Her

Dou sprinted down the hallway. He heard the footsteps of the gundam outside. He smiled. Quatra and Trowa made an awesome team. While they distracted Traize's soldiers, he, Heero, and Wufei could get in, plant bombs, and get out. Duo was placing the last bomb when he heard a loud crash.

I guess the fight is closer now. Time to go. He raced down the hallway to find the part of the building completely closed off. Growling to himself, he turned back, trying to remember if there was another way out. Rounding a corner, he heard the gasp a second before he saw the girl.

She was the same height and age as he was, with platinum blonde hair in a braid longer than his. Her outfit resembled that of the dancers he had seen at Quatra's desert base once. Her eyes were a deep blue and frightened.

Duo figured her for some sort of visiting civilian when Heero dashed around the corner beyond her. Her hand had been at her mouth in surprise until this point. When she saw Heero, she seemed to awaken from her surprise and opened her mouth to scream.

Heero immediately dashed to her and covered her mouth with his hand, holding her as they all heard soldiers coming from below them. Duo looked at Heero a second before re-loading his gun and proceeding back down the hall his comrade had just come from. He didn't understand why Heero hadn't just shot her and he would much rather be the one held by the athletic brunette.

Coming around a corner two floors higher, they ran into Wufei, the last of their party. Duo explained the collapse of their exit as Heero caught up. Dragging someone along was difficult. As he turned the corner, Wufei froze, seeing the girl. Duo started to explain that he had no idea why Heero was dragging a girl around as Wufei stared at her. Suddenly the girl elbowed Heero and dived for Wufei.

"Wufei!" Her cry was lost as as the ceiling above Wufei broke. Duo paled as Heero leaped over the pile to check on their companion. He needn't worry as both were fine.

Wufei was lying on the ground with the girl on his chest. His arms had come up and were wrapped around her, head bent protectively over her. Duo wondereed about the strange attraction this girl seemed to possess.

Slowly, the girl pushed herself away from Wufei and looked at him.

"Wufei...It is you! You did make it off the station!" She thrust herself back into his chest, close to tears now. Another shake of the building awoke the three soldiers.

"I think leaving would be a terrific idea right about now." Duo reminded them of the situation. Wufei looked at them.

"Where?" Heero looked back at him.

"Shortly, nearly anywhere would be preferable to our present position." Wufei glared at him.

"I was referring to the exit, though 'how?' would have probably been less confusing." The girl looked up.

"I know a way." They looked at her. Duo shrugged.

"What the hell." Nodding she took them along another hallway to a room they hadn't been in. She walked around it until a wall-door opened. It was a bedroom. Skirting the bed by wide berth, she opened a small panel. It looked like a dumb waiter system.

"The waiter will be at the roof for the meeting this morning. This stops at the sewer entrance." As they nodded and Heero in to formulate a plan down, she backed away. Wufei grabbed her wrist.

"You're coming this time." She looked at him, startled.

"But...But...I-" She didn't get to finishee because Duo pulled her on his back.

"Ah shut up and come on." They climbed down the shaft single file. Duo was last so that if he or his passenger fell, someone could try to catch them.

The girl didn't squirm. Duo was thankful. She wasn't particularly heavy and she relaxed her limbs to keep them out of the way. Actually, now that he was carrying her, he noticed she had muscle to her. He figured the main reason she let him carry her, aside from her timid nature, was her outfit. It looked slightly annoying to move in small spaces in.

Upon reaching the bottom, they ran the length of the tunnel, next to the sewer river. As they exited, Heero radioed Quatra and Trowa; mission complete.

000

They proceeded to the desert base. They would all talk there. Duo and Heero didn't bother asking Wufei about the girl. If it had been a problem, he would have spoken. They figured themselves an hour or so behind Trowa and Quatra.

They had been walking along when the girl suddenly grabbed her head in pain. Stopping, Wufei grabbed her shoulders.

"What-" He stopped as her shouts began.

