Masquerade
Title: Masquerade
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"Meeting? Today? But I have to go to the Preventer meeting today! Is there any way that Heero could reschedule it?", Noin almost yelled into the receiver. (Chapter 2) Torn Love
Author: Andrea Weiling
����������There was a pause at the other end of the phone. Then Wufei answered ,"I'll check. Call you back later. If he cannot change the schedule, I will tell you what happened at the meeting sometime tomorrow."
����������Noin was relieved. Well, at least I have a backup, she thought. "Thanks, Wufei. Say, aren't you supposed to attend the Preventer meeting too?"
����������"No, Hilde's taking notes for me. I think Sally's abduction is more important to me than a Preventer meeting. So, no, I'm not going."
����������"Oh", said Noin, crestfallen. "I see. Ja, then. Good luck at the meeting; let's hope that Heero can reschedule it."
����������Wufei responded with a "Hn" and the line at the other end of Noin's clicked off.
����������She sighed and put down the receiver. "Well, I have to get to work, since I'm the hostess� of tonight's Preventer meeting", she muttered to no one in particular.
����������"What is that you said, Noin?", Miliardo's voice floated over to her ears from the next room over.
����������"Nothing", Noin said back. She waited for an answer, and upon getting none, she turned back to her work and strained to concentrate.
����������I can't concentrate. Probably because of all the excitement of Sally getting captured. 'Course, I'm not very happy that we lost one of our best agents to some stupid guy... Oh well, better wait 'till further news-
����������"Beep beep beep!"
����������Phone, again. Wonder what they want this time. Ah, whatever.
����������"Moshi moshi?", she spoke wearily into the receiver.
����������"Noin. This is Aurora Borealis speaking."
����������Quatre!
����������"Qua - sorry - Aurora Borealis, what do you think you're doing?"
����������"Don't go to the Preventer meeting tonight. They're going to bomb the agency. Don't go. Promise me, Noin, that you won't go!"
����������What is he trying to pull? Some kinda prank?
����������"What are you talking about? I have to go to the meeting!"
����������"Warn everyone that the place you're going to be at will be bombed at 7:00PM. I'm not lying or playing a prank. I'm serious. Warn as many people as you can, Noin. Keep Relena safe."
����������The line clicked off.
����������What the hell...well, better safe than sorry. Better start calling.
����������She dialed the first number that came to mind, and to her delight, someone answered it.
����������"Zechs Marquise speaking."
����������"Zechs, don't go the meeting tonight. There's gonna be a bomb thrown at us. Quatre just called; he promised that it wasn't a lie."
����������Zechs stopped. Then answered ,"Noin, I'm just next door. Why didn't you just run over and tell me?"
����������Noin fumbled for an answer. "Um, because I forgot?"
����������Next door, Zechs shook his head sadly. Sheesh, what's happening anyway?
����������"Noin, answer me. Why did you go over to the pilot's house yesterday? And the day before, to the hospital to see someone? Is there someone else on your mind that I don't know about?"
����������Noin gasped. "Oh, no, of course not. It's just I hesitated before I dragged you into this mess."
����������"What 'mess'?"
����������"Sally's been kidnapped, but before she left, Wufei got a message from her stating that there's a new enemy. The Conquistadors. That's why I'm so tensed up."
����������Miliardo stiffened. A new enemy? Impossible! Well, maybe not totally impossible, but they couldn't have hidden their tracks so well that Heero couldn't have broken into it.
����������"You're talking nonsense. Heero would've found them. Right?"
����������"He'd been looking at the wrong place."
����������Noin could hear a sigh at the other end. The voice crackled to life. "Well, then, what're we to do?"
����������"Call everyone and tell them to stay out of the Preventer meeting."
����������"Should we publicize this?"
����������"No, don't hide it so the reporters can't dig it out, but don't put it on a microphone to the world and tell everybody. That would just encourage the Conquistadors to hide their tracks better."
����������"Arigato. Ja."
����������"Ja."
����������The line clicked off, only two of the important lines that Noin received that day.
* * *
����������"So, Heero, is there any way that you could reschedule the meeting?", Wufei asked.
����������"No need to. Quatre's called Noin and she's spreading the word that there'll be a bomb at 7:00 tonight at the Civic Center, so no one's going to end up going", Heero typed faster at this statement, as if it had made him stronger.
����������"Fine. I'll see you at dinner, then", Wufei turned and left the room.
