Keep holding on
Cause you know we'll make it through
We'll make it through... Just stay strong
Cause you know I'm here for you... I'm here for you
-Lyrics to 'Keep Holding On' performed by Avril Lavinge

Crimson Bonds Part 51

"I am so glad that we have been able to have some time to catch up, Becky," Lady Une smiled warmly to the women sharing the private booth with her at the living's restaurant of choice for lunch.

Doing her best to not think about the responsibility that she had set upon her own shoulders in getting to the bottom of who was controlling the World Senate, the Vampire maintained a natural calm since stepping away with her fellow Councilwomen. And not to Khushrenada's surprise, Becky Gavin and Cassy Krutza expertly kept up their own comfortable airs.

Gracefully brushing her emptied soup bowl aside, the former of the two grinned back, "I have been looking forward to this opportunity ever since you suggested it a couple of days ago. As the matriarch of your Clan, I am sure you of all creatures can appreciate how important it was for us to have the last few lunch breaks to spend with our kids since their schools are on their mid-semester breaks."

"Of course," the lovely Infected reassured, waving a hand in the air with a friendly giggle. "To be perfectly honest, there are times when I wish my family and I could leave behind our responsibilities so that we could spend more personal time together." Shrugging, she added, "But the importance of our presence in working with the World Senate is something that we gladly take on for our kind."

Cassy's smile grew as she complimented sincerely, "Well, every Vampire in existence owes all of you a debt of gratitude for your service in defending their rights. They couldn't have placed their trust in better hands than you and every representative on your board."

Excited to have such an opening to what she needed to broach, Lady Une gestured to the gold band on her left arm and frowned deeply, "After the vote that required we wear these... damned things, I have been questioning just how much of a help we actually are. If the likes of Senator McAdams can single-handedly throw the balance between our kinds that we have worked so hard to secure, perhaps we are only taking steps backwards now."

"You should never think that," Gavin was quick to insist, a frown marring her face. Biting her lip, she shook her head for words before waving her hands in the air as she said in a rush, "That vote... that whole push for that change to the treaty was brought on by circumstances beyond anyone's control."

Her gold-and-brown eyes narrowing a touch, the Infected asked coolly, "Circumstances that even influenced friends of ours like you to side against us?"

Dropping the napkin that she had used to dab at her mouth, Krutza breathed. "W-what did you say?" Beside her, an equally stunned Becky paled considerably along with her as their eyes grew as wide as they could.

Une folded her hands together on her edge of the booth, drawing a deep breath to announce quietly, "Word has a way of spreading. Even with the secret ballot at play, there are always eyes and ears around to bring forth whispers. Your names were two that reached us over the course of the last month. I wanted to sit with you in hopes of hearing you deny such a betrayal of the trust that I thought we shared."

That was when she saw the dam that Gavin had built around her crumbling down at the quiver of her bottom lip and the welling of tears that she could not shed up to that moment.

As the first to recover from the dramatic turn in the conversation, Cassy turned to her best friend as she muttered, "You also voted in favor of the registration change? B-but... that would mean they got to you, too." At that, the petite redhead's growing eyes turned to meet the pair watching her.

The surprise between the pair was as real as the blood that Lady Une could practically sense pumping hard through their veins thanks to their elevated pulses.

Leaning towards them, she whispered urgently, "Who? Who got to you? If you're both involved, then there are clearly others on the board that have been influenced as well... forced into how they voted."

"I was told that I was one of the only ones," Becky suddenly spilled out, her face dampening from the drops spilling freely when she took the Vampire in. Desperate to finally relieve her guilt in the relief of knowing someone she was close to could support her, she shared, "They told me that there was only a small handful that they needed to flip."

Nodding, Krutza was only just managing to hold back the shine in her own gaze as she stated, "I was told exactly the same. I was sworn to secrecy or else they would carry out the threat to release some very private information on me. It would not only be damning to my career come election time, but it would devastate my family life as well."

All but wailing, Gavin sobbed, "Please, Lady Une, no one can hear about my secrets. Not even my husband knows everything about my past. It would crush him if he ever heard what they know."

