clockmaster | [RL With Zechs- Noah'splot]

Zechs nodded, but also tensed. His hands clenched upon his knees for a moment, then released. A very brief shadow had passed over his face, some memory, before his expression was calm again.

"I do not want it for the Tallgeese. Or any other weapon. Such is why it is valued on my world, and why it is guarded, but it is not the reason I wish it," he answered, speaking very calmly. Emotionless. Masklike.

He didn't want to lie to Hakuba. So far, he hadn't. And he wanted to keep it that way. Very slowly, he said, "Your program, Doyle, gathers information, does it not? This does much the same, save for the method of communicating the information. This program - the ZERO system - gives the user the information it gathers directly, instantaneously."

Hakuba tried to relax on his seat, he was being defensive and that wasn't helping any of them. Zechs was acting strange, but he was making efforts to control himself too, and Hakuba couldn't blame him for being disturbed.

"Doyle can be a bit more complicated that that, but yes, that's more or less what he do. Instantaneous information? Like...being connected to the program? I already heard from a similar technology with that EVA pilots from the comm but...You want me to hack a program for you and synchronize yourselft with it?"

Zechs was acting considerably less strange than he could have been. He was making a concerted effort to seem completely calm and normal, to the point he appeared emotionless and cold instead. In truth, he was quite drunk, and worried, and rather depressed. He was also, at this moment, just a little insane.

"The ZERO is also a little more complicated than that," Zechs admitted in a wry tone. "However, yes, the user is connected to the program. One could see why it would be useful in conjunction with a weapon."

"I will be able to build myself the hardware necessary to communicate with the ZERO system. I merely need you to retrieve the program."

As Zechs spoke, he was not exactly looking at Hakuba, or anything, for that matter. His focus was on something else - perhaps something only he was really aware of.

"If it's not me you will ask again until you find someone else to do it, right?" Hakuba frowned slightly. Useful in conjunction with a weapon...More like a disaster if mixed with a person, he thought. Developing and A.I. was something, letting a machine in your head was another very different. Zechs was worrying him, that bad sensation on the fond of his stomach was growing as the time passed. The other man was not even looking at him while talking, like if Zechs himself was not totally there.

Hakuba had enough, he stood up, come closer to him, and pout a hand on his shoulder in a friendly way. He tried to look the less threatening as it was possible.

"Zechs..." Hakuba squeezed his shoulder.

"Correct," Zechs acknowledged. His mind was going over plans. Possibilities. Things which he would be able to do once he finally had use of the ZERO system again. However, he did add, "But you, Hakuba, are the person I would trust the most with such a task."

This entire incident was making him feel helpless. He now knew because of Debitt that Tyki lived, and was sane - but little else. Where was he? Why hadn't he returned? With too little sleep and too much alcohol, Zechs wasn't making the best decisions. He couldn't take matters into his own hands by finding Tyki on the Ark. Fine. He could take matters into his own hands by building the ZERO system and figuring out what to do.

When Hakuba touched his shoulder, Zechs tensed and reached inside of his jacket, clearly holding onto a gun, but did not pull it out. His eyes were wild. For a moment, his calm mask was gone; all of that hidden emotion of depression and madness was there.

Before Zechs was completely calm again. Hands out of his coat, empty, he gently took Hakuba's hand away. "Please. Forgive me. What is it, Detective?"

The effect was instantaneous. Hakuba found himself looking down at a pair of icy blue eyes glaring at him in shock as Zechs's expression filled with horror. For a moment, he was expecting to find himself looking up at the barrel of a gun, but it didn't happened.Between one second and the next, the shadow of madness was gone, but the detective saw the emotions that the blank mas was been hiding.

Hakuba felt like hitting his head against the wall. Damn.

Damn it all.

Damn the war, and the exorcist, and the Noah.

"I should apologize.I usually don't touch people if they don't want me too." He sighed, running a hand through his hair, smoothing down the tussled strands.

"I should apologize.I usually don't touch people if they don't want me to." He sighed, running a hand through his hair, smoothing down the tussled strands. With all the tension, the sorrow and the lack of sleep Zechs was probably on the edge. Trying to convince him to change his mind about Zero when he was like this would be unproductive. Hakuba choose another option then.

"I will help you with the Zero program." Hakuba informed him, an idea already forming on his mind. "I will need a computer and a lot of coffee, for both, because I will need your assistance, Zechs."

