Braid - Part 3 ^.^
Oct. 10th, 2005 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laneroseTitle: The Braid
Part: Chapter Three - Intervention of Fate
Warnings: Gundam Wing x Fullmetal Alchemist Crossover. FMA spoilers through 50, GW spoilers upto but excluding Endless Waltz. AU, Ed and Duo - centric - - but not EdxDuo
Chapter Word Count: 4,604
Word Count to Date: 20,176
Previous Parts:
The Braid, Prologue
The Braid, Chapter 1 - The Sound of One Hand Clapping
The Braid, Chapter 2 - Solitary Souls
Chapter 3 – Intervention of Fate
Kip Kierland followed the other children quickly down the stairs. Tonight was stew night, and stew night had always been one of his favouritest nights! Sister Helen made really excellent milk stew, even better than… well, he didn’t like to think about that.
As he entered the kitchen, the first thing that the boy noted was that the visitor from earlier was still here. That was unusual. Solo, the blond boy got called Solo, he remembered. Kip could still remember the first time he’d heard Father Jacob mention the name. It had been late at night, and the priest had thought everyone asleep, but Kip had never been good at going to bed on time. Solo had been doing something to help Father Jacob, though he didn’t really know what anymore. Solo just had to be a good person, though – he knew that. The other kids didn’t, though – so Kip hurried over and jumped into the seat beside the older boy.
“Hi!” He said cheerfully, smiling brightly up at the taller boy as he let his violet eyes go wide and innocent. The blond looked at him, startled a bit, but Kip could see Father Jacob nodding in approval behind him and knew better than to give up at a little surprise.
“Hi.” The older boy said cautiously, eyeing him from over a bowl of stew. Kip grabbed his spoon and took a long slurp of the warm liquid, letting Solo get used to him a bit. He reminded Kip of the kitty he had wanted to keep, but that Sister Helen had said they had no room for just now, and Kip should wait to take care of one.
The stew, meanwhile, slid warmly down Solo’s throat. How long had it been since the last time he’d had hot food? Days, maybe weeks… He swallowed, savouring the rich taste. It had milk in it, Solo observed idly, closing his eyes against the visions of a woman with long brown hair that danced across his mind.
“So, Kip, how was your day?” Father Jacob asked, making a point of focusing on the dark haired boy beyond the blonde. It was enough that Helen had talked Solo into staying without expecting him to interact with the children of the orphanage. Grabbing a spoon for himself, the priest enjoyed a mouthful of the stew. Perhaps it was not as thick as it could have been, but spreading the nutrition to others was more important today than enriching the taste for those with plenty.
“Good!” the boy replied enthusiastically, violet eyes shining. He paused for a mouthful of soup before continuing, “I played tag with Mike and Gabe, and well, I’m not really sure who won cause we just kinda got tired and stopped, but I think it probably was me. How do you decide who wins at tag, anyways? Do you know? I don’t know yet, but I betcha there’s gotta be a way to do it!”
Father Jacob allowed himself a bit of laughter at the boy’s expense, shaking his head as he did so. Kip’s innate cheer restored to the man some of the balance he had lost earlier, clearing his head as effectively as the food did.
“After that, Nina and I played on the swings together. I like swings.” Kip said, barely bothering to eat as he continued to chatter. “Lisette was telling me that if you swing over the bar you wind up in outer space after you come back down, but that doesn’t sound right to me. It’s harder to get into space then that, right? You need a spacecraft or something, right? Right?”
“Well, I don’t know.” Father Jacob answered, seeming to ponder the question. “If we were on Earth I don’t think that would work at all, but here on the colonies…”
“No, silly!” Kip insisted with a giggle. “How would we breathe if that happened? And you and Sister Helen wouldn’t let us do anything that was *really* dangerous like that!”
“Oh we wouldn’t, would we?” The priest cast a sly grin at his fellow “parent” before looking back at the child before him. She shook her head, stirring her own stew idly before turning back to listen to something Julia was attempting to tell her. “Are you sure of that?”
“Yep! Isn’t that right, mister?” The boy said, turning to face the blonde to his immediate right. “Father and Sister are too nice to do that sort of thing, right?”
“Wha - ? Yes.” Solo responded, startled. His eyes snapped open, head swinging round to look at the boy by his side.
“Do you even know what you just agreed to, Solo?” Father Jacob asked, laughing at the wide-eyed expression on the boy’s face. It was a real pleasure to catch the usually guarded child so completely uncomposed, even if it was only for a moment. Surprise made him seem his age.
“I – that is I –“ The blond stammered for a moment, then regained his footing as he snapped at the man, “Of course I know! I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t agree with the kid.”
“So you’ll come play with me tomorrow, then?” Kip asked, grinning broadly and working hard to keep the mischief from his eyes.
“Of course I – wait – uh – that is – “ Solo stammered as Father Jacob cackled behind him. The blonde whirled on the older man. “What are you laughing at, priest?
Father Jacob took a moment to get himself under control, stared at the angry blond for a moment, and then started laughing again. Kip, meanwhile, turned exceedingly innocent puppy dog eyes towards the boy beside him, who looked furiously back and forth between the two of them as if sensing somehow that he had been conned.
“Please?” Kip said, grabbing a hold of Solo’s sleeve. Solo turned to look at the child beside him, and his eyes softened ever so slightly.
“Fine.” He grumbled, drawing his arm swiftly away from the boy. Kip smiled a wide, toothy grin, and clapped his hands together. Solo threw his arms up irritably before grabbing his spoon and helping himself to another mouthful of soup. “Don’t get any ideas though, kid. I can’t stay long.”
“How kind of you, Solo!” Sister Helen exclaimed as she approached the table at last with her own bowl of stew. She seated herself across from him, brushing her braid over her shoulder as she settled into the chair and, after a shooting Father Jacob’s a silencing glance, began to eat.