The Infected shushed the frantic women, scanning their surroundings to confirm that none of the other patrons spread throughout the restaurant were looking towards them. There was not so much as a glance over from the other booths or tables and there was no sign of their waitress making her rounds to approach them.

A lucky thing, considering the abrupt outburst that had come out a bit louder than intended.

Smiling sadly to her company, the Preventer reassured quietly, "You have my word that you do not need to worry about my saying anything. We all have secrets, myself included. I am not interested in learning anything that is not my business when it comes to anything personal to you. However, this person or persons who have blackmailed you needs to be addressed."

"Any communications from them came over my private cell phone number with a voice scrambler that hid their identity," Cassy rushed out, though mindful to keep her voice down. "There were a couple of envelopes sent to my office..."

Swallowing roughly to clear the lump that had lodged in her throat, she managed, "proof that they had gathered old records that should have been buried to protect me. The postmarks always came from different states and locations."

Completely taken aback, Becky muttered, "Exactly the same with me. I couldn't believe what they were able to dig up from so many years ago... things that only I was aware of."

Her hands balling into fists on the table, Krutza hissed under her breath, "Whoever they are forced me into going against the very treaty that I've always defended. I went and threw out every one of my principles all out of selfishness. Now they could very well go on and control our votes however they wanted in the Senate."

Quickly falling into the same rage, Gavin's face reddened as deeply as her hair. "This needs to be addressed to the Senate immediately," she gritted through her teeth. "I don't care about my own fate anymore. I'll talk to my family... they'll come around to understand. But whoever's doing this can't get away with it. We could even have the new registration law overturned once we prove that there was-"

Lady Une was fast to stop her short, urging, "Whoever this person or persons may be, they're clearly one of our own on the Senate. We all have the resources that we need to dig up anything we wanted on any individual, if we were truly looking for something. There is a much bigger picture, other players involved, wrapped around the change in the registration."

Here came the biggest leap of faith that needed to be thrown into the mix. Nervous as she was, the immortal Council woman was not about to put any doubt into her friends' minds when it came to how they all stood.

With another deep breath, she announced, "Though I can't go into the depth of it, I'm extending my trust to you by confiding in you both that there are existences as stake... lives that potentially would not be in the danger they are in were it not for the restrictions placed upon the search for them now that my kind is being watched."

Once again losing a few shades of their natural color, the livings fell back against their cushioned back rests. "My God," Becky whispered. "What have we done?"

Putting the pieces together, Cassy stated, "And you're worried that there might be repercussions if it's made known that we have a mole in the Senate."

Her heart twisting over what such 'repercussions' could mean for Duo and Anna, Lady Une bit her lip and gave a tight nod. Once she had her voice again, she responded, "Measures are being taken to have this handled under the rug. It's the only way to guarantee that no harm comes to the ones we're looking to bring home safely."

Still reeling over all of the information that had sunk in, Cassy was able to pull herself to vow, "We could work quietly to try and seek the bastard out... talk to others who we think changed their positions. One way or another, we need to get to the bottom of who is meddling with our governing." With a heated glare, she suggested, "We should start by looking at Nancy McAdams."

The Infected commented, "I don't think that she's the one behind this. She's too out in the open and was too sincerely surprised by the way the vote turned out. I may not like her very much, but I will go far enough as to say that she is as in the dark about the mole as my family had been until recently."

Reaching over the table to squeeze the cold wrist laying there, Becky implored, "Please know that neither one of us ever meant to let you down the way that we have. We should have reacted to the threats that were made against us better... we never should have thrown our votes away like that. And it will never happen again."

Gently grasping back onto the mortal's hand, Lady Une smiled, "Forgiven and forgotten. You know that my family and I will protect the both of you as well as your own loved ones until we smoke out the leak in our Senate."

She made sure to emphasize, "But whatever tactics you may use, just please tread carefully so that we do not alarm them into acting out. When all is said and done, we can discuss the tainted vote to the board to have another count drawn." The pair nodded vehemently in a promise that they would.

Having her faith restored in those that she always believed she could count on, the Infected's grin spread further across her face. Though the investigation was still far from over, there had been a huge victory that day... not only for the Barton-Yuy Clan, but for all of their kind.

