章 53: She Just Got Stuck
Unknown Prison
Duo woke up and found himself not on the floor of the convenience store. In fact, right in front of him was Hilde. She was in another cell. "Hilde!"
She was still unconscious. Duo watched as someone walked toward him. She wasn't dressed like any soldier at all. She had that rich upperclass look. Pretty white hat and everything, even white gloves.
Yet, her eyes. Her eyes said she wasn't someone he could push in any vicinity.
"Are you Revenge of the Lost?" Duo asked her.
"I'm Superior," she answered.
"Well, that answers my question," Duo said with a certain amount of glee he knew annoyed people. "A little full of yourself, aren't you?"
"I don't think so, no," she answered. "I quite fit the bill, Mister Maxwell."
Duo looked around his cell. "Hey, cozy." He saw a bed with fitted sheets and a rocking chair and a comfy chair. He went over and took a seat in the comfy chair. "This is nice, thanks."
"You're welcome," she said politely. "Your girlfriend is still sleeping."
"Hey? Not girlfriend, just a friend who happens to be a girl," he corrected her. "Actually woman, girl is kind of juvenile. You know? Juvenile, like people bothering with revenge like kids at a playground fighting."
Superior didn't look upset. "I don't really have anything against you, but as a group, we are fair to everyone in it."
Nothing against him? "But someone does?"
"Yes, several," she answered. "Several people who at the time didn't fight with guns when you took their loved ones away."
Duo leaned forward. "War is hard. It's not fair. No one gets out of it staying an innocent angel."
"She's pretty close though." She turned to look at Hilde. "Volunteered to help. Did she ever take any lives?"
"Doesn't matter, you already got plans on her," he said.
"I don't think she has. I suppose she is sort of, your innocent angel." She moved closer to Hilde's jail cell. She pulled out a key and unlocked the door.
Duo moved from the chair and got closer as she moved closer to Hilde. "She's not pregnant, killing her isn't part of your plan yet."
"True." Superior snapped and several women went in and took her away out of there. She walked back toward Duo's cage. "Our little trick doesn't work with women in space, so we'll have to try harder. Harder and harder. We'll let you know when we finally get it."
Duo slammed his hands on the jail bars. "Damn you, just do it! You want revenge against me, well, I'm right here?" He gestured to himself. "Do it. Kill me and just end this whole damn thing!"
"Mm. Pleading for death over her?" She moved closer to her. "That's more fulfilling for those women you hurt, than just watching you get murdered. You live, with the hurt. Just like them."
"Pain hurts, but you're just hurting someone that never did anything!" Duo yelled. "Bring Hilde back!"
"We will after our second attempt. We'll bring her back between attempts," she said to him. "Until then, keep screaming if you wish."
"You messed up, you'll never get the revenge you want!" Duo yelled, almost to the top of his voice. "You fucked up and you know it, you wanted them all pregnant at the same time so they'd all go! You botched it up, you'll never get the same results!"
"You are right. There is a chance that Hilde may get pregnant in four months, and of course the others will have been taken care of by then," she said to Duo calmly. "If time gets too close, then once we confirm positively? We'll give you a whole month together." She smiled. "Then we will separate you and kill her. You are right, it's not perfect, but it was never going to work out that way. We weren't waiting until before or after birth. Once Dorothy Catalonia goes, the revenge will begin. Most will be quick. Except Relena. She will live with the agony up to the moment right after birth."
"Relena Dorlain never did a damn thing wrong! She advocated for peace during the war!"
"Yes. She was very innocent, but she mixed up with the wrong person. No one else will work for this. Heero Yuy would have found it hard to get through with others, but he will be begging for glass to slit his own throat afterward when he sees what we did to his princess."
"You fell off the cliff a long time ago, you're all just sick. You are taking the lives of people you used to save! We looked completely at your history. You didn't start like this. It was revenge against people who were hurting on purpose, not because of sides in a war."
"That changed shortly after I joined. I am proud of claiming this minuscule group for my own. We have risen up so, so far. And now? You will all feel your victims pain."
"You're fucking sick, and you are no lady!" Duo shrieked.
"I'm not a lady," Superior agreed. "The lady part of this body died years ago. I'm just a sick fuck now that prefers to pretend to be some semblance of a human." With that, she tipped her hat lightly and she started to leave.
"Damn, damn, damn!" Hilde. He heard her starting to yell. "Hilde!"
—————————————
Circus
Catherine was practicing her knife throwing. She heard some clapping behind her and looked.
Oh. Oh. Her hair was shorter, but she definitely recognized her.
"Look how well you're doing now, Cathy."
Catherine didn't think about anything as she ran straight toward her, hugging her. "Mom!" She felt her hugging back, but in a weaker fashion. "You're alive."
"Mm." Her mom wasn't talkative. She gave her a tablet. "This is yours now," she told her. "Yours and Tritons. I'm sorry. Tell your brother too."