“Yeah, yeah.” Solo replied. He rose to his feet then, and headed to the covered container on the counter. “I should get going. I’ve got places to be. Tomorrow?”
Father Jacob raised an eyebrow at him, tilting his head slightly to one side. His eyes shifted up and to the left, gaze silent and unfocused momentarily before he nodded. Solo grabbed the container and head out into the night.
Behind him, from his seat at the kitchen table, Kip, shouted, “See you tomorrow, Solo!”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The building on the top of the hill was really nothing worth discussing. An old widow had lived in it once, many years ago. After she had died, the house had slowly started going downhill, with no one to take care of it and no one particularly interested in it. The midst of the industrial sector hadn’t been a popular housing location when the widow moved into her house, and it was even less of one when she left. No, the house on top of the hill really was nothing special.
The factory below it, on the other hand, was.
Ed approached the building moving as swiftly as he could. He’d found it not long after he’d arrived, and quickly figured out that an abandoned factory would serve him well. It certainly hadn’t been his intention to house a large number of L2’s strays when he had moved in… but the building was big, big enough to be wasted on a single person… and there were so many people whose need was so great…
That, and D-trak had insisted. The brat.
He balanced the container of stew carefully. The others hadn’t known where he was going today—they never did for safety reasons, and might have already eaten. If they’d already eaten, they would need to keep the stew well-covered so they could eat it another day. Sister Helen’s stew could last them for days at a time, and had on more than one occasion. Just because they had food today didn’t mean there would be any tomorrow.
“Solo!” The shout reached him easily. There, hanging out a second story window, was Flyer. Ed threw him a quick look of disapproval, and stopped where he was until Flyer disappeared from the window. He’d worked damn hard to keep this place under the radar, and it wouldn’t do to have their cover blown now.
“Idiot.” He sighed, heading towards the side door. The larger doors to the factory were far too obvious to open at any time of day, but the tiny door on the far side could be accessed without anyone noticing. After glancing around to be certain no one was, for whatever reason, lurking around, Ed hurried into the building.
“Solo! Solo!” The small children shouted as he entered the factory. They ran over to hug him, nearly bowling him over in their enthusiasm. Above the sounds of their cheerfully chatter, he could hear Den barking loudly, clearly trying to get closer to him. Ed fought to keep his grip on the container, shifting it over his head and twisting.
“Get off him, you lot! You too, Den.” The kids quickly stepped back, turning instead to face the man whose company they had departed in favour of Ed. The dog, on the other hand, walked over to his master, rubbing against his legs. The blond man lowered his arms and shifted the stew once more before smiling at the dark haired man before him. The man gave him a distinct look before turning to the children and fixing them with his gaze. “You know better than to do that when he’s carrying food.”
“Yes, Tio!” They chorused, looking at him with unapologetic glances. Tio shook his head, then gestured them impatiently towards the table at the far side of the hangar.
“Dinner’s here. Go sit or don’t eat.” The words had scarcely passed Tio’s lips before the children stampeded off, managing to keep the pushing and shoving to a minimum for once. Ed smirked, then followed along, Den trailing in his wake as he placed the bowl on the table. Tio grabbed a stack of bowls from a nearby cabinet where they kept the dishes, bringing them quickly to Ed’s side. Ed tossed Tio the ladle, and slipped from the table with practiced ease.
In the following chaos, Ed nearly slipped away. The children clambered for their bowls, keeping Tio occupied with filling them. He’d just manage to finish filling one when it would be pulled from his hand and passed along the table to the last empty place. The kids were damned scrupulous about sharing. Yes, Ed could probably have escaped… if D-trak hadn’t suddenly appeared beside him.
“And where do you think you’re going, Sol?” The dark haired boy’s green eyes stared piercingly into the golden ones before him as he reached out a hand and grabbed the blonde by the coat sleeve. “You skipped eating yesterday, and the day before that, too. I seem to remember having a deal that you would eat with the group at least once every three days.”
Ed spared him a withering glance before shaking off his arm and stalking forward. D-trak darted in front of him, hands raised in front of his chest as though to block Solo, though he continued back as the other boy continued forward. The grin that lit his face had a vaguely manic quality.
“Now, look, Solo,” he began, “I know you like to take care of us, and that food is scarce, but today there’s Sister’s stew, and plenty of it. Just ‘cause you had a cup of tea today doesn’t mean –“
“Bowl of stew.” Ed said irritably as he reached out and pushed his way past D-trak. “Sister Helen’s as bad as you are, insisted that I join them for dinner after having done such a huge favour for them.”
The blond grabbed hold of the railing and swung around it, quickly climbing the stairs. He slipped quickly up the ladder to the uppermost level, Den whining as he was left behind. His dark haired friend followed past the dog as they went up, arriving swiftly in the large room that had been set aside for end of the day reports.
“Flyer!” Ed shouted as he stormed through the door.
The sandy-haired man in question ducked behind Shells, who nearly dropped his ball and shells in the sudden rush of movement. He cowered behind the taller boy, using the other’s cape as a sort of protective shield. Ed ignored it, walking straight towards him and grabbing the cape from his hands. Shells quickly dove to the side, getting out of the line of fire with an efficiency born of years of practice.
“Hey there, Solo! How’s it going today? Have any luck with the Father today?” Flyer rambled speedily. “I’ve got some more news for you on that front, actually. Seems like there’s something big about to happen, there’s – “
Ed reached forward and grabbed the other boy by the front of his shirt, hauling him forward and down to Ed’s own level. He glared at him in unerring irritation as Flyer continued to babble on about nothing and everything until at last the boy froze, a hand behind his head and an apologetic expression on his face. When he spoke, Ed’s voice carried in it an arctic chill.