*   *   *   *   *   *

"Another Vampire?!" Charles shouted once he could at last move his gaping bottom jaw. "You mean one of our own is working for those Hunters?!" At his side, John was frozen in his own disbelief at the news that had just come through the transmitter on the table between them.

Their father's voice corrected, "He's not one of our own. Not after he betrayed all of us by doing this. However, I have to admit that no one would ever suspect the partnership. Until Marcellus informed us, we never believed that the likes could ever be possible."

Catherine snorted, "Treize and the others are going to be livid when I fill them in on this one. If this son of a bitch, Damian, somehow comes out of this thing with his existence he won't be able to hold onto it for long once he's brought in for a hearing before the Vampire Council. Treason only scratches the surface of what he's done."

Then it was Heero's voice to follow with a thoughtful, "That it does. We'll find him soon enough. But for now, we should look into the angles that we have to work with. John and Charles, if it's alright with you, we'll be passing along some names and locations from Marcellus for people you can interview."

'Interview... a nice way of putting interrogate', the brothers thought.

Just as the boys physically reeled at the comment, their Uncle Trowa explained, "We doubt there will be any resistance. Everyone Jameson had named is likely to share his fears and want to talk. That's why it would be considered more of an interview than anything else. Under normal circumstances, we would talk to everyone of them by ourselves, but there are too many to go through on our own and we need to speed this search up."

Even at that, Wufei went on to reassure, "But in the end, it's still your decision to make on whether or not you're comfortable with this. If either of you don't feel up to this, no one is going to judge or be upset with you. You're entirely in the right to decline."

Sharing a long, hard glance, the siblings considered their options. "Mom is almost closing in on six months. If we don't get this figured out soon..." John was unwilling to finish his thoughts on account of the tightness in his throat.

Charles nodded firmly. Focusing on the transmitter, he announced, "We're fine with it, Dad. Send over the information as soon as you can and we'll get started."

There was no denying the proud smile on the scaly Vampire's face when he responded, "That's my boys."

*   *   *   *   *   *

Shinigami was fuming. He was more irate than he had ever been before as he stared through his wielder's violet-and-silver eyes to where Anna remained restrained against the wall furthest from him...

...and Duo was all but allowing him to stew to his brink. After all, he was every bit as infuriated that his dear sister was being treated with little more regard than a wild animal. Only adding to that painful image was her swelling belly carrying his and Heero's babies.

The longer he stood there, perfectly still as stone, the braided Hybrid was losing his vision to blurred edges of red that blocked out everything else.

A low ringing in his ears dulled out the quiet conversation between Anna and Emma as the two became more acquainted now that the little girl was becoming more aware that the Vampire meant her no harm.

"You really have ten kids?!" the child all but shouted in surprise, wide-eyed as she scooted close to the Irish Infected.

Giggling, Anna nodded, "That's right. A couple of them are about your age, too. When we're finally out of here, I'll introduce you to them. They'd love you." That brought a brilliant smile to the youngster's face.

But the sweet moment was completely lost to the braided half-breed that had lost everything about his surroundings until Celeste came close to their separating wall and whispered sharply, "Duo!" After not receiving an immediate response, she raised her voice a bit more for the second, "Duo!"

Gasping, Maxwell returned to the world of the living.

As he squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head, he cleared Shinigami. Not until he was certain that he had a grip on himself did he peer over at his worried fellow Companion. "You okay?" the beauty asked with a deep frown, careful to keep her words low enough that it didn't interrupt the pair across the walkway.

Mentally sorting himself back together, Duo stammered , "Y-yea... I think." Rubbing the back of his neck, he asked, "How long have I been out of it?"

Celeste answered, "Not long. A couple of minutes by the time I noticed the change in your posture." Tilting her head a bit, she inquired. "Was that Shinigami? Your alter ego that you've been telling me about?"

"Yea," he managed. Feeling a dampness on his skin, he shivered. Slowly returning his attention to his dark-haired sister, he commented, "That's the first time he came on without any warning."