"No! Behind you! Don't let them hit you! RASHID!" She was holding her head and stumbling backwards as if trying to escape the mental horror. She let out several more screams and grunts before becoming understandable again. "Under you! NO! TROWA!" She knelt down crying as she went quiet witht he last shout. Wufei knelt next to her as Duo and Heero looked on, shocked. She was still sobbing, saying a few words, interspersed with sobs.

"He's gone...Unconscious...It was him...I'd recognize him anywhere...Quatra..."She was standing again, sniffling as she calmed down. She looked up to see three boys watching her, but they didn't have the chance to ask questions.

"Freeze!" Out of the corner of his eye, Heero counted at least ten opponents, most well out of range. Glancing at Duo and Wufei, they quickly and silently conferred. Duo and Heero threw down their guns and got on their knees with hands behind their head. Wufei, with a glance to the girl, followed suit. All four sets of wrists were bound and they were herded in the direction they had been going.

000

Duo realized very quickly that even though the girl had been in their base, she wasn't an ally. They were shoving her in the general direction they were hiking, but they were picking on her. He looked over to see them give her shoulder another shove. She stumbled as her feet tried to stay under her as her body moved in a new direction. On foot nearly caught the other and for a brief moment he thought her to fall, but she caught herself just in time and continued to walk/stumble, for once she had showed she would maintain her balance another soldier shoved her. They were joking with her too. Thanks to that Duo was getting a clearer picture of her position in the base.

"Come on girl, can't you even walk in a straight line?"

"Here, you want to go more that way."

"Hey your too close to me! You're ability to fail might be catching!"

"Nah, just her ability to be useless."

"Whoops, don't fall!"

They were laughing the entire time. Duo was forced to check himself when one shoved him and Heero. He must have slowed slightly. Still their shove had been downright friendly compared to the taps she was getting.

Finally, the leader called for a stop. Duo, Wufei, and Heero were forced to kneel off to one side. One soldier grabbed the girl and tossed her over to them. For the first time since Duo had met her, she actually lost her balance. She fell hard on the packed dirt. They all heard laughter as the soldiers gathered for orders. As Heero observed them, Duo and Wufei approached the girl gently. They trusted Heero to keep them in the loop.

"Hey, you okay there?" She looked at Duo and smiled slightly. He could see her lip quiver though as she tried to rise.

"I'm fine. They won't win with me." She finally got to a sitting position and looked around. When her eyes landed on Wufei, she looked down in shame, muttering to herself. "I will try to get better." Wufei just looked at her. Duo was indignant though.

"Better! They are shoving around more than a sack of potatoes! I don't know how you keep your balance to begin with." She smiled and whispered something. Duo leaned closer, noticing the look that Wufei gave her, signaling he had heard her. "What'd you say?"

"I said a sack of potatoes has more use, that's all." Duo straightened and looked at her. He was about to retort when Heero nudged him. Turning he saw several soldiers approach them. They set a plate with bread on the ground in front of Wufei and Heero. They were about to place on in front of Duo when he scathingly asked about the girl's food. They just sneered at him and smacked him over the head with his plate. They took his bread back to the fire. Duo glared at them through one eye, the other closed in pain. Actually Heero and Wufei were both glaring as well. Heero turned and broke the bread with his hands behind his back. Dropping it on the plate again, he nodded to Duo. Looking, Duo saw Wufei do the same for the girl.

Too soon the soldiers pulled them roughly to their feet. The march continued for another hour or so, Duo's internal clock wasn't reliable. Heero could probably tell, but it wasn't relavant information at this point. As they crested another hill, the three pilots recognized it as right next to the border of the desert, where they were to meet Quatra and Trowa and pick up their gundams.

There was a group of soldiers waiting for them, and they were not friendly to the captives. The three boys were pushed to one side. After regaining some semblence of balance from their sudden shove to their knees, they saw their missing friends. Quatra knelt next to Trowa and Rashid. Both men were injured, though Trowa was conscious. Noin and Milardo were betweeen the two groups of gundam pilots, both were panting and injured slightly. Rashid's men were behind them all, in various states of concsiousness. Duo turned when he heard one of the soldiers speak.