“We agreed that screaming out the windows could potentially give away our location, did we not?”
“…yes?” Flyer’s voice squeaked.
“Since we agreed that doing so would risk all of our lives,” Ed continued, his tone dripping with sarcasm, “then what–” here he shook Flyer to punctuate the point – “Were you doing –” and he shook him again, “Shouting out the WINDOW?”
“Sorry, Solo, sorry! Won’t happen again, man, I promise!” Pleading green eyes looked deep into his own.
“It better not!” He concluded, with one final jerk of Flyer’s outfit, before he cast the other boy to the side of the room and stalked like an aggrieved cat to claim the chair by the window. He threw himself carelessly into it, not realizing that it had been moved slightly farther away from the wall than usual as he leaned the chair back.
THUMP!
The distance Ed hadn’t noticed was there proved to be his downfall as the wall was too far away to catch the upper edges of the chair. He had tipped uncontrollable backwards, leaving him flailing on the ground in an effort to straighten himself. His head only just missed the wall cracking itself on the wall, leaving Ed thankful for once that his stature had yet to exceed five feet.
“Are you all right, Solo?” Princess said, coming to his side as he disengaged his limbs from the chair and rose grumbling to his feet. Her long red ponytail floated gracefully in her wake. She rubbed a hand along the top of his head which Ed quickly shook off, brushing the taller girl away as he straightened the chair and sat down again. She turned and gave Flyer a scathing look. “Way to be, Flyboy.”
“Hey, hey! I didn’t have anything to do with that!” Flyer protested defensively.
“Sure you didn’t.” She replied, flouncing back to the couch which she had previously been sharing with Cookie. Flyer looked like he wanted to renew his protests, but was stopped before he could even begin by D-trak’s timely interruption.
“Way to be, Sunny.” He said, grinning broadly at Solo. “Very graceful, oh high and mighty leader.”
“Shut up, Deedee.” Ed answered, shaking his head as he grabbed a notebook and a pen from a nearby table. The room silenced itself quickly, broken only by the popping sound of Cookie’s bubble gum blowing. “Anyone got any news to report? Find out anything useful for us today?”
Notebooks appeared from various locations, each person skimming over their catches of the day to see what was most useful. As they did so, Tio slipped quietly through the door, grabbing the chair nearest the door and dropping into it before drawing out a notebook of his own. A pencil appeared in his hand as he began to do some figuring. Flyer, surprisingly, looked up first.
“There really is something big about to go down.” He began, looking over a few scrawled pages. “Most of the military types didn’t come in today, even the real regulars. The few who did come only did fly-bys today, grabbing a sandwich or something before heading back to the base.”
“Who came in and who didn’t?” Ed inquired, staring intently at one page of his own book.
“Sonic, Hawkeye, and Cloud didn’t show. Java, Jitters, and Tinker all came in quickly and left. Flaky stayed for a bit, but even she was only there for a few minutes.” Flyer replied. “They all looked really tense, too.”
“Flaky remembered to leave in only a few minutes?” Ed asked. At Flyer’s nod, he continued, “Okay, so something involving the pilots is going down, and it’s got the engineers really busy at the moment, busy enough for even Flaky to keep mostly on top of things. This isn’t just going to be big; it’s going to be huge. Anyone else got something?”
“Ooo, I do!” Cookie said, drawing a folded piece of paper from her pocket. “I noticed someone new on the streets today looking at this. He had that whole scary military sense to him, so I figured it’d be worth it to try and pick his pocket. Guy didn’t even notice anything was gone.” She grinned proudly. “I got his wallet, too.”
She reached over the edge of the couch and, stretching, passed the paper to Ed. He unfolded it, quickly skimming over the contents before going back to the beginning and starting again. As Ed slowly perused the contents, the others continued on around him.
“Well,” Princess said, “I can confirm that there are new military people in town. I watched the mobile suits landing at the base. They moved in quickly, though – ducked into the warehouses as soon as they touched down. They’re painted different colors from the ones we usually see, too.”
Ed looked up sharply at her, piercing her to the core with his sharply metallic eyes.
“Different how?” He asked.
“Looked to me like they were part of the Romefeller Foundation, but I couldn’t be sure. Sorry, Sol, they were just too fast for me today.” Princess replied, looking vaguely irritated with herself.
“Hey, something big is going down!” Flyer interjected. “Princess finally admits she’s not perfect! I never thought I’d live to see the day!”
“You might not live to see the day end if you keep that up.” Tio remarked, watching the girl’s pale blue eyes light with fire. “In less important news, between Sister’s stew and the check that arrived today from Mom, we should be able to keep everyone fed for the rest of the month. With the money from Cook’s pocket picking today, and there was a lot of it, combined with the money from the sale of the museum’s plans, we should be able to afford that new security system.”
“There was that much money in that guy’s wallet?” Ed asked, absorbing Tio’s nod before refocusing his attention on the notebook before him, scratching things furiously on the page.
“Hey!” Cookie protested, playing with the ends of her shoulder-length strawberry blond hair. “I got more than just one wallet today. I always get more than one wallet, you know that!”
Shells smiled and came over to pat her on the head, forcing both Princess and Cookie to scoot closer to the edges of the couch as he sat between them. Princess grumbled, but nevertheless moved aside.
“No one’s insulting your skills, Sweet.” He said, lifting the tip of her chin. “We know you’re good. Just like you know you don’t need to pull this pouty stuff with us.” Cookie stuck her tongue out at him, then grinned. Shells turned to Ed and continued, “Alliance spooks have been sniffing around again, but no one’s really paying attention to us yet. Word on the street is that at the moment they’ve got bigger fish to fry than our L2 only resistance aid group.”
Ed nodded again, adding this to his already crowded page of notes. He scrawled something, squinted at it, scribbled something beside it, and looked up.