Hakuba gave him a soft smile, and pointed to the kitchen. "I will do the coffee, please can you take care of the computer?"The younger man didn't waited for and answer and desapeared in the kitchen.

"There is no need for you to apologize," Zechs replied automatically, almost mechanically. He blinked slowly, cursing himself within. He must have slipped somehow, and he couldn't afford to. There was nothing to be done for it, however, and Zechs nodded as the boy left. He didn't suspect the Detective was plotting something - a matter which proved he wasn't thinking clearly.

With Hakuba out of the room, he shuddered, and allowed his masks to drop again. Warily, he got to his feet, entered the bedroom - here was the bottle of bourbon, and several shattered glasses, and other broken items he had destroyed in his anger - and began retrieving the computer equipment. He was very careful to leave the door shut when he wasn't actively walking through it. He didn't want Hakuba to see what was in the room.

Eventually, Zechs would want to move the computer out here anyhow, he mused. There wasn't any reason he wanted to sleep in the large bed alone. The couch would do, if he did ever decide to sleep. So far he hadn't.

As Zechs set up the computer, he listened for noises of Hakuba in the kitchen. Distantly, some part of him was a little concerned he might need assistance in finding things.

On the meantime, Hakuba finally managed to found all that he needed. he was a bit confused at first, but kitchen were kitchens, and no matter what world you're in there's some things that never change.

He wished that Zechs trust him a bit more, at least enough to talk about Tyki's missing and what was he thinking. Maybe on the morning, when he was thinking clearly.

With one hand he reached into his jacket pocket and took out Akako's potion. It usually works faster with tea, but caffeine will do the trick too. It had magical properties, It will make Zechs feel better and help to calm him down. It wasn't exactly like a sedative, and certainly it didn't have the same contraindications, but it would make a person sleep.

He returned to the living rooms moments later with two steaming cups of coffee on his hands.

When Hakuba returned, Zechs seemed utterly calm again. The computer had been set up upon the coffee table in the living room, and was set before the chair Hakuba had been sitting in. Zechs was holding a small glass of amber liquid that he was nursing slowly. His eyebrows raised at the sight of two coffee mugs, but didn't say anything about it.

Zechs trusted Hakuba more than most people he could name. He told him about Tallgeese, he had let the man into his home, and he didn't mind that he knew of his relationship with Tyki. But trust was a very rare commodity for the man. Part of him was still suspicious - still waiting for Hakuba to trick or deceive him somehow. It was nothing against the Detective. He would think that with just about anyone.

Also, Zechs was feeling extremely vulnerable right now. Weak. Helpless. Those weren't things he was about to advertise.

"Do you require anything further?" Zechs asked, businesslike and professional once again.

"That will be enough, thanks." Hakuba nearly frowned when he noticed the glass in Zechs's hands, but he controlled himself enough. "Now I just need some information about were to start."

Hakuba sat in front of the computer, blowing on the cup lightly so it wasn't too hot. He took a sip of his own drink and let the other on the table, near to Zechs. "If you feel sleepy, that will help."

He said, masquerading his real intentions, his fingers already running over the keyboard in fast movements as he connected to Doyle's interface. The A.I. will help him with the access to the net he had to hack, and he could order Doyle to analyze the risks of the programs and block it using the binary code without Zechs noticing.

"I talked to Allen Walker."

Zechs sat down, near the offered coffee, but didn't take it. He raised an eyebrow at Hakuba. "I am not tired in the least, yet I thank you. However, how would a caffeinated beverage be conductive towards sleep?"

He wasn't experienced with programming or software, beyond knowing how to use it for tasks he was familiar with. But if the ZERO system changed, Zechs would be able to tell. He was far too intimately familiar with the program and its effects to be fooled. Yet on its surface, the ZERO system appeared to be quite benign. It was easy to underestimate the effects it could have on a person's mind. How easily a human could be driven insane by it.

"Indeed? I had managed to converse with the Noah, Debitt, before you had arrived."

Zechs' face tensed. He wanted to avoid this subject. If they didn't, he might become sick from worry. "Mikk is alive, and apparently sane, in Debitt's time. I have gathered that is a few months into the man's future. Yet it was not prudent for me to gather more information from that source. Not without arousing suspicion."

