Worthless Game That Only Has Losers (Part 1)

Normally, Dorothy didn't let things get to her. She moved through her own troubles in life with as much grace as she could. Yet? As she made it up the steps to Quatre Raberba Winner's personal room, she felt great unease.

Nothing he had done made any sense and many coincidences raced in her head with each step she took up the winding staircase. Her and Relena had a similar surgery. Heero had suspected her medication was stalling her healing. She was being accused of killing someone, and even though she should be cleared of it, Quatre Winner had practically stole her from the situation.

Quatre Raberba Winner, heir to the Winner foundation. The person that she stabbed during the era of White Fang. Few got the drop on her. What could be going on?'

What could be happening that could possibly include her? Her time in the spotlight should be dimming. She was there for Relena when she needed information, and perhaps when she got older, she would look into going into her own political career. Other than that, her grandfather was gone, and she was simply there. The backdrop of someone once involved. Most people didn't even know she was on Battleship Libra.

Yet? On the last stair to climb, she only wished she could feel like all of it was in the past. She reached toward the door and knocked.

Mister Winner answered it. "Hello. Please come in." He gestured her into his room.

Why did they have to meet in there of all places? "There was a lovely lounge downstairs." He didn't seem to be budging. A board room for business. A lounge for personal. Why there?

"Sit down, Dorothy Catalonia." Quatre Winner gestured to the window. "I have something I need to explain to you. It's going to be life changing, and I'm sorry. There's no real way to do this right, but I've delayed long enough. Trowa already lost track of his."

Trowa Barton? "Lost track of his what?"

"Dorothy, just hang on. I?" Quatre gripped his hands to the sides, like he was fighting against something. "First of all. We should probably address . . ."

Oh, she hated the feelings she was getting off of him! "Address what? How I stabbed you? Being on Libra? Running the mobile doll program?"

There. At least it jostled him, so maybe he would get to the point. "I understood why you were with Milliardo Peacecraft. You believe that people need to see wars to-"

"We already went over this years ago." Tension. So much tension, while just trying to sit. ///Dorothy: He feels like he needs to explode, like he needs to cry out something!/// The feeling was making her angry and driving her crazy. "Just spit it out!"

"There's a group called Revenge of the Lost." He finally said something new. "They've targeted the previous Gundam Pilots."

A group targeting the former pilots? "How unfortunate." What did it have to do with her though?

"The Press and Relena."

Okay? Once again, she still didn't understand what he was trying to say. "They framed Miss Relena, and they are framing me for the death of a colonist."

"No, they? Well, they did frame Relena, but not quite as much as you think."

This. Man. He was starting it again. "Not quite as much as I think?"

"Yes. She wasn't there for a secret abortion," Quatre said, "but she can't prove it. That's why Heero took her, he knew she couldn't prove it. She was pregnant, but she just didn't know it."

Miss Relena? That. Well? That.

"Revenge of the Lost did it. There's advanced technology that isn't out to the public yet. It assures pregnancy the first time during, you know?" Slipping again, and she was starting to guess why. "Your own surgery."

Nuh uh. He couldn't be going there? That was utter ridiculousness what she was starting to think. "Please be more forthcoming?"

Quatre Winner gestured to her. "You're carrying mine."

" . . . a little less forthcoming that that." A little too late to say that. "Tonsillectomy."

"Yeah. That's why Heero took your medicine," Quatre said. "There's more too."

Oh. "More?"

"You were selected because I guess they thought I made a difference in your life. No one really knows. Wufei didn't even know his. Trowa's was an ex-spy. Anyhow, I'm falling off topic. Sorry." Quatre moved toward the large window in his room, but didn't open it. "Their ultimate goal wasn't just to do this though. It was . . . the running theory?" Fidgeting. "A young lady named Hilde Schbeiker is carrying Duo's and she was just in the hospital for sepsis. His mom died of sepsis. We think that? Your probably targeted to die the way our own mothers had. Just to hurt us."

"Usss," she hissed lightly. Not in anger, not in sadness, more wonderment. "Us, us, us, usss."

Not her. Nothing to do with her. Nothing to do with Relena. These other three woman. None of them. Just the pilots. They were being used against the pilots. Only the pilots. "The pawn on the chessboard. Always fascinating," she said. "One move, to move ahead. Fighting with the others to try and get across. Others being much more powerful, it continues on it's way, often to be sacrificed in the glory of the battle to save the king."

"There's no king to be saved," Quatre Winner said. "Dorothy Catalonia. I'm sorry." He turned back around to look at her. "I won't let them kill you. We are going to figure out how to beat Revenge of the Lost before anyone dies."

"And yet, one pawn may have already fallen in this worthless game that has only losers," she reminded him. "I believe you said Trowa Barton lost his ex-spy?"

"There's no telling about that yet," Quatre Winner confessed. "Heero and Relena are going to stay here until the coast is clear. I need to get you out of the colonies. You need to be on Earth."

"And how am I supposed to die?" she asked boldly. "Mister Winner?"

"Quatre is fine, Dorothy," he answered. "It doesn't matter as long as I can get you off the colonies and back to Earth."

"Mm. Well? This was not what I was planning to happen on my lovely trip to the colonies," she confessed. Far from it. "Are we all positive that this was used on little me?" she asked. "Not a coincidence?"

"Two out of five confirmed, Dorothy," Quatre said. "The mother of Wufei's child and Relena."

He spoke so familiar of those terms now. Everyone had first names. That didn't set well with her. "You don't feel like being on first and last name terms with the mother of one's child is appropriate, do you?" She asked. "Even though she almost killed you."