This was the furthest thing from what Tieria had expected when he'd come to the party. He went with it anyway. He could do nothing but.

He and Lockon danced.

Ribbons had introduced the two of them with too smug of a smile. Tieria had known immediately that it was not the new Lockon, not his brother as a part of Tieria's brain still thought of the Lockon Stratos who piloted Cherudim Gundam. This was the first one, as impossible as it seemed. The man he'd once heard called Neil Dylandy, although the name was alien to Tieria's brain.

Ribbons introduced him as if he were a long-lost cousin. On the surface, this was the sort of party where you met such people; below that, it was the sort of party where you met enemies and allies and both.

But he was not a long-lost cousin, and he was neither enemy nor ally. He was Lockon Stratos, and he was alive, here in the hands of the people who opposed Celestial Being.

Tieria was too dazed at first to notice anything but this: Lockon was alive. Lockon was alive, and smiling, and reaching for him.

They danced.

It was as they danced that Tieria began to notice that even if this one thing was extraordinarily right--Lockon was alive--many other things were wrong.

Lockon did not move with his usual easy charm, that careless grace that made Tieria marvel at his ease and confidence. He was a little too loose at one moment and a little too stiff at another. A metaphor supplied itself: Lockon was like a puppet. It was a terrible thought.

The thought alone, however, was not so terrible as the look in Lockon's eyes: something dazed and distant, as if he was quite empty inside. It was a bizarre contrast to the perfection of his face. Both of his eyes were there, intact as if nothing had happened; there was not so much as a scar on any part of his body that Tieria could see. He was perfect, and he was wrong.

Although Lockon moved strangely, still they danced.

Every time Tieria tried to get Lockon's attention, tried to speak to him, Lockon merely shifted his grip on Tieria's waist. Warmth ran through Tieria at that. They kept dancing.

Finally, the dancing stopped, as Tieria managed to pull Lockon aside. But Lockon refused to let him keep the ground he'd gained. Just when Tieria thought he'd steadied himself, Lockon did something utterly unexpected: he bent down to kiss Tieria.

Tieria did not, could not protest, not even when Lockon's tongue flicked between his lips. It was a strange and un-Lockon thing to do, but when Lockon pulled back and smiled at him, it was a very Lockon smile...save for those strange eyes, beautifully, brilliantly blue-green but somehow blank.

"We danced like a couple, right, Tieria?" Lockon said. He pointed to a door leading to an alcove off the main ballroom. "Let's do some more things like a couple."

Tieria did not, could not understand. But it was Lockon suggesting it, so he couldn't entirely resist. He could only shift the flow of events a little bit. "No," he said. "Let's go out into that garden instead. No one else is there." It would be easier to escape with Lockon from outside.

"I didn't know you were into that," Lockon teased, and something about the intonation in his voice was all wrong. Lockon should be teasing him about different things, not this.

But they were done dancing. Lockon led Tieria outside.

So much of Tieria, right now, was fake: his voice, his breasts, his entire demeanor. But Lockon found the parts of him that were real and touched them so gently. The curve of his neck meeting his shoulders, his thighs beneath the slit of the dress--

That he was doing this touching at all was wrong, was not Lockon at all, but how gently he did it was perfectly Lockon.

"Lockon," Tieria murmured even as Lockon dropped to his knees in front of him and pushed aside the dress. "We can't afford to waste time on this. We must leave."

"But the party's only just started. Tieria--" And there Lockon stopped, freezing in place. His hands had found the gun strapped to Tieria's leg.

Tieria looked down sharply and cried out at what he saw. "Lockon--!" It was his eyes again, but this time they were not blank. They glowed rainbow iridescent, just as Tieria's once had when he connected with Veda. He had been changed--no doubt against his will. And now he was a tool of people working against Celestial Being. It was unacceptable. But he seemed so amenable to their control; Tieria had no idea how to break it.

Lockon's fingers slid over the gun until they rested on the trigger. Then, all of a sudden, his eyes snapped back to normal. And this time they were truly normal--the blankness was gone. "Tieria," he said. "Tieria, I'm sorry. What I've been doing to you--" His free hand rested for a moment on Tieria's thigh again, so warm.

"I liked it," Tieria whispered. "But now--" His voice rose to a firm murmur. "We have to leave, Lockon."

"You have to leave," Lockon said. "I'm their tool. They were going to use me to kill you, Tieria. They still will. Get out of here."

Could Lockon even begin to understand how absurd and impossible what he asked was? Tieria decided that he could not. He took Lockon by the shoulders and pulled him up. "We'll leave together," he said. "I won't leave you alone again."