����������The last thing he remembered was something hitting his head.
* * *
����������Sally awoke at the sound of the prison door opening. What the...I wonder what they want with me this time. That lunatic Hitchcock sure is persistent...
����������Sally wasn't even surprised when Lieutenant Hitchcock himself appeared at the door.
����������"See? I have a present for you, Major Sally. I think you'll like it. It'll be arriving �� soon, if not now...Anyways, I need to go. Matters to attend to, of course. Well, see you soon, my darling Sally."
����������Sally snarled like a rabid animal and yelled ,"You'll pay for that when I get out ofthis hellhole! You should learn to treat your prisoners with more respect, and maybe then I'll come along quietly!", before the door shut with a clank. Sally settled back in her chair and tried to get the manacles off of her. She had struggled so hard on the ropes thatthey had broken, but at that moment, the Lieutenant walked in, and they restrained her.
����������She heard something. Figures. Must be the darn present he was talking about.
����������Suddenly the manacles fell from her hands. I'm free?
����������A door opened on the other side of the room and something fell out of it, ploughing into her.
����������"Ouch. What's the big idea, whatever you are?"
����������The bundle of flesh on her lap did not move.
����������"Hey. You awake?"
����������No answer.
����������Must be asleep or dead. Does Hitchcock believe that I would succumb to him by a dead person's smell? My, my, Hitchcock has gone straight to the loony bin.
����������Sally felt around for a hand or a head. When she finally distinguished right and left, she took up the right hand and felt for a pulse. Not finding one, she tried for the neck. It was beating there, so she must've missed it at the right hand wrist.
����������Something fell out of the guy's neck and onto her hand. Sally felt its shape and gasped.
����������This...this is Wufei's identification that he was once a member of the Dragon Clan.What's it doing here? It can't be - that -
����������She felt the man's features. An angular nose, deeply set in eyes that were strictly Asian, and a tiny pigtail at the nape of his neck.
����������It's Wufei!
����������"Wufei! Wake up! It's me, Sally!"
����������The figure did not move from her lap or in any way.
����������Sally felt the figure's clothes. There was an outside cloak, just like the one Wufei always wore, training pants, and soft-soled practice shoes. The person was unmistakably Wufei.
����������Just as she was giving up hope that the Chinese would ever wake up, Wufei groaned and rubbed his eyes. "Huh?", he said, puzzled at the darkness.
����������"Wufei! It's me, Sally!"
����������One half of Wufei's mind said ,"Nonsense! Sally is locked in the dungeon of the French palace Versailles!" and the other half said ,"Sally! I'm so glad to...uh...hear your voice!"
����������"Oh. Good afternoon, woman."
����������Sally snorted. "We're in the bottom of the prison in some rickety old castle, and I can't seem to find a way out."
����������Wufei, still half - asleep, said drowsily ,"What? We're won the lottery off some abysmally old tassel, and wouldn't seam the words out? You're making no sense, woman!"
����������Sally replied by grabbing his shoulders, emphasizing every word with a shake of hisshoulders. "I - SAID - WE - ARE - BOTH - IN - THE - BOTTOM - OF - SOME - GODFORSAKEN - PRISON - AND - I - CAN'T - FIND - A - WAY - OUT!"
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����������NOW Wufei was awake. "No way out? How did I end up in here?"
����������"Don't ask me that! What was the last thing you remember?"
����������"Everything going black, something hitting my head...I was going down to dinner...if this is the place you say it is, this is the French palace of Versailles, several miles away from Paris", Wufei detached Sally's white fingers from his shoulders and crossed his arms. "If that's the best they can do, the Conquistadors are losing their touch."
����������"Wufei. Come here," Sally felt around until she found his hand. When it enveloped hers in return, she found herself blushing. God, his hands are warm. Quite comforting...
����������Snap out of it, Sally!
����������"What is it, woman?", Wufei took his hand from hers, ignoring the unseen pink that was rising fast behind his cheeks. ����������"Have you found a way out?"
����������Sally snorted. "Why don't you try to find a way out? Why do women have to do all the work?"
����������Wufei had no answer to that, so he shut up.
����������"See, you don't have an answer to that! Take that!", Sally ruffled his hair with no success; his head was so plastered to his scalp that it felt like it had all been glued on.
����������"Don't touch my hair, woman!"
����������"Don't call me that!"
����������"Give me 100 reasons not to, woman!"