“Say that again.” He demanded, staring at Shells.
“What?” Shells asked. “That the Alliance is looking for us or that they’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
“The thing about the fish.” Ed replied, staring at him intently.
“You know, Sun, if you want something to eat…” D-trak began, though he stopped when Ed turned to glare at him for a moment before refocusing on Shells.
“They’ve got bigger fish to fry than us right now.” Shells said, looking a bit confused. He thought for a moment, then added, “It’s because we only operate on L2. It seems like they’ve got wind of something –“
“That connects the colonies to one another!” Ed snapped his fingers as he jumped to his feet, chair clattering forward to a normal position behind him. “It’s Maxwell Church! They’re going to go after it, and soon! I’ve got to get there and warn the Father now.”
That said, he grabbed a gun from a nearby table, thrust it into his pocket, and dashed towards the door, casting his notebook upon the table. The others followed closely on his heels, dashing behind him down the stairs, grabbing weapons from assorted hidden locations as they went.
“Tio, you stay and watch the kids. Princess, get over to the base as fast as you can, see if anything’s going down now. Flyer, you’re with Tio – if this is a decoy, they may be coming after us instead. If they come, hold them off long enough for Tio to get away, then blow things up and get the fuck away from here. Cookie, you and D-trak come with me. I want you to help Sister Helen with the kids – get them all to one of the safe locations we’ve discussed before – doesn’t matter which one, just get them away. I don’t want them anywhere near a battle. D-trak-“
“I know, Solo.” The dark haired boy responded. Solo glanced over his shoulder, pausing for a moment, and nodded at him.
“Let’s go.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ed, Cookie, and D-trak dashed through the streets, running as quickly as they could towards the good father and kindly sister with whom they shared such a mutually beneficial relationship. The streets were full of people out for a night on the town, wandering the streets in search of a good evening meal or an event to attend. The three dashed and dodged with all the speed they had. A horrible sense of foreboding settled itself in Ed’s heart.
The fastest way to approach Maxwell House from the warehouse required that Ed, D-trak, and Cookie first pass the church on the way to the orphanage. As they ran up the hill to the church, Ed realized with a jolt that a mobile suit stood next to the church, which itself looked as though a bomb had exploded in it. For one terrible, frightening moment, he wondered if they had perhaps arrived too late to help.
Then they reached the crown of the hill, and looking down at the burning wreck that had once been the orphanage, Ed knew with grim certainty that they were too late by far.
“Oh no!” Cookie exclaimed. She started forward, but D-trak caught hold of her arm, and held her back. He turned to look at Solo, his face for once absent of its usual smile.
“What should we do now, Sol?” He asked, staring at the frozen blond. When no response was immediately forthcoming, he reached over and pulled lightly on Ed’s ponytail. “Solo, what do we do?”
Ed’s voice caught in his throat. Even the swing set that had stood so proudly in the backyard, a work he himself had made for the children to play on – that, too, had been destroyed. The earth about the place where the building had stood was scorched, leaving not even the grass, or the remains of the path to the orphanage. Already the soldiers had departed from the area, leaving nothing behind in their wake. Nothing – the emptiness of the once lively space ached to be filled again.
With a start, Ed remembered the mobile suit that stood on the opposite side of the church. If the soldiers were all gone, all save that one - He turned, dashing around the corner of the building. They had been too late once already today. If they were too late this time, it could spell disaster for everyone back at the warehouse. If they were recognized, and the soldier reported in – it couldn’t be allowed to happen. Too much depended upon their preventing it.
As he pounded around the building, Ed could hear D-trak and Cookie on his heels, no doubt intent on backing him up. He picked up his pace – no sense in getting them caught if anyone got caught at all. As he rounded the corner from the front of the church to the far side, his fingers tightened their grip upon the gun in his pocket.
He hadn’t expected to see the suit on its knees, the door to its piloting compartment open, the seat itself empty. The suit had been abandoned by someone, but for all Ed could tell it was still in working order. For the life of him, he could not figure out why the Alliance would leave behind such a thing.
The soft sound of sobbing that reached his ears after a moment clued him in.
“Kip!” Solo exclaimed, walking over and kneeling beside him. He opened his arms and the younger boy curled around him as Solo surveyed the scene. “Kip, what happened? I need you to tell me what happened.”
“S-s-soldiers!” The boy sobbed. “They said they wanted some sort of technology, and Father Maxwell told them we didn’t have any, but they said they wouldn’t leave without it.”
Solo wanted to curse the man for a fool, wanted to swear a blue streak. Father Maxwell had known it wouldn’t matter, had known he could make a new one if necessary… could have told him sooner, could have said something before it became this much of a problem. Solo could have given him the console almost immediately if they had only known how short time was…
“So, so, I told them I would go and get them a mobile suit if they would leave!” Kip continued, tears rolling down his face. Solo awkwardly stroked his head, amazed at the boy’s bravado. “And I did it, I brought one back – but – but – but I got here too late!”
Solo saw D-trak and Cookie approach, and gestured to them to be quiet with a shake of his head.
“Now they’re dead!” He exclaimed, crying hard. “All of them, all of them! Father Jacob and Sister Helen! Nina, Mike, and Gabe… They’re all gone!”
After that, he couldn’t manage another word, merely sobbed into Solo’s shoulder. Ed held him uncomfortably, glancing between the remains of the orphanage and the mobile suit to his right. After a moment he nodded to himself, and rose to his feet.
“Can you get that back all right?” He asked D-trak, indicating the mobile suit with a tilt of his head. D-trak nodded in affirmation before scrambling into it and heading off.
