Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, I just love it! Alison is an original character, but if you wanna use her, just ask and I'll let you! :)
The Lost Girl
Part 1
Something was wrong. I could feel my body, as numb as it was, and I could feel something else, something holding me down. Ropes - I was tied down to what felt like a metal slab, coarse ropes cutting into my skin any time I tried to move.
Despite being tied down, it felt like I was moving - swinging. I was dizzy, I realized, my head spinning in circles even as I was held in one place. I opened my eyes, trying to tell what was going on.
It was dark in here, and cold. Very cold. I was wearing a tank top and shorts, and the cold air bit at my limbs almost more harshly than the rope. I blinked, hoping my eyes would adjust to the dark, but my vision did not improve. Somehow, with my eyes open, the vertigo slamming my brain was worse, and I closed my eyes again, wishing I was anywhere but here.
Where... where had I come from? I suddenly wondered. I couldn't remember a thing - I must be dreaming. But - I never realized it when I was dreaming. So I probably wasn't dreaming. But -
There was a peal of laugher - it seemed to be coming from right next to me, and my eyes flew open as I searched for the source of the sound.
It abruptly cut off, leaving me shivering with more than just the cold. My head began spinning again, and I willed it to go away, with no luck.
But I needed to know what was going on.
"What's going on? Where is this?!" I called out into the darkness, hoping my voice conveyed more bravery and less confusion than I was currently feeling.
The laughter began again, this time echoing from all directions, right next to me, above me, opposite me...
"I want to go back home!" I yelled, annoyed, dizzy, confused, and definitely very scared.
The laughter lessened until it was only a soft chuckle.
"You want to go home, do you? Well, little girl, I suppose that can be arranged." The voice itself was deep and cold, and seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.
"Let me go!" I struggled as best I could against my ropes, feeling them cut into my skin, wishing they would go away, or that I at least had the strength to break them.
"Well then, where shall I send you? Shall I make this fun, eh little girl? I think so, I think so..." The voice mused, more to itself than to me, I figured.
"All right then, child," it said suddenly, and there was an air of commitment, of confidence in it now. "You shall go. And this shall be... most amusing..." It trailed off into chuckles once more, making my stomach twist with fear and disgust.
It grew suddenly colder - there was a breeze now, freezing, biting my skin, and I tried to tell where it was coming from. But just as suddenly, my head began spinning wildly - now the whole room, the table I was on, they all seemed to be moving in multiple directions at once; I felt sick, dizzy, what was going on -
Then there was a noise and I suddenly fell into the vertigo.
SLAM!
I sat up straight, blinking in the darkness. What?
Bad idea - the dizziness slammed down on me like a boulder and suddenly this room was moving, spinning, and oh God -
I was going to be sick.
I practically fell out of the bed I was in and half-stumbled, half-tripped through the darkness until I hit a wall - no, a door! Good, I needed a door right now. I fumbled until I found the handle, pulling it down and the door swung into the room.
I was facing another door now, closed and across from me in the darkness. This was bad, my stomach was protesting, I was going to be sick any minute now -
I glanced to the left and saw a bathroom - thanking something or someone I ran for it, stumbling in, not even bothering to turn on the lights, reaching the toilet just in time for my stomach to heave its contents - nothing much, in reality - upwards.
It took a few agonizingly-long minutes for my stomach to realize that it was indeed empty, and the upheaval lessened. I managed to pull the handle before collapsing against the wall behind me, knees drawn up to my chest, shivering, heart pounding and lungs on overdrive. The room was still spinning, although not quite as badly as before.
I just wanted it to stop, to stop moving and be still so that I could just lie down and maybe then everything would be okay.
A light clicked on somewhere, and I heard a door opening. Light flooded out into the hallway, and I heard noise - shuffling.
Then a voice. "Al? You in there?"
It was a boy's voice, and it didn't sound like the owner was too much older than me. He sounded sleepy and confused. Just how I felt, only I bet he was a whole lot less dizzy.
More shuffling. "Alison, is that you? Al - oh, man, hey, are you okay?"
A shadow fell across me, as best I could tell, and then I heard water running. More shuffling, and suddenly I was aware that the boy had crouched down next to me.
He reached out a hand and wiped my sweaty bangs off my forehead. "Hey, are you all right?" he asked softly, voice heavily colored with concern.
I couldn't say anything; I just sat there, trying to will the dizziness away.