"That can took some time, it's normal to feel tired after 7 hours. and no, the coffee is supposed to help you against the sleep." Hakuba gazed at Zechs's drink. "Better than that for sure." He quickly turned back to face the computer again, Doyle's interface showing up.

"I saw that. But I didn't wanted to talk to the others Noahs. Tyki let me know how dangerous they are, and they didn't looked exactly friendly to me. I tried to know as much as them as I can, but avoiding to ask them personally. Sometimes, regain information is more easy than people thought. You just need to know what to ask and who ask the correct questions. "Hakuba tone was empty of any arrogance, he was just stating a fact.

"It's like when princess Azula was missing..I asked the woman who tried to kill her directly and he told me where the princess was." Hakuba saw Zechs's tense features reflexed on the computer and looked apologetic at him."Allen said that Tyki was defeated, but not dead, it means that he's probably with his master Millennium Earl. If that's true, you can be sure that he's alright." At least when it comes to his body, he added mentally.

Considering the coffee more favorably now, Zechs nodded slowly. He definitely wasn't thinking clearly. Of course coffee was to keep a person awake. However, being more awake might mean he'd have to feel things more immediately. And the bourbon he was drinking now was wrapping his brain in a soft blanket of apathy. He was hesitant to leave it.

Zechs did not cringe when Hakuba mentioned Tyki by name. He was very worried. He wanted to do something now. He felt so helpless. Hakuba's arrogance was accepted as fact, however. Zechs trusted he had the abilities and instincts necessary to be a detective. And he himself was used to fishing for information in order to get the correct facts. Even from enemies.

Especially from enemies. Zechs was very good at getting information from dangerous people. But he wasn't in the mood to boast.

"Physically all right," Zechs growled, unintentionally echoing Hakuba's thoughts. "But not immediately. It likely would take Mikk some time to recover. Else, why has he not contacted any of us?"

"Since I can't be sure of his actual mental state, I can't tell you for sure about it. You know that I don't like to take fast judgments."

Hakuba's fingers stopped and he was silent for a moment, his own thoughts beating his mind. He didn't wanted to think about that. Too many possibilities, too many ways to commit a mistake. Doyle was trying to tell him something, and that made him go back reality. He took out his cellphone and pushed some buttons before to left it on the table and. "Doyle, I want you to find all the information you could about the ZERO system, please."

"yes Saguru-niichan." A masculine, yet still juvenile, voice replied.

While the program worked alone, he faced Zechs again, looking at his eyes. No wonder people called him a cold heartless bastard, he always left his feeling behind when it was needed. It helped him to cope with situations like this.

"You talked to Tyki’s family. Bad thing. It caught their attention. Even worse thing. it just a matter of time until they find out what do you mean to Tyki, or worse, the exorcist find out about it. Ones will try to kills you and the others, if they don't try to exterminate you too, will want to use you against him." Hakuba unclenched his hands, he didn't realized that he was being so tense. "That's why i want to ask you not to do anything until we know for sure about Tykis's fate."

"Debitt has told me he is sane," Zechs said, his voice strained with worry despite his best efforts. Even he could only keep up his heartless mask for so long. "But we cannot know anything further. Not until I have more information."

That was the purpose of ZERO, after all. Zechs was also considered to be a heartless bastard as well. During the war, he had betrayed his allies and committed treason against his own military for higher ideals. He held his own sister under guard - for her own safety, but under duress - and was willing and able to kill his closest two friends. Few people who knew him well on his world actually liked the man.

"Debitt assumes I am like any of the Noah's other friends. He is known for having human associates. They will not discover there is a deeper connection." Zechs' tone was becoming more stained. He knew he had acted in haste. And he didn't want to place Tyki in jeopardy. But he didn't know what else could be done. And he couldn't simply do nothing.

"The Exorcists already know Mikk and I are ... close, unfortunately. At Mrs. Bella Cullens' wedding, the ..." Zechs was finding it difficult to speak. His hands clenched his knees. "... the large reason Mikk left at all, not fighting the Exorcists further, was because he ... feared for my safety."

Zechs' face was still calm, unnaturally so. But his eyes were shut, concentrating on maintaining that demeanor.

"I'm not totally sure about what happened on Miss Bella's wedding. I just know that it was bad, and since I know that Cross was a friend of her. I'm right If I assume that he was on the weeding as well? Noah's and Exorcists... recipe for trouble."