Her brother? "Triton. He . . ."
"Trowa Barton if you prefer," she said with a wink. "Make sure he gets that right away."
"Momma?"
"Catherine, I'm not the mother you once knew," she confessed to her. "I'm not going to be staying. This is the only thing I can do. It's a safe spot. There's not enough for everyone."
Safe spot? "Mom?" No. She watched as her mother stopped hugging her and backed away. "Don't leave. Don't leave!" She watched as she started to take off in a run.
Oh no she didn't! Catherine didn't care why she suddenly showed up in her life, but she wasn't just going to run out of it. She caught her flipping into trees.
She could do that too. She flipped into the trees after her.
"Catherine, I'm sorry, I can't stay," her mother said to her trying to leave.
"No, I'm not letting you leave!" She grabbed onto her with all her might. "Whatever the reason you want to leave for, I'm not letting you leave! You are back in my life, and you aren't going to just disappear again!"
Her mother sighed. "You still have that determined spirit. Cathy, I was a part of RTL. Do you understand what that means?"
RTL?
"Revenge of the Lost," she said clearly for him. "Middie Une was chosen by me, for Triton."
What? This couldn't, this couldn't be. "Why?"
"I was a founder of RTL," her mother admitted. "It started as a place to help people who needed real help, who wanted to change the status quo. It grew and went from individuals to full blown companies. It had seed money from Support of the Loss."
Catherine didn't know what to say. "You gave Middie the baby willingly?"
"Cathy?"
"How could you!" How could she do that? "You just showed up, now, with this kind of message?" She felt her eyes starting to fill with tears, but she didn't wipe them away, just blinked through it. "You knew where I was all these years."
"Yes," she admitted. "I'm a horrible mother. I have to go now."
"No." Catherine held her sleeve. "No, tell me why?"
"I was a founder, but I wasn't in control of it. I had a choice between only so many," she answered. "Trowa Barton didn't make many connections and I had to choose someone he knew. I couldn't make it you, of course, and the option my superior wanted was you with Quatre."
What?! "Me? You mean, they know about me?"
"Yes, they've caught up to Trowa's location more than once. I certainly couldn't allow it. I paired Dorothy Catalonia with Quatre Winner instead, and Middie had history that made her delectable enough for the leader."
Was she even hearing herself? "You founded this group. Even the gem nicknames, I bet that was you. But? You lost so much control, that you did this to Triton? To stay in it?"
"No," she said. "To live. Once this was found out, it would be the end." Her mother tucked her legs beneath her. "Middie Une isn't going to die now, until I die. Whatever fashion I go in, will be her planned end."
Catherine gasped. That was right, it was the mother's death, Trowa told her that. "But, it wasn't, you didn't even-"
"I'm his mother," she said again. "I was doomed from the start." She touched the tablet again. "RTL's best secrets. One of the pilots was just taken, RTL is making its moves again. You'll find him in one of ten locations in there. There are also some safety locations, I set them with some of my favorite fan senators, but there are only two locations. Now? You need to tell Triton to leave the circus soon, they will be checking everywhere when I'm dead to watch for Middie Une."
"Don't talk like that." Catherine hugged her. "I'm so sorry, you were alone for so long. You need help, Mom."
"No. No, for once, I need to help someone else in a good way." She held her this time in a tighter embrace. "The sounds of the troupe. The open night air. The familiar lights. I have missed home, and I missed you. I'm glad I got to see you before the end."
"Mom." Catherine didn't want to let her go. "As long as you are alive, Middie's safe, so the pilots have to-"
"You are running out of time. They already know where several of you are located by now," she said. "The troupe is harder because Ringmaster decides things on a whim. Weather. Events. Ooh, north instead of south. He even takes you to the colonies, doesn't he?"
Yeah. There was never anything certain about the route they took. They traveled everywhere. "Middie Une is having your grandchild. You didn't want to pick her, but you didn't want them to find me and use me." That would have been . . . "Did you plan the part of her hunting Catalonia? Middie was hurt."
Her mother sighed. "I didn't have a huge buffet of options."
"She hadn't been a spy in a long time. She flipped her life around."
"Yes, I know. I can't be close enough to get to know the women chosen," her mother insisted. "Do you think she'll be okay? I planned on yanking her out of the picture later for Triton."
"Oh no, don't do that," Catherine urged her. "Middie is doing fine here. She presents people with this really big smile. She is doing caricatures of people in quick sketches too. She joined Circus Bingo, and she's actually . . . nice." Sort of. Her past really haunted her a lot.
Her mother smirked. "Good because I don't get a chance to correct anything now. How is Triton dealing with it all?"
"I tried to give him a book on babies one time. He didn't take it," she told her. "I tried to leave it in his tent. I found it back in mine. Him and Middie share a tent, but only he would actually go in it when I wasn't there. I don't think he's . . ."
"That's okay," her mother said. "It's his life I ruined. If Middie is good and can handle it, then let her. If she doesn't want it or runs away, then the troupe will always take it."
