"Unable to comply," The computer informed him primly. "Lieutenant Noin does not register on any of our sensors."

The man sighed and ran his fingers through his long platinum hair. He had expected that. It was the answer he had been getting for almost five years now.

"Don't it always seem to go," He thought ruefully, thinking of the Old Earth song by Amy Grant. "That you don't know what you got till it's gone..." He picked up the picture of him and Noin at an amusement park on Earth. He had been teasing Noin and she had been getting more and more angry when finally she had tried to stuff her cotton candy in his hair.

The picture showed a laughing Zechs Merquise effortlessly holding Lucrezia’s arm (plus cotton candy) above his head, his left arm looping her waist, her left arm against his chest. Some woman had thought it looked cute, snapped the picture, and gave them both a copy. A copy also ended up in the local newspaper. There had been no end to the good-natured ribbing the two had received.

"I wonder if Noin's still got her copy?" Zechs thought. "If she's still alive."

*

The woman in black trailed the man who had just stepped out of the embassy building, careful to keep her steps in even time with his. The fifty-something senator had no idea that he was being trailed by his death sentence.

The woman, code-named Storm for her jet-black hair, dark purple eyes, and quick temper, heard well-placed footsteps trailing hers. She stopped. They stopped. She moved. They moved.

Storm narrowed her eyes. "This guy is cruising for a bruising, whoever he is." Storm wouldn't kill the man, she killed only for recompense, but she would make him sorry that he tangled with the best assassin the Earth Sphere Alliance, Sanc Kingdom, or Romefeller had ever known.

"I'll get you later," Storm growled softly to the unknowing Senator as he took a look around and stepped safely into his home. Storm stood completely still as the footsteps approached her.

Suddenly, she swung around and buried her fist in the man's abdomen. He doubled over in pain and Storm sent a roundhouse kick to his side.

He hit the ground hard and Storm sat on his stomach. He shifted weight and now it was she on her back pinned under him. She tried to duplicate his maneuver but he anticipated it and pinned her arms above her head.

"Ah, ah, ah. None of that now," The stranger said. "You always were such a little spitfire." Storm glared at her captive.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want with me?" She demanded. The man's eyes grew cold.

"You don't know?"

"No, I don't."

"I want you." The man said his voice rock hard. "I've spent almost five years of my life tracking you down Lucrezia and I am not going to let you go again."

Storm's face blanched. "How did you know that name? Nobody's called me Lucrezia since..."

"Since you left the Sanc Kingdom." He finished. "Since you left a young man named..."

"Zechs!" Storm suddenly cried out. He nodded, sending his platinum blonde hair tumbling about his shoulders.

"It's about time."