The blonde boy listened to Zechs words, he sounded like a man older than his real age. Hakuba felt his own facade cracking slightly.

"I can't see how a program like ZERO can help you in that..." Hakuba murmured softly, looking sad, and sighed. "..but I will do all I can to help."

Hakuba cleared his throat and looked away, glad to have the computer to work with instead of looking at Zechs. He knew that sometimes one put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

He sank down into the chair at the same time multiple browser window popped up on the computer screen.

"Two of the Noah were invited - Debitt and Jasdero - and the Exorcists Allen, General Cross, General Klaud, and Kanda were also invited. Ty-" Zechs stopped, clenched his knee harder, then calmed. "Mikk decided to attend because he was worried his cousins may be attacked and killed. When the twin Noah attacked the Exorcists, Mikk joined. Events progressed predictably from there."

This was very hard. The more Zechs talked about this, the more that he was reminded why he was so worried. He had been coping before because he was concentrating on a plan of action. This was focusing on the man he was trying to help, which made him emotional. Zechs realized now that Tyki must have ... loved him even then. He swallowed.

"ZERO will be a tool I can use. Right now, there are too many variables and possibilities for us to judge what the correct course of action is. With the ZERO, I will be able to see all the correct paths and possibilities. Such is advanced usage of the machine, which I have previously mastered." Zechs' voice was full of his own arrogance, and just a hint of that underlying madness. "Currently, I have no ... ability, to assist anyone. The ZERO system will change that."

Zechs was just on the edge of breaking down, but was holding onto his calm facade by a thread. He wasn't putting up his walls to keep Hakuba out. Nor was he trying to call for attention, to see if anyone cared enough to see beneath them.

He was trying to protect the boy from what lay within. One hand held his glass tightly. Zechs drank more deeply from it, the bourbon not managing to sooth him any longer. Indeed, he looked and sounded like a man far older than twenty-three.

Hakuba’s face was concentrate while Zechs explained him the wedding’s events, but he smiled slightly when the older man talked about his capacities. There, there, Zechs was sounding a bit crazy too, but the strong character of a soldier was still there too.

He was refusing to call Tyki by his name. It bothered Hakuba a lot, but he tried not to pay attention to it for now, noticing that Zechs control was in tin ice. He really wished that Zechs choose the coffee instead of the tea. Oh well, the night was going to be long.

Doyle's voice interrupted them, it was probably keeping an ear on them, Hakuba thought.

"Master Hakuba, I'm nearly done." The detective looked at the screen, where more windows opened and closed by themselves,data scrolling by faster than Hakuba could track. He closed his eyes, leaning back in the chair, half afraid of what the answers were going to be.

"Found him." Windows closed as Doyle show him a long file indicating the security system of the ZERO program. Hakuba frown in annoyance. That was going to be a hell to hack and he will need to use Doyle to create some problems in another interfaces to cause a distraction while he was working. Doyle was a master hacker, but Hakuba wasn't particularly enthralled with the idea of the A.I. breaking the law, even if Zechs told him that this wasn't illegal on his world. Doyle was quite happy to stay out of everyone's radar, thank you very much. That means that Hakuba will do most of the hard work.

Hakuba incorporated a bit in the seat and started to work, his fingers moving quickly over the keyboard.

"It's going to take me hours just to go trough the first walls of the system. Can you do me a favor? I like to work while I'm hearing something....Tell me a good memory of yours, Zechs."

Referring to his lover by his last name - something Zechs had almost never done, in the past - distanced himself from what was going on, emotionally. If he called Tyki 'Mikk' instead, then it was almost as if he was talking about someone else. It was his own method of coping. It wasn't working very well.

Absently, he glanced at the computer when the program Doyle claimed it had found the security system. Zechs also noticed the look of annoyance on Hakuba's face. Whatever security was around the ZERO system, he guessed Heero Yuy himself might have written it. Which would mean it would be almost, but not quite, completely uncrackable. But Hakuba didn't say it was impossible. He just claimed it would take a while.

Zechs' smile was wry. He finished off his glass of bourbon, then frowned at it. Did he get another? Perhaps it was time for coffee instead. He wanted to remain awake for this. For now, however, he didn't touch the mug.

"A good memory?" Most of his good memories, of late, were rather painful instead in present context. Zechs thought further back. "Do you know why I was known as the Lightning Baron?"