Yeah, they would, in a heartbeat. "I can't say anything for sure. You planned on it being okay." She planned on revealing herself or that Trowa's mother wasn't dead to delay it all and give him time to run with Middie. They had to catch her and kill her.
"Cathy? I love you," her mother said so casually, like it was something she had said every day.
She used to. When she was there. "Mom."
"I have to go. You have the tablet," her mother insisted.
Momma. Catherine could sense that no matter what she did, she wouldn't stay. Her mom left again, and Catherine halfheartedly tried to catch her.
This time, she couldn't. Catherine looked back at the tablet. The last thing her mother ever gave them.
She ran toward Triton and Middie's tent.
————————————
Trowa glanced toward Middie and her work. Middie always gave away the caricatures or quick scenes that someone wanted. Instead, she worked on something more personal. Her real work was similar to what he had seen at her apartment. It was the way she expressed herself, even if she didn't share it with anyone.
It was so realistic. If something wasn't realistic it was an emotional addition. Right now, she was working on a young boy below electric lightning with its leg so badly hurt, it would never stand unless it had no choice. In her paintings, it stood, with so much hurt in its eyes.
Since the troupe didn't stay in one place, she would only keep her latest work with her. Once it was done, Trowa never found it again. He followed her one time the night after she finished one.
She took it a ways out from the troupe, and just placed it on the ground.
Trowa never brought it up, he understood that something inside her needed to express itself, but it wasn't something she could dwell on. Life went on, and she released her art to the elements. She could have trashed it or threw it on the ground. She just placed it against a tree and walked away.
"Trowa!" Catherine rushed inside holding some kind of tablet. "Trowa."
"What's wrong, Cathy?" he asked.
"Mom." She held the tablet to him. "She's gone. She visited, but she's gone."
What was she talking about? "I don't understand, Cathy."
"Our mom."
Trowa took the tablet and looked at it.
"Crystalia. It was mom's name."
Trowa looked toward Cathy. "Crystalia is our mother?" She was starting to cry. "Cathy." He went to comfort her like she did for him.
"Dad's name was Henry. The troupe has always switched naming between parents. He named me Catherine. Pretty and simple. Momma named you Triton because a 'wave of you was like magic to the crowd'. You were the little Triton she loved to carry. She used to joke that you were someone special but it was too long for a name so she stuck with Triton."
Why was she saying all this? Their mother was beaten to death.
"She was in RTL," she told him. "She turned her back on them in the end. She's responsible for Middie though."
Middie glanced from her painting to Cathy. "What?"
"Our mother is alive and was a part of RTL?" How? What?
"She chose Middie because her leader wanted something way grosser. They didn't know the relation but you were friends with me." Catherine gagged a second. "Me. She even had to fight to keep me from ending up pregnant with your friend Quatre."
Eeeeh! Trowa felt himself almost freeze. "I?" He looked back at the tablet.
"RTL's secrets. She said one of the pilots were taken, and their location is somewhere in there. There's also, um, two safe locations?"
His mother? "How did she get entangled in this?"
"She created it, she was a founder," Cathy said. "I guess because of what happened, she just wanted justice. She said it grew and that it grew too big and someone else started taking charge."
Trowa touched his forehead. His mother. All of this. "Where is she?"
"Running. I tried to make her stay," she said to Trowa, "but she said they'll find you. They caught up to us a couple of times, and before it gets real close, they are going to want to find Middie. Apparently, they even know where the others are."
Trowa started to dig into the tablet. Names. Addresses. Locations. Senator personal numbers. Prison names and location secrets.
"Trowa." Cathy touched his hands. "As long as she's alive, Middie is safe. If they catch up to her, they'll choose in what way she dies."
Trowa understood that.
"Don't hate her," Cathy practically squealed. "I-I know that what she did, and everything, but she really was a good person! She was, and in the end, she gave you this, so."
"She just got stuck."
Trowa looked toward Middie as she spoke.
"People get stuck," Middie said as she looked back toward her canvas.
People get stuck.
"I'm sorry," Cathy apologized to Middie. "I'm sorry on behalf of her that can't say it. She dug deep into Trowa's past to find someone. She had to."
Middie nodded. "It's not your place to apologize for her. No one needs to apologize. This was because of a whole movement of women who were wronged, who just chose the wrong way to go." She lightly swung her brush a couple of times before concentrating back on her painting.
Cathy looked back at Trowa.
"I have no place to judge anyone," he told her. Cathy hugged him tightly.
He paid attention to the tablet again. One of his friends were in trouble. From everything he saw on the tablet, his others were not far behind either. "Middie, we have to leave."
Middie peered out from behind the painting. "Both of us?"
"It isn't safe here anymore." Trowa gave Cathy a small hug which she tightened.
"Don't be gone for too long, Trowa," Cathy said. She wasn't going to hold him back either. They had to get out.
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