����������Annoyed, Sally aimed a blow at his lousy head, forgetting that is complete darkness and he couldn't see it. Sally felt it hit home as it knocked Wufei's proud nose astray.
����������"What was that for?", Wufei tried to hit her back, but he hit nothing but air; Sally's eyes had long gotten used to the darkness and could see it coming.
����������"Aha! You forgot!"
����������Wufei was nonplused. "Forgot what?"
����������"Forgot to add it!"
����������Wufei went over the last few minutes. "You mean 'woman'?"
����������Sally hit Wufei again. "I told you not to call me that! Be respectful to your elders, Wufei, and keep that nose down! I want to see 100 pushups right now!"
����������Wufei obediently got down on all fours, but he changed his mind and asked ,"Why should I, woman?"
����������Sally stuck out an unseen tongue at him, and said jeeringly ," 'Cause you want to stay in shape, doncha? Don't want everyone to comment how fat you are when you get out of this place, do you?"
����������Wufei spent the next hour and a half doing pushups, painfully enduring Sally's comments. It seemed that Sally still remembered a good portion of her time as a Major. Wufei's pride hurt more and more, and finally he gave up and sat down, readying himself for a blow to the head, or a kick that he would hopefully dodge.
����������Nothing came.
����������Wufei was getting worried. When nothing happened for about half a minute, he ventured a timid ,"Sally? Are you there?"
����������Nothing answered.
����������He got used to the silence, and when a scream rippled the air, he jumped, and found in his meditation time, someone had put shackles on his hands and feet, as well as an ironball at the end of a chain. Like a prisoner.
����������"Sally?"
����������Another scream richoetted off the walls of the tiny cell.
����������Suddenly there came a sliding sound from his right and his shackles came free and disappeared.
����������"Catch her, Wufei Chang...", a male voice called from the now open door.
����������Wufei obeyed, and after he put her down carefully, he turned to the door. "Who're you?"
����������The man laughed, sending shivers up and down Wufei's back, and succeeding in making him even madder.
����������"I'm the person who ordered your capture, Wufei Chang, the lone survivor of the Dragon Clan. Shame on you, letting them die like that...pity, they were courageous, and quite stupid, actually, to let such an idiot like you take their sacred traditions out into the world...shame, shame, shame..."
����������Wufei dipped his head down, knowing his enormous mistake, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him.
����������"...Wu...fei..."
����������Wufei glanced down and saw Sally's eyes were open a crack. He knelt and held back the stray, messy hair that was once so proudly held in two coits around her face.
����������"Don't...believe...him...Wufei...he's bluffing...lying...don't think ...his words...are...true...", Sally's voice was barely audible, but Wufei caught every word, hanging on for more.
����������"Oh, yes", the man in the door said again, catching Wufei's attention. "Sally was a very pleasant partner with me today...her body is most beautiful, most curved...You chose well for female companionship, Wufei Chang. " And with another laugh, the door was closed.
����������Wufei's vision went red in the fading light. Setting down Sally, he raced to the closing door, yelling ,"Coward! Come and face me like a man!" He reached the door just as it closed, and howled with all his might, like a wounded dog with no place to go except for in his cage. After a while, he ran out of breath, and went back to Sally. He gasped at her state.
����������Sally was breathing shallowly, her face contorted in a tight grimace. She had lashes all over her body, and her clothes were half gone; only the necessities were covered. She was shivering, and Wufei quickly sacrificed his treasured overcoat to bundle her up. He was careful, but even though he tried not to touch her wounds, Sally hissed with pain at every place.
����������"Thank...you...Wu...fei...go...to...sleep...conserve your...ener...gy."
����������"What for? I'm not getting out of this place without you, Sally?"
����������Sally tried to laugh, but she coughed blood when she did.
����������"Baka...why save me?", she choked up another bit of blood. "I'll be dead by morning...anyway..."
����������Wufei's eyes started to cloud. No! Not now! I can't cry now!
����������"Sally...don't say that. It'll be okay...you'll see...they'll come for us, I know they will!"
����������"Wufei...you have such...a...big heart...Use it well...for the things that matter...You have a longer time...in front of you...save yourself first..."
����������Tears trembled at the points of the Chinese's eyes, now, and threatened to spill over. "Don't say that, Sally! C'mon, just hold on, help will come soon", he wiped away several tears. He froze as a hand gently wiped them away, a hand that had caressed that very same cheek just a year ago.
* Flashback *
����������"Oh, no, you don't!"
