"...so that's everything." Senator Cassandra finished explaining everything to the board.
They all looked around at each around the room. But the all mostly were looking at the expressionless silver haired lady with the cold sapphire eyes.
"What do you think about this Mrs. Greywers?" Senator Zellas dared to ask Lillian.
"Some of the Inverse family are working with my son on this mission right?" Lillian said still expressionless and staring forward.
"Yes, Lina and Leviathan Inverse."
"Then Zelgadis will be fine." The corners of her mouth went up in a little all-knowing smile.
(SMACK)
Zelgadis hit the punching bag one more time. He was in one of the personal training rooms of the rec room. Even though he didn't need to, Zel was getting ready for his upcoming red level two physical exams. But of course those exams weren't till next week. Zelgadis and the rest of them may have just became level one agents that day, but that wasn't going to slow down their training. The higher officials of STF wanted to have the four of them at least at a level three ranking before they did any real work concerning the Vernas case. Little did they know that Zelgadis was planning on taking his next exam this week. A level two agent is about equal in status as my rank as a LPD officer. So it I should be able to pass the next set of exams without much trouble. He punched the bag again harder this time. It swung a bit too much making it hard on Zelgadis.
"You need someone to hold that for you." Lina said from the doorway behind him.
"Are you offering?"
"Sure why not?" She walked over to him and held the bag while he punched.
"What's with the extra training Zel?" She asked him in-between punches.
"Do you think I'm going to wait a whole week to take my next tests? No way. I'm planning to get as far as I'm capable." He wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked her straight in the eye.
"Why? Are you planning to stay with the STF after this mission?"
"You got that right. Working with the LPD may be nice but ever since I first worked with a red agent on a case I've been fascinated by the STF. I learned as much as I could and well now that I'm actually here... I don't want to leave."
Lina grinned. "Well then maybe you work on some fighting techniques. You wanna spare with me?" She smiled at him with a challenging expression.
"That might be... interesting. Sure." He matched her smile and stepped over to the fighting mats.
"How about we work on with the sonic blades?" She unsheathed her blade and admired its glowing charge.
"Alright but I'll warn you don't be surprised when you loose." He took out his own cocky with bragging rights, Zelgadis knew that he was good he had been trained well from a young age.
"Oh yeah? We'll just see about that." She gripped her blade ready to attack.
(CLANG)
Lina swung her blade forward and Zelgadis blocked. The had been sparing for a good hour now and they were both tired, sweaty
(CLANG)
and enjoying every minute of it.
"Are you (huff) tired yet?" Zelgadis held his sword his blocking her attack again. Their sparing had been going well. Zel had won a few matches and Lina had won the others.
"Why (wheeze) are you?" Lina now blocked his attack, and pushed back and went into stance. Though Zel was very good, Lina was just as talented as him. It was very evenly matched and the two of them were enjoying having someone to fight with on an equal level. It reminded Zel of when he was back at the station. He never had anyone to spare with because none of them were as good as he was. Expect Gourry and Zangulus. They were much better than he was and it was pointless for him to try his luck against them. They were both too good and beat him way too easily. So Zelgadis just left the two of them to do their matches and watched feeling a little tinge of jealousy. He had always wanted an equal in fighting.
"Yeah sorta." Zelgadis lowered his sword and tried to catch his breath.
"Good because I'm beat. Good match there Zelgadis. Anyway I'm going to go hit the showers. I suggest you do the same. See you around." Lina waved and walked out of the room. Once she left Zelgadis quit pretending he wasn't tired and collapsed on the floor. He stared up at the ceiling for a little while. He could move a muscle he felt like his body was made of rock. Eventually he rolled onto his side and got up. He wobbled his way over to the locker room. The shower felt nice and after he was done he felt pretty good, tired but still he was a little better. But his stomach was threatening a revolt if he didn't eat anything soon. Sure enough when he looked at his watch he saw that if was two o'clock. Lunch might be a good idea. With that he started heading over to the cafeteria when he stopped. The people at the cafeteria had been getting angry with Lina, Leviathan and Gourry lately for the large amounts of food that they had been scarfing down (even with the dietary supplement pills) lately. Even though Zel had nothing to do with this just because he knew the three of them and came in often with them to eat the people at the cafeteria didn't look to kindly on him. Better go somewhere else today. He turned at the corner of the hallway to bump into a dark lavender haired man coming from the opposite direction.
"Ouch! Are you all -- Huh? Dad?" Zelgadis stared wide-eyed at his father.
"Oh Zelgadis! What are you doing here hmm? Oh! You joined the STF how lovely." Kendan Greywers smiled at his son and stood up dusting himself off. Kendan's hair was darker than his son's and his slanted eyes were a garnet red unlike Zelgadis' sapphire blue ones.
"Dad, what are you doing here?"
"Here? Zel I work here."
"You what?!" Now Zel's eyes widened even further (if that's possible).
"How? Why? How long?"
"I was just about to grab something to eat. How about you join me and I can tell you anything you want to know, would that be okay?" Kendan offered his hand and helped his son off the floor. Zelgadis just deftly nodded.
"My it's been a while since the two of us had been here together." Kendan mused looking around the busy restaurant. Zelgadis and Kendan were sitting at a table away from most of the people there and they had just finished ordering their lunch.
"Yeah it has. Dad when did you join the STF?"
"Well you remember when you were growing up and I was working at a job that was very dangerous?"
"Yes and?"
"Well I was working at the STF back then. You see a good majority of our family work or have worked at the STF."
"A good majority? You mean there has been more of us working at the STF besides Rezo?"
"Oh so you had the opportunity to see your great-grandfather at work huh? Very good yellow agent isn't he? Well besides Rezo, there has been his father and mother, my mother, my other grandfather and grandmother, even my father."
