Notes and Disclaimers: Oh yeah, I don't lay claims to the Gundam Boys and/or any of the other characters from that series—Gundam Wing………But Shiane, Lucy, Savannah, Amethyst and Jonathon are mine. Those who take will receive their just desserts (sorry, I've been wanting to say that in something) when they meet their Superiors (hint: their gods).

Pilots

"What the heck!" a young girl of sixteen years exclaimed. She stood in a large room where five tubes rose from a large machine that stood against the far wall. Shiane Collins was in front of two of them in between the middle tube and the one on the right. The tubes went up into the darkness and didn't seem to end, and they also seemed wide enough for a person to fit inside. The machinery they were set upon had lots of buttons and levers with words on them for the most part. To her complete surprise, she saw two of the legendary Gundam pilots in the tubes. She knew from the stories her grandmother used to tell her that their names were Duo Maxwell and Heero Yui. Shiane stood there staring at them in surprise, because they seemed to be sleeping. And they shouldn't have even been there.

Then all of a sudden,

Crraaackk! went the tube that Heero was in, causing Shiane to jump in startlement. A hissing could be heard, meaning a gas was leaking through the cracks. She franticly looked at the buttons on the machine and saw a green one that said gas off. Slamming her hand down on it before thinking, the gas stopped leaking out, but unfortunately the tube cracked even more. Then some of the tube's glass flew off. She threw herself to the floor as shattered glass fell around her. When she looked up she noticed some of the shattered glass cracked the next tube that Duo was encased in.

"Great," she said rising, stamping her foot on the floor, "Now Duo's tube-thingy is breaking."

"I wonder who's in these other tubes? I hope it'll be the other three pilots. Hmm…I'll have to look later because first I'll have to get Duo and Heero out of these things," she murmured planning out loud to herself.

Looking around Shiane spotted a stool on the far side of the room sitting in a corner all alone, collecting dust bunnies and the occasional spider. She ran over to it dodging the glass and picked it up. Turning around, she walked back to Heero and Duo, pausing to look at the tube to the right of Heero's.

"I really hope there's another one of the pilots in there," she murmured quietly. "I think it'll be very interesting if there is." she added with a grin.

When Shiane stopped in front of Heero she pushed the stool to the machine, making sure to not bump into the glass since she was wearing sandals. Stepping up onto the stool she balanced herself on the top step. Looking down at the glass in front of her, she pushed some of it out of harm's way with the tip of her sandal before she gingerly stepping onto the machine. She looked up and calculated that she only needed to go forward a few more steps. Careful not to step on any of the buttons, or move the levers because she didn't want anything else to happen she made her way up to Heero.

There was a hole in the glass so she stuck her hand in carefully so she wouldn't bump the sharp edges and cut herself. Holding a hand close to his face she felt the faint air movement against her skin; he was still alive.

"Wow! I wonder how long these guys have been in these things!" she thought out loud.

Taking her hand out, Shiane placed it on the side of the tube to brace herself where there were no shards of glass. With her other hand she felt around in the pockets of her blue jean shorts, searching for anything to chip the glass with. She had a tube of lip gloss, a few coins, a tiny pocket dictionary, and…

"Oh my gosh!" she cried with surprise when she pulled the last item out of her back pocket. There was a small hammer in her hands. "Maybe…no wait, I grabbed a hammer off the counter when I left home earlier today," She stood there staring at the hammer about the size of her hand. She remembered that she and her friends wanted to fix some of the wooden benches at the park and she had volunteered to bring a hammer. Flipping the hammer up she tapped the glass around the hole, carefully so none of the glass would fly and hurt Heero inside.

After a few little cuts and a half an hour later, the hole was the size of a miniature refrigerator. Satisfied on her progress she stopped for a little rest. Taking a deep breath she gazed around with assessing brown eyes. She noticed that the glass she had chipped away had fallen around the base of the tube, some of it making its way to the floor. She glanced to her right at Duo and saw that he looked peaceful, but so did Heero. It was unnerving just how peaceful they looked.

"I really wonder how long these guys have been in the tubes now. It has got to have been more than fifty years. But how long? They still look like they're sixteen or seventeen! They haven't aged a day at all!" she wondered out loud. "I mean, they're supposed to be what, in their eighties or something!" she shook her head in disbelief.