"Here," he said, offering me a glass of water. I looked up and saw his face, large, blue eyes wide, brown bangs falling over his nose, staring into mine with what looked like great concern.
I took the glass, hand shaking, and lifted it to my mouth, suddenly aware of the terrible taste that had accumulated there. My stomach didn't seem to protest, so I took a few small sips before handing it back. He set it down next to him and just stayed there, crouched beside me, peering into my face with concerned eyes.
"Better?" he asked.
I nodded a bit, trying not to make myself any dizzier than I already was. It did seem to be lessening though, I noticed with a twinge of hope.
"You... wanna get up off that cold floor?" he asked, cocking a tiny grin. "You look cold."
"Yeah," I croaked, willing my voice to work, although it came out much softer and scratchier than I had intended.
"Come on, let's get you to the couch," he said, and slipped an arm around my back and beneath mine. He helped me up - well, mostly lifted, actually, since I suddenly couldn't get anything to move - and led me down the hall to the end, where it opened up into a small kitchen, foyer, and living room. Flipping on the lights, he steered me over to the couch and sat me down on it, then stood there, looking down at me as I tried to sit up without falling over.
"Thanks," I managed to get out, although it ended up being so soft that I wasn't sure if he even heard it.
As he looked down at me, his eyes narrowed and his face grew darker. "What happened to you?" he asked, coming over, reaching out to my arm. As his fingers brushed me pain suddenly shot down my limb - I jerked away and looked down.
There were huge red welts crisscrossing my arm - I looked to my other arm to see the same thing, and my legs were also covered with the welts. I looked up at him, confused, as he looked down at me with the same confusion, concern mixed in as well.
"What happened?" he asked again.
"I... I don't know. I thought it was just a dream..." I croaked out. It had been just a dream - hadn't it?
"Well, you look sick," he informed me.
I nodded slowly. "I feel sick. And my head hurts," I said. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. The aforementioned ailments were present. I was just confused as hell to boot.
"Let me make you some coffee, all right? It's almost time for me to get ready to go anyway. You're staying home today," he said firmly, then turned and went into the kitchen, where I could soon heard coffee perking.
I sat, shivering, on the couch, and tried to figure out what was going on.
He came out a moment later to lean on the wall dividing the living room and the kitchen, crossing his arms and staring at me.
"What?" I asked, tired and confused and scared and trying not to show it.
"What's wrong?" he asked, eyeing me with that stare, pinning me down with his eyes. "Something's not right. What is it?"
I paused, not sure whether to tell him what was really going on - that I didn't know who he was, or where this was, or what I was doing here.
I sighed. Well, it was better than doing something completely stupid because I didn't know any better, right? Just tell the truth, out with it, and maybe he could help...
"How long have I been here?" I asked forcefully, and his eyes narrowed.
"What? What do you mean? You've been on the couch for three minutes, don't tell me your memory's that short," he said, cracking a small smile.
"No. How long have I been here - in this place? Living here, or whatever. And who are you?"
The smile disappeared. His eyes grew wide again, and he stood up straight, taking a step back.
"How long have you... who am I...? What? You... you don't know?" he asked, his voice horrified and his face echoing that. One hand went to his head, his long fingers burying themselves in his thick hair. It was long, I noticed, and I suddenly caught sight of a very long, brown braid swinging behind him, reaching down to his mid-thigh.
Something was familiar. Something -
I couldn't place it, and he was still staring at me like I had projectile leprosy.
"I... I don't know where this is," I said softly. "I... I don't think I know who you are."
He shook his head, the braid swinging violently as he did so. "Oh man, this is not good. Not now, please... Aly, tell me you're lying. This is some joke, right? Come on, you know we need the equipment ready for the mission in two days, you have got to be kidding..."
He looked up and saw that I hadn't broken into a grin, hadn't fallen over laughing at his stupidity in believing that I didn't know where I was, or even who he was. I wished I could, at that moment, seeing the nearly desperate look on his face.
"I'm not kidding," I said softly.
"Oh, shit," he said, hand dropping from his head. "Listen, I'm going to go get the guys. You stay right here, don't move."
With that, he turned and rushed out the door. I sat there, confused, scared, worried. I didn't know where this was at all, and I didn't know who he was. I didn't know why I was here, and that was obviously not a good thing.
Yet... something in the back of my mind was whispering at me, telling me who he was. Only it wasn't loud enough to hear, and I couldn't tell what it was saying at all. I knew I knew who he was, where this was, but it just wouldn't come back to me.