“All right, kid, you’re coming with us.” Solo said. He shifted Kip to his back, and glanced at Cookie to make sure she was with them. She nodded in response, and the three of them headed off to the warehouse without a backward glance.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Part: Chapter Three - Intervention of Fate
Warnings: Gundam Wing x Fullmetal Alchemist Crossover. FMA spoilers through 50, GW spoilers upto but excluding Endless Waltz. AU, Ed and Duo - centric - - but not EdxDuo
Chapter Word Count: 4,604
Word Count to Date: 20,176
Previous Parts:
The Braid, Prologue
The Braid, Chapter 1 - The Sound of One Hand Clapping
The Braid, Chapter 2 - Solitary Souls
Chapter 3 – Intervention of Fate
Kip Kierland followed the other children quickly down the stairs. Tonight was stew night, and stew night had always been one of his favouritest nights! Sister Helen made really excellent milk stew, even better than… well, he didn’t like to think about that.
As he entered the kitchen, the first thing that the boy noted was that the visitor from earlier was still here. That was unusual. Solo, the blond boy got called Solo, he remembered. Kip could still remember the first time he’d heard Father Jacob mention the name. It had been late at night, and the priest had thought everyone asleep, but Kip had never been good at going to bed on time. Solo had been doing something to help Father Jacob, though he didn’t really know what anymore. Solo just had to be a good person, though – he knew that. The other kids didn’t, though – so Kip hurried over and jumped into the seat beside the older boy.
“Hi!” He said cheerfully, smiling brightly up at the taller boy as he let his violet eyes go wide and innocent. The blond looked at him, startled a bit, but Kip could see Father Jacob nodding in approval behind him and knew better than to give up at a little surprise.
“Hi.” The older boy said cautiously, eyeing him from over a bowl of stew. Kip grabbed his spoon and took a long slurp of the warm liquid, letting Solo get used to him a bit. He reminded Kip of the kitty he had wanted to keep, but that Sister Helen had said they had no room for just now, and Kip should wait to take care of one.
The stew, meanwhile, slid warmly down Solo’s throat. How long had it been since the last time he’d had hot food? Days, maybe weeks… He swallowed, savouring the rich taste. It had milk in it, Solo observed idly, closing his eyes against the visions of a woman with long brown hair that danced across his mind.
“So, Kip, how was your day?” Father Jacob asked, making a point of focusing on the dark haired boy beyond the blonde. It was enough that Helen had talked Solo into staying without expecting him to interact with the children of the orphanage. Grabbing a spoon for himself, the priest enjoyed a mouthful of the stew. Perhaps it was not as thick as it could have been, but spreading the nutrition to others was more important today than enriching the taste for those with plenty.
“Good!” the boy replied enthusiastically, violet eyes shining. He paused for a mouthful of soup before continuing, “I played tag with Mike and Gabe, and well, I’m not really sure who won cause we just kinda got tired and stopped, but I think it probably was me. How do you decide who wins at tag, anyways? Do you know? I don’t know yet, but I betcha there’s gotta be a way to do it!”
Father Jacob allowed himself a bit of laughter at the boy’s expense, shaking his head as he did so. Kip’s innate cheer restored to the man some of the balance he had lost earlier, clearing his head as effectively as the food did.
“After that, Nina and I played on the swings together. I like swings.” Kip said, barely bothering to eat as he continued to chatter. “Lisette was telling me that if you swing over the bar you wind up in outer space after you come back down, but that doesn’t sound right to me. It’s harder to get into space then that, right? You need a spacecraft or something, right? Right?”
“Well, I don’t know.” Father Jacob answered, seeming to ponder the question. “If we were on Earth I don’t think that would work at all, but here on the colonies…”
“No, silly!” Kip insisted with a giggle. “How would we breathe if that happened? And you and Sister Helen wouldn’t let us do anything that was *really* dangerous like that!”
“Oh we wouldn’t, would we?” The priest cast a sly grin at his fellow “parent” before looking back at the child before him. She shook her head, stirring her own stew idly before turning back to listen to something Julia was attempting to tell her. “Are you sure of that?”
“Yep! Isn’t that right, mister?” The boy said, turning to face the blonde to his immediate right. “Father and Sister are too nice to do that sort of thing, right?”
“Wha - ? Yes.” Solo responded, startled. His eyes snapped open, head swinging round to look at the boy by his side.
“Do you even know what you just agreed to, Solo?” Father Jacob asked, laughing at the wide-eyed expression on the boy’s face. It was a real pleasure to catch the usually guarded child so completely uncomposed, even if it was only for a moment. Surprise made him seem his age.
“I – that is I –“ The blond stammered for a moment, then regained his footing as he snapped at the man, “Of course I know! I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t agree with the kid.”
“So you’ll come play with me tomorrow, then?” Kip asked, grinning broadly and working hard to keep the mischief from his eyes.
“Of course I – wait – uh – that is – “ Solo stammered as Father Jacob cackled behind him. The blonde whirled on the older man. “What are you laughing at, priest?
Father Jacob took a moment to get himself under control, stared at the angry blond for a moment, and then started laughing again. Kip, meanwhile, turned exceedingly innocent puppy dog eyes towards the boy beside him, who looked furiously back and forth between the two of them as if sensing somehow that he had been conned.
“Please?” Kip said, grabbing a hold of Solo’s sleeve. Solo turned to look at the child beside him, and his eyes softened ever so slightly.
“Fine.” He grumbled, drawing his arm swiftly away from the boy. Kip smiled a wide, toothy grin, and clapped his hands together. Solo threw his arms up irritably before grabbing his spoon and helping himself to another mouthful of soup. “Don’t get any ideas though, kid. I can’t stay long.”
“How kind of you, Solo!” Sister Helen exclaimed as she approached the table at last with her own bowl of stew. She seated herself across from him, brushing her braid over her shoulder as she settled into the chair and, after a shooting Father Jacob’s a silencing glance, began to eat.
