Tears of Despair a sequel to Shattered Hearts
Chapter 8A: Betrayal a Common Aptitude
By Liewe
Standard disclaimer’s apply… I only own the colorful personalities of LeFave, Christof and Damien, the rest belong to Sunrise and Bandai, I have only borrowed them for the use of this fan fiction.

Author’s Note: This chapter was getting too long I’ve had to break it up into Chapter 8a and Chapter 8b, please bear with me, I should have it before the end of the week.

~*~*~*~*~*~

LeFave paced back and forth repeatedly across the marble floor, which gleamed in the iridescent light of his hotel room. She had betrayed him, it seemed that the apple did not fall far from the tree. She had a taste for betrayal it seemed, once you betrayed the first time it became easier and easier with each instance. Still it stung, he had given her a chance to be what she had denied herself, to be the absolute best. Certainly she had been Queen, but there were higher ranks, which one could allude to.

She could have been an Empress, or a Goddess but she had made do with Queen, her ambition had been non-existent.

“Sir, what would you like us to do in regards to the traitor?” A nameless go-between asked, nervously shifting from foot to foot as he wrung his hands wary of the reaction which he would receive from his employer.

“Leave her to me, this betrayal may indeed be what I have been looking for. Leave me,” LeFave bit out as he turned to face the portrait suspended on the wall. The gilt frame reflecting the harsh light as the mocking image of Treize Khushrenada stared at him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ariane watched with clouded eyes as they left the place she had called home for the past few years, the place which was the only home she had ever known. Would she see her small yet elegant apartment again? Would she be able to run her hands over the granite counter tops, her mind occupied with thoughts of pain and anguish. The perfect golden swirls reflecting the light, as she remained unaffected by the beauty of the situation.

She glanced at Wufei’s silhouette as a yawn escaped from her pink tinged lips. She was so tired, a deep bone weary exhaustion which nibbled at her consciousness, from the moment she had awakened in that hospital room alone and nameless she had been tired, and the exhaustion had only followed her through each waking day never abating, only growing.

Her bandaged hands ached. Just as her heart ached for some kind of absolution. The ordeal which she had thrust herself into, boggled her mind. She was so unused to acting on her emotions, she was a doll, a marionette and LeFave pulled the strings. But now? Now it was all-different. She was her own person, or as independent as she could get. She was traveling to the Preventer Headquarters and she would commit an act, which would forever shape her being.

“We will be there shortly,” came Wufei’s soft voice, dripping with determination and sorrow as he deftly maneuvered through the atmosphere, bringing them closer and closer to the headquarters of the Preventer organization.

“Is the city of Paris beautiful,” she asked softly, her fingers tangled in long platinum locks, her pain filled gaze not leaving the clouds which hurried by their advancing craft.

“I would think you’ve been there before?” Came the slightly startled reply as Wufei spared her a shocked gaze.

“I may have, I may have not, I don’t know. Is it beautiful? I’ve heard tales of it’s beauty, but tales can be wrong,” Ariane said softly bandaged hand moving to touch the cool Plexiglas the sun giving her an almost childlike appearance with the way it tangled in her unbound hair.

“At night you will see the effervescent lights stretch for miles in any direction, the streets are packed with people from all walks of live, and the buildings some dating back century’s add spice to the already balmy night air. In the day, the way the sunlight stretches through the reaching branches of the ancient trees fills the air with romance. It is beautiful, truly beautiful,” he finished, returning to his mind, a place he had seemed to vacate some time during the description of the vibrant city.

“You must really love the city,” Ariane said softly.

“No, I don’t, my ex-fiancé loved the city, I find it trapping,” was the curt reply as he craft steeply banked as they began their descent.

“Somehow I don’t believe that,” Ariane replied righting herself in the co-pilots seat as she watched the ground race to meet them as they glided through the air finally touching the tarmac after a short series of bounces.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Quatre paced back and forth, his platinum hair bouncing with each stride he took. Rashid watched his master with worried eyes. They could hear screams of pain down the length of the hall, and he knew how his master wished to be with the perpetrator of those screams. They had tossed him outside until he calmed down, the anxiety and fear, which festered in his heart, had driven him to near madness. They had said he was worrying Catherine as she lay amid the stark white hospitals sheets her violet eyes clouded with pain as her body was wrought with the pains of childbirth.

“Sir, are you calmer now?” A young intern asked, warily eyeing the pacing Arab.

“Yes,” was the succinct reply as angry aqua eyes rested on the worried visage of the young intern.

“Sir, the doctor is in with your wife. He wishes to speak with you, but we cannot allow you into that room until we have judged your emotional state. Do you think you could keep yourself under control now?” A second intern asked, standing slightly behind the first. But her face did not hold the worried fear of the first. Her pale violet eyes watched the blond Arab with critical efficiency, and her long pale platinum hair traveled down her back tightly braided.

“Who are you?”

“I am Kalie Catalonia, Mr. Winner. Now are you able to control your emotions and can you be admitted into your wife’s room?”

“Yes,” was the absent minded reply as Quatre followed Kalie into the room which was currently occupied with his screaming wife, a room which had become oddly quiet and a weight filled with dread rested in his chest.

“Mr. Winner I trust everything is under control now,” the doctor asked as he eyed the worried young man. “Kalie, thank you, could you please remain.”

“Yes, Dr. Fortuna,” Kalie replied leaning against the wall as she watched the scene unfold.

“Mr. Winner, your wife is not in labor precisely. She is experiencing the Braxton-Hicks, or in other words false contractions. We would like to keep her in the hospital until the child is born for safety reasons, but otherwise everything is progressing perfectly.”