Rested, she started on the glass once again. About another half an hour later the hole was three times the size it had originally been, almost big enough to pull Heero out. But her hands were starting to ache and she acquired more cuts; she would need to rest again soon before she got too tired and hurt herself even more.

"Just a couple more taps and I'm done," she thought aloud.

"Done!" Shiane cried in triumph when she chipped the last piece of glass a couple of minutes later. The hole was now big enough to pull him through. Sliding the hammer back into her pocket she wiped her sweaty hands onto her shorts.

Reaching into the broken tube Shiane grabbed his arm and gently began to pull him through the hole. When half of his body was out, she leaned him against her own body so she could lift the rest of his body over the glass still attached to the bottom of the base. Once that was done, she wrapped her arms around his waist and tucked his hanging arms in the crook of her left arm. She started backing up and slowly made her way to the stool. There wasn't a lot of glass, but she still walked slowly because he was actually heavier than he looked. But he was deadweight after all.

Shiane's legs started to ache when she stepped onto the stool. Briefly letting go of Heero with her right hand in order to balance herself she slowly stepped down onto the floor. When her feet flat on the floor she paused to rest before continuing. She tilted his head onto her shoulder and felt him breathing on her neck and though it tickled, she wrapped her right arm around his shoulders. As Shiane held onto him, she half pulled him to a spot unlittered with glass.

Kneeling slowly she carefully laid Heero down, making sure his head didn't go down hard. He was lying flat on his back on the floor when she rose again, her eyes still gazing down at him. She walked back over to the machines, but this time she moved the stool to the front of the tube Duo was in. She watched where she stepped and made her way up to Duo very carefully. She fished the miniature hammer back out of her pocket and began to chip away at the hole that had been made from the shattering of the glass earlier.

Awhile later her arm was getting tired so she stopped and glanced down at her watch and found that it was already two in the morning. She'd been there for about five hours. She remembered that the first three hours she had wandered around the building until she came to this room.

Realizing that she was more tired than she really cared to think, she went back to where Heero lay and laid down just a couple of feet away. Though the floor was hard and cold, she instantly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

She woke up to the crying of the annoying alarm set on her watch.

"Uh…eight already?" she said groggily. She blinked and rubbed at her eyes before opening them to the room. Sitting up she glanced at Heero and found him still sleeping and also in the same position she had left him in. Though she was still a little tired and achy, Shiane rose to her feet and started walking to the stool. Climbing up onto the machine, she picked up the hammer and began working like she had the day before. As she steadily worked she occasionally glanced back at Heero, curious on how he was faring.

"When is he going to wake up! He's been out of the tube for six, no, seven hours now!" She said angrily with a touch of frustration. In her anger she hit the edge of the glass a little too hard and it went flying at Duo. She thought it was going to hit his skin and injure him, but it landed on his upper arm, on his sleeve.

Gasping while she watched she almost lost the hammer. Calming back down, she stuck her hand in the hole and plucked the shard from Duo's sleeve. Pulling her hand out she carefully gripped the shard and then tossed it over her shoulder. Going back to work, she became oblivious to everything around her, including Heero.

When the hole was almost the size to where she could fit in, she realized how tired she was from standing up for so long. Shiane set the hammer at the base and walked carefully back to the stool. She sat for awhile, but because of restlessness eventually got up and went somewhat slowly over to Heero. She sank down by his side and stared intently at him. Bringing her knees up to her chin and wrapped her hands around them. She must have dozed off because she woke up with her head resting on her knees and her stomach aching with hunger. She hadn't eaten since the day before around mid-morning.

Her eyes darted around the room and spotted her green backpack in a corner. Rising she discovered that her legs were stiff, but limbered as she made her way to the side of the room where her bag lay. Walking up to her backpack, she scooped it up into her arms and carried it back to where Heero lay motionless. Rummaging through it she took inventory and found that she had three peanut-butter sandwiches, four apples, and five water bottles, which were completely filled. She was supposed to have gone on a picnic with a couple of friends and had brought this stuff. But something made her come to this building. After curiously wandering around for about three hours, she found this particular room and had set her bag down on the floor in the corner.