“Yeah, yeah.” Solo replied. He rose to his feet then, and headed to the covered container on the counter. “I should get going. I’ve got places to be. Tomorrow?”
Father Jacob raised an eyebrow at him, tilting his head slightly to one side. His eyes shifted up and to the left, gaze silent and unfocused momentarily before he nodded. Solo grabbed the container and head out into the night.
Behind him, from his seat at the kitchen table, Kip, shouted, “See you tomorrow, Solo!”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The building on the top of the hill was really nothing worth discussing. An old widow had lived in it once, many years ago. After she had died, the house had slowly started going downhill, with no one to take care of it and no one particularly interested in it. The midst of the industrial sector hadn’t been a popular housing location when the widow moved into her house, and it was even less of one when she left. No, the house on top of the hill really was nothing special.
The factory below it, on the other hand, was.
Ed approached the building moving as swiftly as he could. He’d found it not long after he’d arrived, and quickly figured out that an abandoned factory would serve him well. It certainly hadn’t been his intention to house a large number of L2’s strays when he had moved in… but the building was big, big enough to be wasted on a single person… and there were so many people whose need was so great…
That, and D-trak had insisted. The brat.
He balanced the container of stew carefully. The others hadn’t known where he was going today—they never did for safety reasons, and might have already eaten. If they’d already eaten, they would need to keep the stew well-covered so they could eat it another day. Sister Helen’s stew could last them for days at a time, and had on more than one occasion. Just because they had food today didn’t mean there would be any tomorrow.
“Solo!” The shout reached him easily. There, hanging out a second story window, was Flyer. Ed threw him a quick look of disapproval, and stopped where he was until Flyer disappeared from the window. He’d worked damn hard to keep this place under the radar, and it wouldn’t do to have their cover blown now.
“Idiot.” He sighed, heading towards the side door. The larger doors to the factory were far too obvious to open at any time of day, but the tiny door on the far side could be accessed without anyone noticing. After glancing around to be certain no one was, for whatever reason, lurking around, Ed hurried into the building.
“Solo! Solo!” The small children shouted as he entered the factory. They ran over to hug him, nearly bowling him over in their enthusiasm. Above the sounds of their cheerfully chatter, he could hear Den barking loudly, clearly trying to get closer to him. Ed fought to keep his grip on the container, shifting it over his head and twisting.
“Get off him, you lot! You too, Den.” The kids quickly stepped back, turning instead to face the man whose company they had departed in favour of Ed. The dog, on the other hand, walked over to his master, rubbing against his legs. The blond man lowered his arms and shifted the stew once more before smiling at the dark haired man before him. The man gave him a distinct look before turning to the children and fixing them with his gaze. “You know better than to do that when he’s carrying food.”
“Yes, Tio!” They chorused, looking at him with unapologetic glances. Tio shook his head, then gestured them impatiently towards the table at the far side of the hangar.
“Dinner’s here. Go sit or don’t eat.” The words had scarcely passed Tio’s lips before the children stampeded off, managing to keep the pushing and shoving to a minimum for once. Ed smirked, then followed along, Den trailing in his wake as he placed the bowl on the table. Tio grabbed a stack of bowls from a nearby cabinet where they kept the dishes, bringing them quickly to Ed’s side. Ed tossed Tio the ladle, and slipped from the table with practiced ease.
In the following chaos, Ed nearly slipped away. The children clambered for their bowls, keeping Tio occupied with filling them. He’d just manage to finish filling one when it would be pulled from his hand and passed along the table to the last empty place. The kids were damned scrupulous about sharing. Yes, Ed could probably have escaped… if D-trak hadn’t suddenly appeared beside him.
“And where do you think you’re going, Sol?” The dark haired boy’s green eyes stared piercingly into the golden ones before him as he reached out a hand and grabbed the blonde by the coat sleeve. “You skipped eating yesterday, and the day before that, too. I seem to remember having a deal that you would eat with the group at least once every three days.”
Ed spared him a withering glance before shaking off his arm and stalking forward. D-trak darted in front of him, hands raised in front of his chest as though to block Solo, though he continued back as the other boy continued forward. The grin that lit his face had a vaguely manic quality.
“Now, look, Solo,” he began, “I know you like to take care of us, and that food is scarce, but today there’s Sister’s stew, and plenty of it. Just ‘cause you had a cup of tea today doesn’t mean –“
“Bowl of stew.” Ed said irritably as he reached out and pushed his way past D-trak. “Sister Helen’s as bad as you are, insisted that I join them for dinner after having done such a huge favour for them.”
The blond grabbed hold of the railing and swung around it, quickly climbing the stairs. He slipped quickly up the ladder to the uppermost level, Den whining as he was left behind. His dark haired friend followed past the dog as they went up, arriving swiftly in the large room that had been set aside for end of the day reports.
“Flyer!” Ed shouted as he stormed through the door.
The sandy-haired man in question ducked behind Shells, who nearly dropped his ball and shells in the sudden rush of movement. He cowered behind the taller boy, using the other’s cape as a sort of protective shield. Ed ignored it, walking straight towards him and grabbing the cape from his hands. Shells quickly dove to the side, getting out of the line of fire with an efficiency born of years of practice.
“Hey there, Solo! How’s it going today? Have any luck with the Father today?” Flyer rambled speedily. “I’ve got some more news for you on that front, actually. Seems like there’s something big about to happen, there’s – “
Ed reached forward and grabbed the other boy by the front of his shirt, hauling him forward and down to Ed’s own level. He glared at him in unerring irritation as Flyer continued to babble on about nothing and everything until at last the boy froze, a hand behind his head and an apologetic expression on his face. When he spoke, Ed’s voice carried in it an arctic chill.
“We agreed that screaming out the windows could potentially give away our location, did we not?”