Swallowing roughly, Celeste suggested, "It must be from the added stresses of what Anna is going through. Not that I blame him for being upset, what between her treatment and the fact that she's carrying your babies." She added softly, "I know that Solo can put up with anything thrown at him... but he would lose it if I was ever in danger."

Half-way through her comment, the braided Hybrid's gaze had drifted back to his sister. "Duo," the Latin spoke up with a warning tone, "you're going to have to get a hold on that. The last thing that Anna or anyone here needs is for Shinigami to do anything rash before we have a clear way of getting out of here."

The mere thought terrified her. Fighting to not raise her voice, she reminded, "We're trapped in a hidden city. If you were caught, I would hate to think of how Septum would try to repay your lashing out."

"I know," Maxwell sighed, the last of his resolve setting in to shelve the darkness inside of him once more. The effort caused another strong tremor to run its course through his body. Smiling sadly to his counterpart, he told her sincerely, "Thanks. If you ever catch me slipping like that again..."

Nodding firmly, Celeste vowed, "I'll find a a way to snap you out of it." Her lips curled up in a warm smile as she winked. She was given an appreciative grin in return when the main doors to the holding area opened.

Broderick entered, his steps purposeful and clipped as he headed straight for Anna's prison. Opening a door that appeared into the main glass wall, he entered and smirked to the little girl curled up beside his charge.

"Hello, Emma," he greeted kindly. "My name's Broderick and I'll be showing you to your room now. You'll have your own space, a bathroom and bedroom to stay in for most of your time with us."

Frowning, the girl asked, "What about my friends here?"

The innocent, heart-felt inquiry was enough to bring a sting to Anna's eyes. Even in light of the close call that the child had had with her, she still considered the Vampire a friend. Casting her gold-ringed eyes up to her guard, she passed on a silent question of her own.

"Don't worry," Dawson replied with a growing smile as he bent down to be closer to eye level with the girl. "You'll be around to see them again when Septum thinks you're needed." He centered on the redhead while he continued, "And I took it upon myself to be your personal protector just like Anna, here. So, you don't have to be afraid of anything for as long as you're with us."

Solo remained close to the separating wall between his cell and Anna's to be a closer observer. Much to his surprise, he felt himself relax along with the Irish Infected in hearing that the burly young man was to be the one taking Emma under his wing.

No matter how much the blonde Hybrid hated to admit it, he was beginning to think that maybe there actually was a good soul amidst the Hunters after all.

Gently patting his new charge's head, Broderick urged quietly, "Come along, little one." Throwing her arms around Anna's neck in a bold showing of trust, Emma quickly turned and slipped through glass opening.

Pushing himself back up to his feet, Dawson shook his head down at the prone Vampire. "I can't stand the sight of you like that," he all but whispered. "I... I'm sorry that this is happening to you. I swear if I'd had any idea Septum was planning this-"

"It's okay," the redhead reassured, grinning sadly. "I know. And it's not your fault, so you have no reason to apologize, sweetheart."

Opening and closing her hands, she shrugged as best she could with her wrists propped up against the wall behind her and raised at either side of her head. "Enough time's passed that I have a pretty good idea of the person you are by now. I know that you never would have gone along with something like this."

From the endearment that she had called him to the fact that despite their positions of a Vampire and a Hunter she still saw him as a good person... words could not be found for Dawson to express how much that meant to him. What he could not say, however, the slight shimmer in his eyes said enough.

Mouthing a 'thank you,' the living gave a soft cough to clear his throat.

Anan gestured to the child waiting at the walkway and grinned, "Take care of our little Emma. Make sure to spoil her."

Broderick snickered, "Will do." While he turned to walk out of the cell, he pressed the remote in his pocket to command the restraints to open and recoil back into the wall where they disappeared.

With a deep sigh of relief and a pleased grin on her face, Anna rubbed at her wrists and watched the mortals walk off. At the closing main doors that sealed them away again, Solo glanced over to the Irish Infected. "You know," he murmured, "I think I actually like that guy."

Giggling, Anna leaned her head back as her eyes drifted closed. Still unsure as to how she felt so connected to Broderick, she was just grateful of have a new friend to come be a light in the darkness.

TBC...

 

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