Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and am making no profit off of this fic.

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Evasion by luvsanime02

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Chapter 1

Heero grits her teeth against the pain. Her bicep feels like a trail of fire has licked across its surface, but she knows from experience that it's only a flesh wound caused by the bullet that grazed her arm seconds ago. Beneath her, Agent Parks is clutching his leg and applying pressure to his wound. If she'd been an instant slower in tackling him to the ground, he'd be dead now too.

Damn it, this wasn't supposed to happen. Her arm is burning now, but Parks' wound is more serious. Heero can't even tell from a glance whether or not his femoral artery has been hit. There's a lot of blood, but all she can do right now is help him take off his jacket and use it as a tourniquet. Already, his skin is a couple of shades lighter. She really hopes that he doesn't pass out on her right now, because she's not sure if her injured arm can support him in a fireman's carry.

"What do we do?" he asks her, once his wound is seen to the best that they can.

Of course he's looking to her for answers. Heero's the officer in charge of this mission, and three of her men are already dead, Parks is seriously wounded, and she can't even see where the last two members of her team are. She heard gunshots in their direction a few minutes ago, but there's nothing now, and she hopes that means they've somehow escaped.

This mission had been labeled a low threat. Heero's task had been to lead her team into a warehouse suspected to hold numerous illicit substances that one of the local gangs seems fond of selling for profit. The gang in question can be formidable, but this warehouse is only one of several, and the risk of her team running into any of its members was supposed to be almost non-existent. Especially since an important meeting between their upper members had been scheduled during this time, and should have kept everyone away.

Heero still doesn't know what changed, but her team had been inside for barely ten minutes before they were caught. Agent Sheffer had died first, and then Miller while trying to draw attention away from the rest of their team. Killian fell not even a minute later.

Now, Heero and Parks are behind some high crates, but they're backed into a corner with no easy way to get out. There aren't any windows nearby, and even if there were, Parks wouldn't be able to make the climb up on his bad leg. Heero's impressed enough that he's holding his weight on it, and assumes it's mostly adrenaline that's keeping him upright.

"We need to find the others," she answers finally. No matter what, Heero won't leave until she knows that they've escaped, or been killed in action. Really, she should probably focus on Parks and get him out of here first, but if she does that and the last two members of her team die before she can help them, she'll never forgive herself.

She can't believe this mission has gone to hell so quickly, but she's not dying here. Not like this.

Parks nods, accepting her command, and she's very grateful that he's still willing to trust her. Intellectually, she knows that the deaths of her other team members are not her fault, but her heart feels differently. She can worry about that later, however. For now, she needs to focus on their survival.

The gang members know that some of them are still alive, and Heero has no doubt that they're hunting for them even now. She takes a deep breath, then moves to stand beside Parks and offers him her good shoulder. "We can move around faster if I'm supporting you," she says, leaving out that he looks ready to collapse at any moment, and that she'd rather be nearby to sling him over her shoulder if she absolutely has to. "Come on."

There's really nothing for it but for them to start moving. They can't stay where they are and wait to be ambushed. Heero keeps them low to the ground, ignoring the strain on her arm and the way Parks winces as their movements drag his leg across the floor. He's not making any noise of protest, though, which is good enough for her.

Heero leads them carefully and slowly towards the area where she last heard Dochart and Preston. While she wants to get there quickly, her priority has to be making sure that they're not discovered. She hopes like hell that, after having fire returned on them, the gang members in here are being cautious as well.

"Sir," Agent Parks whispers in her ear. She glances at him, wondering if he's going to pass out and is warning her, but instead he gestures to their left. She looks in that direction, and can see a shadow against the wall of someone moving closer.

Cursing under her breath, Heero shuffles them a few feet further down their path and sets Parks down. Then she doubles back until she's right behind some crates. While she really wants whoever's coming closer to be her missing agents, Heero knows it's not them. She can only hear one person breathing, and their gait is too heavy to be a trained Preventers agent, unless they're injured.

Still, just in case she's wrong, Heero waits until whoever it is walks around the corner of the crates. Instead of shooting the stranger and making noise that would draw more of their pursuers to their location, Heero crouches way down and slides the other way around the crates, until she can get behind him. As soon as the man sees Parks on the ground and starts to aim at him, Heero jumps up and wraps one arm around his neck, her other hand covering his mouth to muffle the shout that struggles to emerge.

It takes several minutes of Heero gritting her teeth against the pain of using her injured arm, but eventually he passes out in her hold and she lowers him carefully to the floor. It's potentially suicidal to leave him alive, but her only other option is to kill him while he's unconscious, and she refuses to do that.

Parks is levering himself upright when she gets to him, and they silently continue on their way. It feels like it takes forever, but isn't even five minutes later when they come across Dochart and Preston's bodies. Heero clenches her jaw, and reaches forward to check their pulses, but she already knows that they're dead.

Dochart is slumped over Preston's body, and Heero can only assume that she died trying to protect him. She always was a quick study, and one hell of a field agent.

There's no time for Heero to scream or hit something in her grief, only for her to hitch Parks upright a little bit more when he starts to sag and then continue on.

When they come to a junction, she has the choice to try for a window or go for the door. Really, it's not much of a choice, though. If she thought before that Parks couldn't manage to climb up to a window, he certainly can't now that his head's clearing and his energy's fading fast. Heero just has to hope that the gang either didn't leave a guard on the door, or only left one or two that she can hopefully deal with by herself.

There's no one in sight when they finally come back around to the front of the warehouse, but that doesn't reassure Heero. She props Parks against a wall and creeps forward, listening intently.

There it is, when she slows her breathing, the sound of feet scuffing against the ground outside. She counts two of them. They're probably stationed just beyond the doors, instead of in here, to avoid being shot from a sniper position by someone inside desperately trying to escape.

Unfortunately, this means that she and Parks are trapped.