The Price Of Loyalty

By Banana Surprise

Chapter 1

September twenty-eighth 198AC

2:46am

With the crowd steadily growing thinner as the closing time of the strip club crept slowly closer, the six, relatively drunk young men finished the remainder of there beer to seal the pact they had made. A promise to make sure their steadfast friendship would never end, despite the upcoming wedding of one of the amigos. First and foremost, no woman would come between them; the friendship meant too much. Secondly, if one of them was involved with a woman, she was off limits. No poaching someone else’s girl.

Now settled the men left enough money on the table to cover tab and tip and stumbled onto the moonlit street. Regardless of the state of their intoxication, they got into two separate cars and commenced the long drive back to the hotel they were staying at. The main topic of conversation in the cars what the fact that Milliardo Peacecraft, long time friend and partner in crime was the first of them to be getting married the next. Not that it had been completely unexpected. He had been all but fawning over Lucrezia Noin since the day they’d met, however much he had denied it.

Through out the intense bouts of ridicule directed at the husband to be, the driver of the first car had been fully unaware through the fog that he had already ran multiple stop signs, though it hadn’t mattered at the time because they had been driving down an virtually disserted highway. The second car was also not heeding the stop signs seeing as the driver was tailgating the first car.

Also contributing to that night’s events was the fact that that evening, a rather thick fog had descended upon the roads limiting visibility substantially.

Still conversing obliviously about the bachelor party that had more or less ended. One of the young men was sleeping uncomfortably in the back seat of the second car in spite of the cacophony of noise around him. They were all in all that night, extremely content.

Unfortunately, in the blink of an eye, it all changed. When they missed the final stop sign the driver of the first car was forced to slam on the breaks to avoid the car speeding towards the intersection in the perpendicular direction. He couldn’t stop the car fast enough and though the oncoming car had tried to stop as well, that afternoon’s rains had made the road slick, and the overcast sky had not aided in drying them. The last sight they saw was the blinding headlights of the car before it t-boned them in the middle of the junction.

The second car did not escape that fate either because they had been on the heels of the first car. Unable to halt the car they slammed into the collision in front of them, causing more damage. None of the passengers in the three cars were conscious after that point.

6:21am

Restless because of the wedding later in the day, Lucrezia Noin paced her hotel room, waiting for a call from her fiancé. She new he wouldn’t call before seven, but she desperately wanted to talk to him. She had never considered herself a superstitious person, she was probably suffering from pre-marital jitters, but what she had read in the newspaper had put her on edge.

A car, the same make and year as her own, as well as a car the same as Milliardo’s had

been involved in a six-car pile up in the downtown earlier that morning. She began wondering if whether or not it was a bad omen and they should postpone the wedding. She knew that if she just talked to Milliardo he would reassure her that there was nothing to worry about, and that she was just being foolish.

After several more minutes of pacing, she picked up the phone, and called Milliardo’s room. After letting it ring multiple times she slammed the phone back down on the receiver. How dare he not pick up this morning! He should up by now. When I get my hands on him I’ll…

A knock on the door derailed her train of though and made her heart leap. As she ran to the door she thought, he decided he’d come and visit me instead of calling! She called herself several kinds of fools as she unbolted the door for letting herself become so wrapped up in one man.

Disappointment was the first thing to cross her face when she opened the door, followed by confusion, then replaced by worry. Her fiancé’s younger sister, and her maid of honour, the golden haired Relena Peacecraft, stood in the doorway, with her eyes red and swollen, filled with the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. Noin immediately assumed the worst because of the expression on Relena’s pale face was one of pity in addition to sadness, and because of the newspaper article.

“Milliardo is…” Relena stumbled over the words Lucrezia already knew. She enveloped the younger girl in a tight embrace, and they wept on each other’s shoulders.

5:14pm

Once awake, the first thing he tried to do was open his eyes. He regretted the decision because seconds later he was confront with blinding light that sent excruciating pain to the back of his brain. He quickly closed his eyes.

The next thing he tried to do was move several of his body parts, before he realized many were held firmly in place and the mere effort of moving sent waves of pain though his body. He cried out in pain, or what would have been a cry if it had not hurt his parched throat to do so.

It seem though, regardless of the pain, his hearing was unhindered by whatever had made him captive in the hard bed, because he heard movement in the corner of the room, the swish of pants and a muffled voice calling out for something. After several seconds he reasoned out that the words were ‘he’s awake.’

He tried once more to open his eyes and it produced more favourable results. He looked around the room and realized he must be in a hospital, for both of his arms were in casts as well as one of his legs, and he also distinguished the unforgettable smell of cleanness and antiseptics.

He seemed to remember hating hospital but despite of his efforts, he could not determine why. He pondered over many other things also and became very frightened. He couldn’t remember his name.

He wasn’t given time to contemplate that thought because a doctor came into the room, or at least a man he thought was a doctor. The doctor came into the room and began speaking in a deep voice that made no more impression than the buzz of a bumblebee. He was trying to figure out how he had gotten into the hospital. He suddenly started paying attention realizing the physician might know what had happened.

“…Also, you have received multiple skull fractures. Though they are not severe, you may have a concussion. All and all I think you’ve been a pretty luck boy.” The doctor paused and smiled down on him. “If you feel up to it you have a few visitors, and there are a few police officers who would like to talk to you, because from what I gather, you were the driver of one of the cars.”

He simply nodded, confused over what the doctor was saying. No of it made sense. What cars? How is having a concussion lucky? His thoughts stopped when two women walked in. One was of average height with deep blue eyes that seemed almost violet and short bluish-black hair that fell into her eyes. The other woman was the one that caught his eye though. She was almost short, will long flowing blond hair and baby-blue eyes. There was one thing the two women had in common; their faces were both tear stained.

Who are they? What are they crying about? Were they crying over me?

His last question was answered when the dark haired woman opened her mouth to speak, or rather, yell. “You bastard!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Tears began streaming down her cheeks and she spoke. “Damn you! You killed my fiancé! You took his life away from him! How does it feel to be a murderer?” She then collapsed into a ball of hysteria.

The other woman clearly hadn’t been expecting that. She placed her arm around the dark haired woman’s waist and helped her up of the ground. She then led her out of the room, leaving him shocked. He had no idea what she was talking about.

Moments later the shorter woman came back into the room and pulled a chair up beside the bed. She took his hand in hers and spoke in a very soft tone. “I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t know Noin was going to blow up. She just said that she wanted to see how you were doing. I don’t blame her though; she just had the love of her life taken away from her. Not that I think it was your fault or anything but you were driving and the doctors said that your blood alcohol level was way too high. It’s just that…” she trailed off when she saw the confused look on his face.

“What are you talking about?” he managed to ask in a hoarse whisper. “Who are you?”

She left the room abruptly and brought back the doctor. He caught the tail end of the conversation. “…It could be that he had suppressed the incident or that he’s suffering from amnesia. I’ll ask him a few questions to find out.”

They two of them entered the room and the doctor took the chair the woman had been occupying. “Now young man, I’m going to ask you a few questions and I want you to answer as fully as possible.” He nodded. “What to you remember of last night?”

He could only shake his head in frustration. He told the doctor he couldn’t remember anything. The doctor then asked a series of questions and he couldn’t answer any of them. He couldn’t remember anything. Not even his name. He told the doctor that too.

Finally the doctor seemed satisfied and moved to leave. Before the doctor left though he asked the woman what his name was. He strained to hear the answer but he was slipping towards sleep again. He did manage to hear it though.

“His name is Quatre.”