Zelgadis glared at his father very seriously. Zel's grandfather was a very mysterious one, a person whom he had only met once in his lifetime and even then he was too young to remember it. His grandfather had many enemies and very rarely stayed with one name or one form, he was constantly changing it. Zelgadis only knew his grandfather by the name William, but he knew that even that name was false.
"What do you do at STF?"
"Oh I'm a yellow agent. I do most of the work in the weapons and chemicals research. When you were younger I was working some pretty sensitive experiments and well somehow word got round that I knew some interesting facts. Facts that various shady characters thought would be interesting and useful to them. First I got threats to hand over the information I knew and well there was that incident in the park. I knew that this would happen again so that's why I left you in Rotamis' care. I hope you don't hate me for that."
"No don't worry Dad I don't. I understand what you had to go through. But if you could do everything over again would you have joined the STF?"
"Yes I would have. Maybe I didn't give you the greatest childhood a parent could give his son but if I hadn't joined the STF then you wouldn't have been born in the first place."
"How's that?"
"Because I met your mother at the STF."
"You did?" Zelgadis was a bit surprised. He very ever rarely heard anything about his mother.
"Yeah. She was also in the yellow division just like me. But she dealt with more dangerous things than me. Her research includes many things, from weapons and cures to various deadly diseases."
"If everyone is part of the STF then why wasn't I at least told about it?"
"Because Zelgadis, Lillian and I wanted you to have as normal childhood as you could get. The less you knew the safer you were. And we didn't want you to grow up with the impression that you had to join the STF with us."
"I probably would have wanted to join anyway. Geeze funny my whole family sounds a lot like Lina's..." Zelgadis mused as their food was put before them.
"Lina? As in Lina Inverse? Blitz Inverse's little red and blond haired girl?"
"Yeah, but she's not that little. Why do you know the Inverse family?"
"Do I know them? Ha! Blitz and I are best friends! He and I grew up together."
"You did?"
"Yeah. So you have been talking with Lina?"
"Well I first met her a few weeks ago, the same day I was asked to join the STF."
"Oh really? Actually that's not true."
"What's not true?"
"You didn't just meet her a few weeks ago. You actually met her a very long time ago. Blitz, Faithe, your mother and I used to take you, Lina and Leviathan out together when you very small. Granted you probably wouldn't been able to remember that far back but you know what I mean. It was funny about you too. You were always such a shy little thing even as a baby but I never saw you smile so large when you with Lina and Lev. The three of you were so cute."
"If that's the case then why didn't I know her growing up?"
"Well things just got too busy I guess and Lina and Lev went to a different school then you."
"Hmm..." Zelgadis took a forkful of his lunch into his mouth --
"Why do you like Lina?"
and choked.
"What do you MEAN by THAT?!" Zel managed to choke out. His face had changed from it's normal pale skin tones to a deep red. But the question was his face red from embarrassment or from choking?
"Well I don't know, I know what Faithe was like when she was younger..."
"And?"
"She was an interesting girl and I was just wondering if you had a thing for Lina..."
"How was Mrs. Inverse interesting?" Zelgadis tried to change the subject.
"Well the day I first met Faithe was the same day me and Blitz met your mother. The two of them were best friends."
"And it was love at first sight for you and Mom right?"
"Nope I was after Faithe. Blitz was the one with a thing for your Mom."
(Facefault)
"Zelgadis are you alright?"
"Um yeah Dad..." Zelgadis regained his composure but still had a sweatdrop trailing down the back of his head. (Relm: I've always wondered about those sweatdrops... You know I one time watched a cartoon where everyone in a place facefaulted and then he house sweatdropped. It just doesn't make any sense!)
"As I was saying I was after Faithe and Blitz was after Lillian. It worked out pretty well too. We managed to swing a couple of double dates. But those were always messed up because Blitz and Faithe would always get into these stupid arguments. And they were terrible arguments that usually ended up with lots of large heavy objects being thrown about. The two of them acted like they generally hated each other. Both your mother and I realized that the two of them really liked each other wasn't aware of it."
"Wait a minute and how does two people hating each other and getting into tons of arguments mean that they like each other romantically? Didn't they hate each other?"
"They acted like they hated each other. But what they argued about was a different story. Every time I would go do something with Faithe, Blitz would get jealous. And Faithe would also get jealous when your mother did stuff with Blitz. Only the two of them were far too stubborn to admit it. Lillian and I found that I neither of us were really that interested with them after all and we plotted ways to get them together. When we finally go them together I found I had more in common with the soft spoken, angelic Lillian than I had thought. And well I fell in love with her. And the rest is history."
"Where is Mom now?"
"She loves you son I hope you know that. And since you are in the STF now seeing her shouldn't be a problem. Just go down to Quata wing of the research area of the STF labs sometime. She should be down there most of the time. Tell the guys at the door who you are and who you'd like to see. If she's far too busy which happens often you might have to go another day. I don't think she's there today though."
Zelgadis felt his heart leap into his throat. I can see my mother? I can't believe it. He couldn't contain his joy but still he was a bit uneasy. "What would I say to her?"
"Hello is always nice." Kendan lightly chuckled at his son. He could see how happy Zelgadis was. It wasn't fair that his mother had been there for his childhood but it wasn't Lillian's fault. She couldn't endanger her family's lives like that. She worked for the better of their city, so that Zel could have a safe place to grow up.
"Thanks Dad." Zelgadis gave his father a warm smile.
"No problem."
It's kinda funny, this is the first fic that I've ever put Lillian in. But then again that goes for a lot of my characters. Oh and I guess I should mention though in this story Kendan and Blitz grew up together as best friends as well as Lillian and Faithe, that's only in this story. Generally none of them really know each other. But then again Whynn and Devon are both supposed to be chimeras and they aren't ^_^