The dizziness, however, was slowly fading, and although I was cold and my head hurt, not to mention the red welts that seemed to cover most of my limbs, I was okay.
I could smell the coffee in the kitchen, now finished. I debated getting up and going to get some, but my thoughts were cut off as I heard noise from out in the hall.
"What do you mean, she can't remember? Maxwell, you are not pulling some stupid joke -" an unfamiliar voice was saying angrily.
"I'm telling you Wufei, it's not a joke! Unless she's pulling it on me, too. And I don't think she is," said the one familiar voice I recognized.
"This is bad," came a third voice, this one sounding worried; it also sounded younger than the others.
"Well, of course it's bad! We need that equipment -"
"We need her to remember," the familiar voice said.
"Look, something will work out," said another voice.
"It has to," said a fifth.
Just then the braided boy walked through the door, followed by four other boys: one with short brown hair, one with longer brown hair that fell over his face, a smaller, blond boy, and a Chinese boy scowling behind them all.
I just sat there as they entered the room, all looking at me, some with concern, some with annoyance. I blinked, not knowing who they were, but definitely not wanting them mad at me.
"Look, Alison, this is not the time to be playing around," said the Chinese boy, not without a hint of the annoyance on his face creeping into his voice.
"I'm sorry..." I said. "I.. I really don't know what's going on. I'm not joking."
"What happened?" the small, blond one asked, looking at me with the same concern as the braided boy, who'd walked over to stand beside me, leaning on one of the couch arms.
"I don't know. I had this really weird dream... I don't know if it was even a dream... but somehow I woke up here."
"And was sick," the braided boy put in.
"Are you okay now?" the blond asked.
"I feel a little better. Look... I'm sorry, but... who are you? What am I doing here?"
The braided boy next to me sighed. "Well... That's Quatre," he said, pointing at the blond, who gave me a warm smile. "And Heero, and Trowa, and Wufei," he said, pointing them out in turn. "And... I'm Duo."
I nodded. Quatre looked up at Duo, his eyes filled with something I couldn't name... pity, maybe?
"Well, look, this is all nice and fine, but what about our equipment? And our mission?" Wufei asked, folding his arms across his chest.
"He is right," Trowa put in. "We do still have a mission today, Duo."
"Yeah, I know, I know," Duo said, but he sounded as grim as Trowa.
"Well, I'm not going today anyway," Quatre put in. "And neither is Heero. We can stay here and make sure she's all right, maybe see if we can jog her memory."
"Yeah, you could," Duo said with a sigh. "Yeah, fine."
"We're meeting in ten minutes at the bay," Wufei said, and turned and left. Trowa cast me a somewhat sympathetic glance before turning and leaving as well.
"Um... We'll come back down here in about an hour, okay?" Quatre asked softly.
"Sure," I said, shrugging. "I don't think I can sleep anymore, anyway."
"Right," Heero said; he'd been glaring at me the whole time, not menacingly like Wufei had, just like he was studying me or something...
They left, Quatre casting Duo another glance before turning and exiting.
Duo sighed again. "Listen... you sure you don't want me to stay or something? 'Cause I could - I'm sure Heero wouldn't mind going for me."
"Um, no, that's okay," I said. He blinked, looking down at me with something like... disappointment, maybe? I couldn't tell - he hid it pretty well, but whatever it was, the look he was giving me made me want to sink into a hole so he wouldn't look at me like that.
And on top of that, there was something nagging me, and I was too afraid to put it into words. I didn't even know if I could - it wasn't a "thing", per se, but there was something tugging at my mind. But... I had to say something.... right...?
"Duo?"
He looked down at me; I thought I saw a glimmer of hope flash behind his eyes for just a second. "Yeah?"
There was an awkward silence as I tried to figure out how to ask him... whatever it was I felt I should ask him.
I couldn't do it. "Um, nevermind," I said, glancing back down at my lap, sighing. "It's nothing. I'll ask you later."
There was a moment more of silence, then he turned and walked back to his room. I could hear shuffling around, and he emerged a few minutes later, dressed all in black. He gave me one last glance, then headed for the door.
He reached the door, hand resting on the lever, and stopped, turning partway so he could look at me.
"This is the part where you always tell me not to get myself killed," he said softly.
I blinked. Just what kind of a mission were they going on?
"Well then... I guess, don't get yourself killed. It... wouldn't be good. At all," I said weakly.
He looked at me for a second more, blinked, and was gone.