Hakuba never took her eyes from the computer, hoping that Zechs would understand that he needed to center his attention on the screen, but on the corner of his eye he saw how Zechs drank the last of the glass.

"Because or your awesome golden hair?" Hakuba commented, trying to sound like a soft joke, not mocking. he knew that Zechs wasn't on the mood, and either was him, but a change of subject would be good for now.

Zechs' face tensed, but he recognized Hakuba was attempting to joke, and didn't comment upon it. Under different circumstances, he might have attempted a polite, fake smile, but he was too on edge to accomplish such a thing. The best he could do now was remain calm.

"As much as I appreciate the compliment," Zechs said wryly, the most he could manage as his own joke, "No. That is not the reason." He picked up the coffee mug, and let it warm his hands. He smelled the liquid within it, yet still did not drink.

"When I was fifteen, a small and somewhat insignificant terrorist organization attacked an Alliance base in Asia, off the Pacific Ocean. The Specials - an elite and highly skilled military branch of the Alliance, nearly independent of them - were called in to suppress the terrorist activities."

"I was one of the few pilots selected. The Specials came to this insignificant mission because they wished to test the mobile suits Romefeller had recently developed. Yet, the commanders in charge also wished to test my skills. I did not disappoint them."

Zechs paused, still inhaling his coffee's scent, not yet drinking the liquid.

Hakuba made a face at Zechs' bitter irony, he was never good at jokes after all, that was Kuroba's strong point, not his.

Listening with interest, the detective nodded. "Go along, please. Who give you that name? The Specials themselves?"

"Yes," Zechs answered, a bit of pride coming into his voice. But also a hint of annoyance. He enjoyed his skill and was proud of the position he had earned. But he also wished he wasn't worshiped as he had been by some of the Alliance and OZ soldiers. Such regard helped him as his role of Treize's pawn, but he didn't enjoy it.

"When my commander asked of me to end the battle quickly, within three minutes, I informed him I could accomplish it in one. And my actions supported my words."

There was also a little of melancholy there, also, but Zechs didn't elaborate upon it. "I suppose, before then, he did not view me as an equal. Some boy, perhaps, who was filled with arrogance yet little skill. However, he said I fought like lightning, and the nickname developed from there."

"It's a bit annoying when someone can't see you as an equal just because of your age." Hakuba commented nonchalant, Zechs's words calling him a God damned kid because he refused to let him take a worldhopp to the ark were still burning on his mind. He knew that he need more experience and that there was still a lot to learn, but he hated it when people judged him by his looks.

He couldn't care less about if he was young, or if he looks too pretty as some idiotic officer informed him one day. The important was the brain and the mind, not the looks. On a case, you can't trust your eyes, the most innocent looking person can be the most sadistic criminal. And it was the same with his private life, that was one of the reasons that he liked men and women without distinctions. He cared for the person behind the bodies.

"But you prove them wrong, and you show them how good you were, and that's the important thing. You must respect yoruself, the other's opinions aren't always important."

Zechs glared at Hakuba a bit, but ignored the hidden barb. He called Hakuba a kid because he was angry, mostly. When he was just nineteen, after all, he commanded armies and nearly destroyed the Earth. It wasn't his age - it was his experiences. Hakuba was never a soldier, and he had never been forced to kill a man. Never learned how to estimate how quickly he could kill men.

In that way, Hakuba would be forever young to him. But it was also why, except for when he was angry, Zechs didn't consider it an insult. It was a compliment instead.

Zechs was the last person to judge someone merely by their looks. Especially based on his own experience.

"Other people's opinions are rarely so important to me," Zechs said coldly, but admitted - showing a great trust in Hakuba, "except this man was one I wanted to impress and gain the respect of. I had admired his abilities as a soldier for a few years, and we had much in common. When he could see me as his equal, we could become friends."

Bitter, he said, "Such petty things were important to me at the time."

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I need to dissappear again for a bit, be back in 2 hours >_> sorry

It's okay dearie. <3 I'll be here!

I'm back baby! :D

*dances* *gives you cookies*

YAY! *nom nom nom nom* :3

Everyone loves cookies! <3

Oh so true <3~ Chocolate cookies are the best!

With a bit of milk~

Yummy, oh yes ^_^

The world needs more cookies. :D

dances gives you cookies

YAY! nom nom nom nom :3