“Cathy?” Quatre asked, the single word conveying a thousand emotions as he moved to hold a pale hand in his own strong grasp.

“I’ll be fine Quatre, you have a duty,” came the understanding words as Catherine turned tired violet eyes to her husbands worried face.

“I understand what you’re saying Dr. Fortuna, if we may speak outside,” Quatre said squeezing Catherine’s hand as he followed the doctor from the room Kalie in tow.

“If I leave her here, I would like her to have a personal nurse and receive the best ca-“

“That’s a given Mr. Winner, Kalie will be looking after your wife, and your wife will be her only charge.”

“Then I leave her in your capable hands,” Quatre said before returning to Catherine’s side for a heartfelt goodbye.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Black hair blew in the wind as dark eyes devoid of emotion gazed up at the reaching building, which acted as headquarters to Preventers around the world.

“We should report.”

“Does it strike you?”

“Does what strike me, Sally?”

“The enormity of this place, and it is no longer Sally, you’ve known me as Crimson for these last few years I would appreciate it if you continued to call me by that name.”

“I just want to get this mission over and done with so that I can return to my home. I do not wish to be reminded of my involvement in this organization,” Trowa all but growled in response.

“You know you do not do her memory honor in the way you carry on with your life,” Crimson said as she hoisted her duffle bag onto her shoulder with a grunt.

“And you, with the way you carry on. Something bad happened and you just threw in the towel. I used to think you were strong, but I guess I was wrong,” Trowa spat as he moved ahead of her his jacket tightening across his shoulders as he moved to the pull the heavy glass so that he was allowed admittance into air-conditioned building.

“You don’t know me, you have no idea what I went through Barton!”

“And I don’t wish to know, just don’t fail your mission,” was the reply as Trowa disappeared into the darker well of the building.

“I will not fail, you must believe in me,” Crimson whispered to the busy street, alone ever when surrounded by thousands.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Run! The building it’s collapsing! The self-destruct has been activated! Go without me!” Sally screamed as her face was illuminated with a sickly green glow from the computer screens as numbers flashed by before her very eyes.

“Preventer Water, we need to go now!” Noin screamed in response as she moved towards the heavy metal door locking them in the computer room.

“Just a few more minutes, they still need me!” Sally said moving back the chair which she had been sitting in falling to the floor from the propulsion of her hasty movement.

“I’m not leaving without you!” Noin yelled her eyes flashing with pain.

“Yes you are dammit, run!” Sally said, trying to order her friend and comrade from the building.

“No, I will not run, I will not leave you. I have lost many friends, and many comrades. I will not loose you as well Sally!” Noin yelled, her voice wrought with emotion as tears fell unbidden from her sapphire eyes.

“Noin, we do not have the time to argue, run! You have your family, they need you!” Sally yelled trying to make her friend see the light.

“And Wufei doesn’t need you?” Noin asked softly, her voice firm.

“He has his own demons to take care of, he needs time to put his demons to rest. Time I don’t have to give anymore. Just run!”

“No, I will not leave you!”

“Noin!”

“You’re coming with me, now!”

“Destruction in T minus 2 minutes. Evacuate. Evacuate. Evacuate.” The synthesized voice of the computer chimed.

“I will not leave you here to die! If I have to knock you out and carry you from this building then I will, I will not allow you to kill yourself for a useless cause!” Noin said through gritted teeth as she moved to grab Sally’s arm.

“Let go of me!”

“No, you’re coming with me,” Noin yelled bringing her firearm up to knock Sally across the back of her head causing the other woman to fall unconscious into her arms. “I’m sorry old friend, it’s the only way,” Noin said by way of apology as she dragged the limp form through the compound, the computer sounding their death knell with each step.

They watched as the once majestic building smoldered, the flames reaching high into the twilight sky. Thousands died that day, thousands, which could have been saved, or so one Preventer operative believed. Noin watched Sally with anguish filled eyes as her friend fell apart. The death toll ripping into her being, each number, each name engraving itself onto her being.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Crimson shook her head clearing the bad memories away as she moved forward, her loose slacks accentuating her lithe figure. The loose silk purple shirt the tails tied together fluttered in the breeze as her tone stomach was bared for the critics of Paris to see. She still looked to the trained eye like the Preventer, which had left the ranks years ago, but to one who wasn’t searching she was only another nameless face in the crowd.

Crimson sucked in her brief as she caught sight of the Chinese man striding in front of her, his uniform pants accentuating the toned muscles of his rear. The woman walking next to him pulled her attention away from the view as she faced her old friend, or was it enemy. She had not seen Midii since the day of the other woman’s wedding when she had supposedly been killed. Could she have survived?

“Preventer Wufei!” Crimson called out as she jogged to catch up with the other two.

“Who are you? And how do you know my name?” Wufei asked with irritation as he turned to face the woman who was running towards him.

“I am Preventer Agent Crimson, and who wouldn’t know your name Chang Wufei.” Crimson answered stopping to stand in front of the man with whom she had once shared her heart.

“Why did you call out to me then.”

“ I wanted to make your acquaintance seeing as we will be working together on this latest mission,” Crimson said moving ahead of the other agent and disappearing into the cavernous building.

“What was all that about?” Ariane asked as she watched the disappearing form. “She seemed familiar.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

- To Be Continued

Next on Tears of Despair Chapter 8b: Midii’s alter-ego Ariane and Trowa finally meet… Wufei discovers the identity of the agent Crimson…. And the plans are revealed.