Blackout
Day 1
She heard herself groaning in protest although she was hardly aware it was her own voice making the sound. Placing both of her hands firmly on the hard ground, she again attempted to at least rise to her knees.
Black spots danced in front of her vision as a shooting pain tore through her collar bone, causing her to once again collapse. The area she lay in was dim, the sun setting behind the large bare mountain in the distance.
"Stop it," a soft yet firm voice said, commanding her attention and making her suddenly aware that someone else was in the barren land with her. She craned her neck to the right from where she lay to try and see who it was, shocked when her eyes locked with a pair of intense emerald green ones.
The man stared back at her for what seemed like a long time, his eyes stoic as he watched her, before speaking once more.
"You're making yourself bleed more," he pointed out, ushering with his own blood covered hand at her, before placing it back on his wounded leg. He had brown hair cut short except for one long bang, which was currently swept away from his eyes and reflecting his dishevelled appearance. She was sure she looked no better. Unlike her, he was sitting up. He was also clad in clothes fit for a different season than where she had come from. In Tokyo, it was late spring and hot out. This man was in pair of jeans, now blood soaked from his left leg, and a long sleeved green turtleneck. He was probably more suited to what seemed to be the fall-like weather in the land they were stuck in than she was.
He stared at the woman who lay almost flat on her stomach before him critically. He began from her apparent wounds and moved to her weather- inappropriate attire, consisting of a simple white sun dress with thin straps from what he could see. It flowed slightly away from her figure after the waist, falling around her legs and up to her knees. Blood from the wound on her collar bone soaked some of the back and he was sure the front of her dress. Her side also seemed to have been bleeding before, although it looked like that wound had stopped. His eyes traveled up to her short blue hair and deep blue eyes, which locked on his once she craned her neck to see him. She was staring at him for answers, he was sure. It was unfortunate that he didn't have any. Where was she from anyways? She couldn't have come from anywhere that wasn't sunny and warm considering her clothing.
"I'm Ami," she said after another long minute passed, positive that this man was not big on talking.
He stared at her a moment more, before nodding and simply saying "Trowa."
Ami nodded as best she could, staring at the ground once more. Where were her friends? The sudden task that had been thrust upon the scouts earlier that afternoon had seemed easy enough, but it had all gone terribly wrong very quickly and she had only now awoken to find herself in this barren land. The thought that she had awoken that morning with only the plan of going to a graduation lunch with her friends made her stomach turn. Where were they anyways?
The reason she had ended up here was clear: they had failed. However, why was this man here?
"Do you know how we got here?" She asked, turning back to look at him although the continuously setting sun made it difficult.
He stared at the woman before him. He was clearly not about to tell a civilian that he and his friends had messed up a mission which had caused him to end up in this wasteland.
"No."
Ami sighed quietly. Maybe she still had her communicator on her somewhere. She pushed herself off of her arms and stared at her wrists a moment, defeated in not knowing where her communicator was. For that matter, where was her transformation wand?
She had a pocket in the front of her dress, maybe it was there. Or maybe she had fallen on it; it could have been on the floor. Either way, she had to get onto her back and off her stomach to see.
Steadying herself on her elbows this time, she mustered up as much strength as possible and pushed herself to the right, rolling onto her back with a small cry.
"What are you doing?" Trowa questioned, his voice stoic yet she sensed some annoyance. "You're just making your injuries worse."
He indeed was slightly annoyed at having to speak so much to the strange girl, who apparently didn't listen to anything he had told her.
Her hands now weakly prodded at her own dress, her head back against the ground and making it difficult to see. Trowa stared as she found a small pocket on the front of her dress and came up empty handed. She sighed and felt around the area she laid for her wand or communicator, eventually propping herself on her elbows so that she could partly sit up and survey the area, seeing nothing.
"What are you looking for?" Trowa asked, and Ami stopped searching although she didn't lye back down, wanting to see her surroundings however difficult that was in the dim light.
"My cell phone," she said quickly, and he nodded although he was frowning. His frown faded once he had a good look at her face for the first time. She frowned at the change of demeanor and glanced behind her a moment, turning back to Trowa. He was already looking away when she turned back to him and she frowned as well, looking down.
For the first time since he'd woken up, Trowa was thankful for the dark. He stole a quick glance back at her before staring back down at his left hand, still clutching his leg. She was indeed beautiful, but Trowa was not about to let himself get distracted. They still had a major problem on their hands. He had to wrap up his leg and the girl's injuries as well, and since it was dark walking was out of the question for several reasons.
Firstly, Trowa couldn't walk until his leg stopped bleeding a bit. Luckily, the wound seemed shallow. Hopefully by the morning, given that the blood would have stopped, he probably would be able to walk.
Secondly, the girl's injuries seemed worse than his, which meant that Trowa might have to carry her if she couldn't walk, since she could hardly sit up currently.
Lastly, he had no idea where they were going. It would be absolutely unsafe to walk aimlessly in the dark, possibly further from civilization than they already were.
He had to wonder who had left them here or whether or not they were coming back. Her side was done bleeding too, so....
"Is your collar bone still bleeding?" He asked Ami, and her hand touched the wound lightly before falling back to her side.
"It stopped, I'll be fine until we can get some help," she lied, knowing that her wounds would heal more rapidly than Trowa would expect by morning.
"Get some rest, we'll try to get out of here in the morning," Trowa told Ami, who for once listened to him and lowered her head to the floor carefully, not wanting her elbows to give and her hit her head as well. It began to get colder and Ami turned her body slightly to the side and pulled her knees closer to stomach, hugging her arms around her chest and trying to sleep.