“…yes?” Flyer’s voice squeaked.
“Since we agreed that doing so would risk all of our lives,” Ed continued, his tone dripping with sarcasm, “then what–” here he shook Flyer to punctuate the point – “Were you doing –” and he shook him again, “Shouting out the WINDOW?”
“Sorry, Solo, sorry! Won’t happen again, man, I promise!” Pleading green eyes looked deep into his own.
“It better not!” He concluded, with one final jerk of Flyer’s outfit, before he cast the other boy to the side of the room and stalked like an aggrieved cat to claim the chair by the window. He threw himself carelessly into it, not realizing that it had been moved slightly farther away from the wall than usual as he leaned the chair back.
THUMP!
The distance Ed hadn’t noticed was there proved to be his downfall as the wall was too far away to catch the upper edges of the chair. He had tipped uncontrollable backwards, leaving him flailing on the ground in an effort to straighten himself. His head only just missed the wall cracking itself on the wall, leaving Ed thankful for once that his stature had yet to exceed five feet.
“Are you all right, Solo?” Princess said, coming to his side as he disengaged his limbs from the chair and rose grumbling to his feet. Her long red ponytail floated gracefully in her wake. She rubbed a hand along the top of his head which Ed quickly shook off, brushing the taller girl away as he straightened the chair and sat down again. She turned and gave Flyer a scathing look. “Way to be, Flyboy.”
“Hey, hey! I didn’t have anything to do with that!” Flyer protested defensively.
“Sure you didn’t.” She replied, flouncing back to the couch which she had previously been sharing with Cookie. Flyer looked like he wanted to renew his protests, but was stopped before he could even begin by D-trak’s timely interruption.
“Way to be, Sunny.” He said, grinning broadly at Solo. “Very graceful, oh high and mighty leader.”
“Shut up, Deedee.” Ed answered, shaking his head as he grabbed a notebook and a pen from a nearby table. The room silenced itself quickly, broken only by the popping sound of Cookie’s bubble gum blowing. “Anyone got any news to report? Find out anything useful for us today?”
Notebooks appeared from various locations, each person skimming over their catches of the day to see what was most useful. As they did so, Tio slipped quietly through the door, grabbing the chair nearest the door and dropping into it before drawing out a notebook of his own. A pencil appeared in his hand as he began to do some figuring. Flyer, surprisingly, looked up first.
“There really is something big about to go down.” He began, looking over a few scrawled pages. “Most of the military types didn’t come in today, even the real regulars. The few who did come only did fly-bys today, grabbing a sandwich or something before heading back to the base.”
“Who came in and who didn’t?” Ed inquired, staring intently at one page of his own book.
“Sonic, Hawkeye, and Cloud didn’t show. Java, Jitters, and Tinker all came in quickly and left. Flaky stayed for a bit, but even she was only there for a few minutes.” Flyer replied. “They all looked really tense, too.”
“Flaky remembered to leave in only a few minutes?” Ed asked. At Flyer’s nod, he continued, “Okay, so something involving the pilots is going down, and it’s got the engineers really busy at the moment, busy enough for even Flaky to keep mostly on top of things. This isn’t just going to be big; it’s going to be huge. Anyone else got something?”
“Ooo, I do!” Cookie said, drawing a folded piece of paper from her pocket. “I noticed someone new on the streets today looking at this. He had that whole scary military sense to him, so I figured it’d be worth it to try and pick his pocket. Guy didn’t even notice anything was gone.” She grinned proudly. “I got his wallet, too.”
She reached over the edge of the couch and, stretching, passed the paper to Ed. He unfolded it, quickly skimming over the contents before going back to the beginning and starting again. As Ed slowly perused the contents, the others continued on around him.
“Well,” Princess said, “I can confirm that there are new military people in town. I watched the mobile suits landing at the base. They moved in quickly, though – ducked into the warehouses as soon as they touched down. They’re painted different colors from the ones we usually see, too.”
Ed looked up sharply at her, piercing her to the core with his sharply metallic eyes.
“Different how?” He asked.
“Looked to me like they were part of the Romefeller Foundation, but I couldn’t be sure. Sorry, Sol, they were just too fast for me today.” Princess replied, looking vaguely irritated with herself.
“Hey, something big is going down!” Flyer interjected. “Princess finally admits she’s not perfect! I never thought I’d live to see the day!”
“You might not live to see the day end if you keep that up.” Tio remarked, watching the girl’s pale blue eyes light with fire. “In less important news, between Sister’s stew and the check that arrived today from Mom, we should be able to keep everyone fed for the rest of the month. With the money from Cook’s pocket picking today, and there was a lot of it, combined with the money from the sale of the museum’s plans, we should be able to afford that new security system.”
“There was that much money in that guy’s wallet?” Ed asked, absorbing Tio’s nod before refocusing his attention on the notebook before him, scratching things furiously on the page.
“Hey!” Cookie protested, playing with the ends of her shoulder-length strawberry blond hair. “I got more than just one wallet today. I always get more than one wallet, you know that!”
Shells smiled and came over to pat her on the head, forcing both Princess and Cookie to scoot closer to the edges of the couch as he sat between them. Princess grumbled, but nevertheless moved aside.
“No one’s insulting your skills, Sweet.” He said, lifting the tip of her chin. “We know you’re good. Just like you know you don’t need to pull this pouty stuff with us.” Cookie stuck her tongue out at him, then grinned. Shells turned to Ed and continued, “Alliance spooks have been sniffing around again, but no one’s really paying attention to us yet. Word on the street is that at the moment they’ve got bigger fish to fry than our L2 only resistance aid group.”
Ed nodded again, adding this to his already crowded page of notes. He scrawled something, squinted at it, scribbled something beside it, and looked up.