����������"Give it up, woman!"
����������"It's not even yours! It's mine! And don't call me 'woman'!"
����������"I'll call you what I want! And they are *my* documents; they're about me! Hand them over!"
����������"Never! Not before I read them! Lady Une gave them to me to read, and that's what I'm going to do! These were salvaged from what was L5. There was a whole entire pagoda labeled 'The Library' that was totally intact. No one knows if the Dragon Clan did it on purpose or not, but they had your files, floating out in space. They were all mixed up, and Lady Une took special care to put them in order!"
����������Finally, the bag broke apart, and documents spilled all over. Wufei picked one off from the ground, but Sally snatched it and put it back in the folder. He tried to get at another one and read it, but he had just read "Name : Sally Po" when she also took that one out of his hand. One by one, they were taken away, until none were left on the floor, and all of them were in Sally's arms. She was comfortably reading them in her hand, but Wufei risked another grab at them. Again they fell out of her hand, but Sally had read them all already.
����������"You didn't seriously read all of those, did you, woman?", Wufei growled dangerously at his partner.
����������"I'm not in the Preventer's agency for nothing, you know, Wufei."
����������Somehow, the subject of their conversation got to him. "Wufei, I need to ask you something. Do you feel comfortable here? Can you concentrate? Do you think you fit in?"
����������Wufei was startled at this question. "Yes...most of the time."
����������Sally glanced sharply back at his back. "What do you mean 'most of the time'?"
����������"I feel out of place. Sometimes."
����������"How? We all try and fit you in, but well, you don't want to have us as your friends, do you? Tell me the truth, Wufei. We all have our secrets, but it is one thing from keeping it from a person who trusts you to a friend."
����������"Well...these are different surroundings, and they will take some time getting used to."
����������"Why do you feel uncomfortable around us? Your fellow pilots?"
����������"I don't. I'm not used to be surrounded by people and the annoying press, though."
����������Wufei's chin was steered upwards into Sally's kind face.
����������"Make the time that you need to get used to everything short. Don't worry, we'll be with you the entire way, Wufei", she glanced at the clock, it's monotonous hands still ticking in the same direction. "I have a meeting to attend. I'll take notes for you, but in this time I'm gone, I want you to think of what we've done for you, compared to what you've done for us. If it makes it easier, write them down, but concentrate on that, and that only."
����������Tender fingers stroked his cheek lovingly before Sally got us and to the door. Then the door closed and she was gone.
����������Leaving a *very* confused Wufei.
* * *
����������"Don't cry, Wufei", Sally summoned the last of her energy and wiped the tears away, her now wet hand leaving trails of silver across his cheeks. "Yes, I know everything will be all right. So you just hush and take a nap. I'll wake you when help comes", she lay down herself, her eyes now unclouded and wary.
����������But Wufei couldn't sleep.
����������He realized it was quiet in the chamber. Too quiet for his taste.
����������"Sally, I can't get to sleep. Talk to me, and maybe I'll get to sleep."
����������There was no answer.
����������"Sally?", Wufei asked, his voice ringing slightly in the small walls of his prison
cell.
����������Dread filled him, and he scampered over to Sally and pressed two fingers against her throat.
����������There was no pulse.
����������He tried again.
����������He had been right the first time. There was simply no pulse.
����������"Sally! Wake up! Didn't you said you'd wake me up when help arrived? So where's the wake - up call? You promised you'd wake me up..."
����������"Right?"
����������Wufei felt childish then. A child, lost in a world that is empty and devoid of everything. Nothing was left for him. Sally had been his last lifeline.
����������She was gone.
����������Now, he was the one who stroked her face and said the words she had said a year ago.
����������"We'll be there the entire way, Wufei...You lied, Sally. You didn't know that you would die today, just a year after you said that. And I never got to say it."
����������"Those words I wanted to tell you. But I'll say it now, to make me stop crying."
����������"Aisheteru, Sally."
����������And so, Sally Po, age 21, died on May 21, as a brave Preventer officer that risked everything for the one she loved.
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Author's note:
����������*sniffs* Sorry, all you Sally fans. I didn't want to do it. I was emotionally tortured into doing this, because it makes the story go along a little faster, and a little more exciting. But for all you Sally/Wufei fans, I am extremely sorry. My friends practically strangled me when they read this, but I'm glad that no one can strangle me over the Internet.
Andrea Weiling
All images and content belong to Black Ink on White Scroll