Once Ami was quietly sleeping, Trowa turned back to his leg. He tore a strip off the bottom of his jeans, thankful that they were already partly torn, and tied the strip tightly around the wound that was just above his knee.
The moon was out, illuminating the area slightly. Trowa leaned back and went to sleep, hoping that the morning would prove a simpler solution to his current problem.
Ami blinked open her eyes, her right hand flying over them to keep out the sun.
"Glad you're up," a voice to her right said, reminding her instantly where she was as she turned to look at Trowa. He was standing, however unsteady that may have been.
"Are you sure you're okay to walk?" She asked, frowning as she sat up.
"I have to be, we have to get out of here. The temperature's dropped about ten degrees since last night and the wind is making it even colder," Trowa said, frowning as he realized that may have been the longest sentence he'd said to a stranger in a long time. "Can you stand?"
She nodded although he doubted this fact. As Ami began to stand, she felt a shiver rip through her and she almost fell back down, her head suddenly feeling heavy.
Trowa crouched down next to her and grabbed her lightly by the shoulder to steady her, nodding. "You're feverish. I am slightly too, although I'm guessing I'm better off than you are considering your clothing. It got really cold while we were sleeping."
Ami nodded, suppressing a blush at the way he was staring at her as she attempted to get up again. With his help, she managed to stand and even take a few steps forward alone before she needed to lean against him. At the rate she was healing, she was sure she would be running circles around Trowa before he could walk properly. That was of course given that she had time to rest her injuries and wasn't feverish.
Since it was finally daylight, she chanced a look at what had been her favorite white sun dress. White no more, sadly the dress was blood soaked and dirty.
A cold wind tore through the area once more, and Trowa pulled Ami forwards slightly.
"We have to move. We don't want to be stuck here at night again."
Ami nodded and the two began their slow walk away from the area, to the left and away from the bare mountain.
Since Trowa was a man of few words, Ami allowed her mind to wander, trying to figure out how she had ended up here.
She remembered waking up the previous morning. She remembered Setsuna interrupting their college graduation lunch and telling the Senshi that there was some kind of an inter-dimensional tear that needed to be taken care of immediately. She remembered transforming and going to the gates of time. Then what had happened? She had.....
A bad feeling settled in Ami's stomach and she had to will her feet to move forwards. Trowa glanced down at her but shrugged it off as a small pain from the walking as she continued without a word.
She had....what had she done after that? There was no way she had passed out from before she entered the gates of time. So why couldn't she remember anything from that point? What had happened to all of her friends? Why was she alone in this wasteland with a stranger who didn't seem like he could have anything to do with her current situation?
Trowa glanced around the area as they walked, looking down at Ami and forwards. He had awakened earlier that morning and tried to retrace his steps or remember where the mission had gone wrong. The problem was he couldn't. He couldn't remember anything beyond when he and his friends and fellow ex-Gundam pilots had left preventer's headquarters that morning. They had been going to investigate talk of a strange cult-like group which had been converting civilians on the L2 colony into followers by preaching about inter-dimensional beings. There was no talk on how dangerous the cult was, but the five had been sent to go incognito and see what the cult required of its members. However, Trowa didn't even remember reaching L2. He couldn't remember anything beyond leaving headquarters. Now he was here, with an injured civilian, wondering what the hell had happened.
He glanced down at Ami once more, unsure of whether she was as quiet as he was or had simply picked up on the fact that he preferred not to speak. Perhaps learning where she had come from would help him to remember what had happened.
"Where are you from Ami?" Trowa asked casually, glancing down at her once more.
Ami knew what he meant. Why are you wearing summery clothing when it's practically winter.
"I'm from Tokyo," she said.
"Tokyo," he repeated, glancing down at her. "I think we're far from Tokyo, although I don't know where exactly."
"I think so too," she said, hoping that would close the subject. It didn't.
"Do you know where we are?"
"No," she said truthfully, before asking sharply, "Where are you from?"
Deciding to keep with what his mission had asked of him early and stay incognito, he responded. "L2."
She looked up sharply and he caught her before she could look away.
"L2?" She repeated, sounding confused as though she hadn't heard him right.
"Yes, L2," he said stiffly, and she nodded quickly and looked away. What in the world did L2 mean where he was from?
"Have you ever been to L2?" He asked nonchalantly, staring straight forwards. Ami began to say no, hoping to end the conversation, before a searing pain tore through her right calf.
She cried out and crouched down to grab it, releasing Trowa. He stumbled forwards a moment, before turning and surveying the area alertly. Ami wiped her bloody hands on her dress and examined the wound more closely, trying to figure out what had hit her.
"Did someone shoot at you?" Trowa asked reasonably, and Ami shrugged, knowing it wasn't a bullet. Possibly an energy attack since there was no evidence left behind....
Trowa stood and again surveyed the area. They were in the middle of nowhere. There were currently no trees or rocks even- nothing but flat ground spread hundreds of feet from where they stood apart from the mountain in the distance. There was certainly nowhere for an attacker to hide.
"Let's just keep moving," he said, picking her up without her permission and beginning to walk as fast as his injuries allowed.
"Hey," Ami said, "I can walk just fine, it's not that bad."
"We need to clear out of this area. I'll let you down when the bleeding stops."
"Your leg is injured," she pointed out, trying to find a way to get him to release his hold on her.
"It's fine," he said, and as the words left his mouth a strange feeling came over him. It was something like déjà vu, although it wasn't common for him to experience it. This feeling, now followed by a phrase which suddenly came to mind.
"We need a survivor, at least for the first few days."
Well, what do you think? Happy new years!