She hungrily ate one of the sandwiches and gulped down water to wash away the stickiness of the tasty peanut butter. She stuffed the other food and bottles back into the bag when she finished to save for later. Taking another generous gulp of water, Shiane rose and went back to the tube Duo was still in. She picked up the hammer and started working.

Before long she finished and slid the hammer into her pocket. She stuck her hands into the tube, dodging the glass. She grabbed Duo's arm and pulled most of him through. But while she was pulling him, his braid got caught onto a sharp edge and she didn't notice it. When he was out of the tube, the tie keeping Duo's hair in place broke and shot somewhere. With the tie gone, his hair unraveled part way. Shiane ignored his hair, but it made the going down a little harder; there was a lot of it. His hair kept getting in the way, but ignoring it the best she could she kept walking and half pulling, half dragging him all the way to where Heero was still sleeping. She gently laid Duo down on his back on the other side of her backpack.

"I'll just tell Duo to rebraid his hair when he wakes up," she noted to herself.

She scooped up the water bottle she had been drinking out of and took a long, satisfying drink. Instead of closing it, she sat down in between Duo and Heero. Leaning over Heero she squeezed the bottle lightly, allowing a few drops of water to fall onto his lips. Staring at him for a moment more, she then turned to do the same to Duo. She waited to see if anything would happen, but no movement came from either one. Setting down her bottle she pulled her brush out of a side pocket of her backpack and brushed her hair. Then she took her waist length brown hair and braided it into two long braids. When she finished tying off the ends she put the brush away and closed the bottle. Rising to her feet she stretched and began to walk around the room to relieve her slight boredom.

Shiane walked until she stood in front of the two farthest of the remaining tubes. Since the tubes gave her no clue as to who were inside, she looked down at the control boards littered with levers and buttons. Some buttons didn't have any writing or any kind of symbols on them, and some of the levers had nothing on them. Some buttons said things like oxygen or gas, but a few of them just had odd symbols that she had no clue about. As she looked at the others in front of the other tubes, she found that each tube had its own set of buttons and levers.

She was looking at a peculiar button that was a very bright orange and below it, it said "Lights". Without another thought she pushed on that one. Bright lights suddenly flicked on at the base of the tube and shone on the person encased inside. Shiane shaded her eyes from the lights since they were extremely bright and looked up. She was staring at Quatre Raberba Winner!

Taking her eyes away from him, she walked to the other tubes and pushed the light buttons. In the remaining two tubes were none other than Trowa Barton and…Hilde Schbeiker!

"Wait a minute. Why is Hilde here? Where's Wufei?" Shiane asked with a puzzled frown.

No answer, of course.

She stared at the three until she heard a slight movement coming from behind her. "Heero and Duo!" she thought.

"They must be waking up!" Shiane cried to herself, turning and rushing to them.

She stopped between them, standing beside her backpack. Bending down, she unzipped it and took two of the remaining water bottles out. Setting them on the floor next to the green bag she zipped it back up. She sank into a cross-legged sitting position on the cold, hard floor and glanced at her watch. It was one in the afternoon.

"Water…" came a very hoarse whisper from Heero. He began to stir and move his arms a bit as Shiane scrambled to his side with one of the bottles she pulled out. Sitting on her knees beside his head she slid her left arm under his shoulders as she opened the bottle with her other hand, keeping her gaze on his face.

"Please stop moving Heero," Shiane whispered to him. Hearing a gentle feminine voice he ceased moving immediately. She picked the bottle up and opened his mouth by gently pulling down his chin, she poured just a little water in. Swallowing that mouthful pretty quickly, she gave him some more, before setting the bottle on the floor next to her. She didn't want to give him too much just yet until he could do it on his own.

Opening his eyes and blinking them she noticed they were a startling dark blue.

"About time you wake up," she grumbled. She helped him sit up, but kept a hand on his back to support him.

"What?…Who are you?" he hoarsely asked looking at her.

"Here, drink," she handed him the bottle. Accepting it he drank a generous amount, all the while keeping his eyes on the girl. He schooled his face to emit no emotions as he set the bottle back down.

"I'm Shiane," she answered. "Shiane Collins."

TBC

Notes: Okay, I know this was kinda boring….and it'll be slow for a little while…but please read it. It gets kinda funny too. Especially when Duo finds out who Shiane is the granddaughter of.