Why did no one say she was not?" Her superior asked her. "Is it the same for anyone else?"
"Knowing they'd be killed or their families destroyed for betraying us, the doctors must have knowingly hid it," she said casually.
"Then this doesn't work. It has to be all of them." Her superior stared at the woman on screen. "Hilde Schbeiker. A soldier. All of the lives she stole in war. All of the lives Duo Maxwell mercilessly took, and now they are off the hook."
Crystalia kept her poker face tight as the gun once again flew into her face.
"How many other doctors could be lying?" she demanded from her. "How many and why didn't anyone check their lies?"
"Only they would know. Only they were in the surgery," Crystalia insisted. "No one would check because the video footage confiscated showed they all did as they said, and the pregnancy should have been foolproof."
"Then we will make it foolproof." Her superior stared at the picture on the screen. She seemed to be burning Hilde Schbeiker's image into her mind. "Is it because she is from outer space?"
"I suspect," Crystalia answered. That was honest. There was little to no evidence the method used on Earth worked elsewhere. "More footage is found of Wufei leaving with Mei-Lin. If hers is fake, then perhaps outer space jeopardizes it. Either being out there in it, or the body being born in it. There is much to know about science and space on the human body even now." Her superior's look had gone white. She knew why.
"Is Relena Dorlain pregnant." A command of an answer. Immediately.
"I don't have any access to that knowledge. This is the first time we have witnessed this," Crystalia answered.
"She had better be. Of any of them, she has to be." Her superior chewed on her nail. "She has to be. Of all of them, he needs to pay. Heero Yuy must pay personally, along with the rest of them." She removed her hand from her mouth. "We won't dismiss this. Go after every one that is confirmed not to be pregnant. We will steal them away for months, and this time? The pilots won't even see them." She gripped her hands tighter. "We'll secure them. We'll send footage so that they can see them, but they'll never find them."
Crystalia didn't risk moving. She looked insane.
"A young mercenary, just like them," her Superior continued. "Just like they used to be, that will be the killer. Before or after though? In labor, or after labor? Through the both of them after a final baby's scream, or right before it breathes its first gasp of air? We'll decide." She finally took her eyes off the screen. "Good work, Crystalia. We'll get this figured out." She gestured to the body of her assistant. "Clean this up."
Crystalia shouldn't, yet, something inside compelled her to do it. "All Earthling women who were impregnated on Earth should be pregnant. It's only space that is unexplored research."
"I don't care, check everyone," her Superior insisted. "The plans have changed, and the beauty of the revenge has shattered! They can't all be punished the same way!" She stared at the screen longer again before walking away. "Dispose of any of the lying doctors, their families, and see to it all threats against them are carried out!"
"Yes, ma'am." Crystalia would not fool around. Only the ex-spy was supposed to pay, but if the plan was ruined . . .
Only the ex-spy that hurt Triton in the first place. No one would have to feel bad about it. Middie wasn't a friend. Middie wasn't even an unknown acquaintance that would cause any sense of mourning. Middie killed Triton's crew, those who took care of him when he was young. Triton wouldn't have been burdened with taking care of Middie until it was necessary. She'd be gone, forced to stay hidden away, but Crystalia had decent plans for when it was time, and then Triton and Catherine would have brought it into their lives in the circus. Happy circus.
Happy circus.
Quatre, a dear friend to her son. Simply lost a Catalonia. The war mongrel needed to die anyway. Wufei Chang, a simple woman he didn't even know. No chain of friendship, easy to terminate. Of course, Schbeiker was a soldier. She already put her life on the line once, it was good enough. Relena Dorlain though. There was no choice in her case.
It had to be her. No one else would hurt as much as her for Heero Yuy, and the Superior wouldn't have it any other way. Even though Relena Dorlain led the world with pacifism, and still sought to do the right thing between the Earth and colonies? She could not be spared.
At all.
Her Superior never even gave a code name, just had Superior written on her lapel. Crystalia had no idea about where she came from, or her past. She wouldn't go snooping, lest the Superior snooped back into her past and found Triton as well.
Crystalia would let sleeping dogs lie or they'd all have unburied secrets exposed.