“Say that again.” He demanded, staring at Shells.
“What?” Shells asked. “That the Alliance is looking for us or that they’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
“The thing about the fish.” Ed replied, staring at him intently.
“You know, Sun, if you want something to eat…” D-trak began, though he stopped when Ed turned to glare at him for a moment before refocusing on Shells.
“They’ve got bigger fish to fry than us right now.” Shells said, looking a bit confused. He thought for a moment, then added, “It’s because we only operate on L2. It seems like they’ve got wind of something –“
“That connects the colonies to one another!” Ed snapped his fingers as he jumped to his feet, chair clattering forward to a normal position behind him. “It’s Maxwell Church! They’re going to go after it, and soon! I’ve got to get there and warn the Father now.”
That said, he grabbed a gun from a nearby table, thrust it into his pocket, and dashed towards the door, casting his notebook upon the table. The others followed closely on his heels, dashing behind him down the stairs, grabbing weapons from assorted hidden locations as they went.
“Tio, you stay and watch the kids. Princess, get over to the base as fast as you can, see if anything’s going down now. Flyer, you’re with Tio – if this is a decoy, they may be coming after us instead. If they come, hold them off long enough for Tio to get away, then blow things up and get the fuck away from here. Cookie, you and D-trak come with me. I want you to help Sister Helen with the kids – get them all to one of the safe locations we’ve discussed before – doesn’t matter which one, just get them away. I don’t want them anywhere near a battle. D-trak-“
“I know, Solo.” The dark haired boy responded. Solo glanced over his shoulder, pausing for a moment, and nodded at him.
“Let’s go.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ed, Cookie, and D-trak dashed through the streets, running as quickly as they could towards the good father and kindly sister with whom they shared such a mutually beneficial relationship. The streets were full of people out for a night on the town, wandering the streets in search of a good evening meal or an event to attend. The three dashed and dodged with all the speed they had. A horrible sense of foreboding settled itself in Ed’s heart.
The fastest way to approach Maxwell House from the warehouse required that Ed, D-trak, and Cookie first pass the church on the way to the orphanage. As they ran up the hill to the church, Ed realized with a jolt that a mobile suit stood next to the church, which itself looked as though a bomb had exploded in it. For one terrible, frightening moment, he wondered if they had perhaps arrived too late to help.
Then they reached the crown of the hill, and looking down at the burning wreck that had once been the orphanage, Ed knew with grim certainty that they were too late by far.
“Oh no!” Cookie exclaimed. She started forward, but D-trak caught hold of her arm, and held her back. He turned to look at Solo, his face for once absent of its usual smile.
“What should we do now, Sol?” He asked, staring at the frozen blond. When no response was immediately forthcoming, he reached over and pulled lightly on Ed’s ponytail. “Solo, what do we do?”
Ed’s voice caught in his throat. Even the swing set that had stood so proudly in the backyard, a work he himself had made for the children to play on – that, too, had been destroyed. The earth about the place where the building had stood was scorched, leaving not even the grass, or the remains of the path to the orphanage. Already the soldiers had departed from the area, leaving nothing behind in their wake. Nothing – the emptiness of the once lively space ached to be filled again.
With a start, Ed remembered the mobile suit that stood on the opposite side of the church. If the soldiers were all gone, all save that one - He turned, dashing around the corner of the building. They had been too late once already today. If they were too late this time, it could spell disaster for everyone back at the warehouse. If they were recognized, and the soldier reported in – it couldn’t be allowed to happen. Too much depended upon their preventing it.
As he pounded around the building, Ed could hear D-trak and Cookie on his heels, no doubt intent on backing him up. He picked up his pace – no sense in getting them caught if anyone got caught at all. As he rounded the corner from the front of the church to the far side, his fingers tightened their grip upon the gun in his pocket.
He hadn’t expected to see the suit on its knees, the door to its piloting compartment open, the seat itself empty. The suit had been abandoned by someone, but for all Ed could tell it was still in working order. For the life of him, he could not figure out why the Alliance would leave behind such a thing.
The soft sound of sobbing that reached his ears after a moment clued him in.
“Kip!” Solo exclaimed, walking over and kneeling beside him. He opened his arms and the younger boy curled around him as Solo surveyed the scene. “Kip, what happened? I need you to tell me what happened.”
“S-s-soldiers!” The boy sobbed. “They said they wanted some sort of technology, and Father Maxwell told them we didn’t have any, but they said they wouldn’t leave without it.”
Solo wanted to curse the man for a fool, wanted to swear a blue streak. Father Maxwell had known it wouldn’t matter, had known he could make a new one if necessary… could have told him sooner, could have said something before it became this much of a problem. Solo could have given him the console almost immediately if they had only known how short time was…
“So, so, I told them I would go and get them a mobile suit if they would leave!” Kip continued, tears rolling down his face. Solo awkwardly stroked his head, amazed at the boy’s bravado. “And I did it, I brought one back – but – but – but I got here too late!”
Solo saw D-trak and Cookie approach, and gestured to them to be quiet with a shake of his head.
“Now they’re dead!” He exclaimed, crying hard. “All of them, all of them! Father Jacob and Sister Helen! Nina, Mike, and Gabe… They’re all gone!”
After that, he couldn’t manage another word, merely sobbed into Solo’s shoulder. Ed held him uncomfortably, glancing between the remains of the orphanage and the mobile suit to his right. After a moment he nodded to himself, and rose to his feet.
“Can you get that back all right?” He asked D-trak, indicating the mobile suit with a tilt of his head. D-trak nodded in affirmation before scrambling into it and heading off.
“All right, kid, you’re coming with us.” Solo said. He shifted Kip to his back, and glanced at Cookie to make sure she was with them. She nodded in response, and the three of them headed off to the warehouse without a backward glance.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