"What about this girl? Do you want her in the tent?" Duo looked over for a split second, before Wufei's tensing brought his attention to the chinese boy. Looking at his comrade, Wufei was glaring holes at their captives. Another man came over. Duo assumed it was the captain. It wasn't a person in the way Duo thought of one. Black hair slicked back, the sharp eyes glanced everywhere with calculating precision. Duo shivered slightly, the look reminded him of when he was on the wrong side of Heero. The thing carried a glass of wine in one hand. Behind him, where he had sat before the soldier talked, was a comfortable chair with a three-course meal next to it. Right now, he lifted the girl's chin with one hand. Smiling cruelly, he glanced over at them.

"She wanted to go with them, she can be punished with them." He turned away, back to his meal. The soldier shove her towards them. She landed practically in Milardo's lap. Duo looked at Milardo, expecting him to try and help her up, but the tall man was completely frozen. Eventually, she worked her way to a sitting position and looked at the person whose lap she had invaded. She, too, froze when she saw him. Shaking her head, she apologized and scooched back to Wufei. Duo looked between the two, and saw Heero do the same thing. Their attention was grabbed when sleeze-ball stood to talk.

"You are all enemies of Oz and thus shall be eliminated. Prepare!" He walked over to where a firing line was assembling. Duo looked over when he felt Wufei move to nudge the girl. She looked at him with pleading eyes.

"I don't think I can do it." Wufei just looked steadily into her eyes.

"You don't need to think or know, just do." She looked at him startled. So did Milardo. He was very interested in all this, leading Duo to think he was the only one who had no idea what was going on, wel him and Heero. The girl looked at Wufei.

"Wufei..."

"Any last words?" She turned to the sleeze-ball. Standing slowly, faltering once, she looked him in the face. He glared at her. "Only the failure? Well?" She took a deep breath and looked firmly into his eyes.

"Can't you hear these people sing?
Singing the song of angry men."

Her voice rang clear over the dunes and sand as she sang a very old song. Duo saw Quatra look up from Trowa. He could understand his distraction. Her voice seemed to encompass them slightly. Looking at her, he saw her hand come free of their restraints and come out at the side.

"It is the music of a people who
will not be slaves again!"

The sleeze-ball shouted an order to fire at the girl to his men but even as they complied, a shard of metal shot out of the ground and halted in front of the girl. She looked around as she sang, gesturing to the ground, as if beckoning.

"When the beating of your heart echos the beating of the drums
There's a life about to start when tomorrow comes."

Duo's jaw followed everyone else's as it hit the floor. A giant metal hand came out of the sand. From further away more parts were moving, or making their way across the sand to where they were.

"Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?"

The parts started to put themselves to gether into gundams and the mobile suits belonging to the Magwanac Corps started to put themselves together and came over. Duo had never seen anything so spectacular. She turned to them, using the song, she seem to implore to them.

"Beyond a barricade is there
a world we long to see.
Please join us in the fight
That will give us the right to be free."

By now all the suits were standing. The enemy ran to their suits only to find most of them dead already. She continued to implore to the machines as they rose from their sandy graves to be next to her. She turned to the sleeze-ball again.

"Do you hear those people sing
It is the song of angry men.
It is the music of a people
Who won't be slaves again.
When the beating of your heart
echos the beating of the drums
There's a life abouto t start
when tomorrow comes."

She turned to the pilots and Magwanac Corps. As she sang, they were freed by their own suits.

" Will you give all you can give,
so that our banner may advance?
Some will fall and some will live,
will you stand up and take your chance?"

As she spoke, Wufei rose next to her to smile slightly. Milardo helped Noin to her feet as Quatra helped Trowa. Heero stood next to Duo as they all stared up at their gundams.

"The blood of the martyrs will water the space and the lands."

She turned back to the enemy, now with the full force of the gundams and their pilots behind her.

"Don't you hear these people sing,
this the song of angry men.
It is the music of a people
We will not be slaves again."

Her opponent purpled as she firmly sang her intentions. She was staring confidently at him.

"Since the beating of our hearts
echos the beating of the drums
There's a life about to start
when tomorrow comes."

The sleeze-ball's transport took off as she ended the song.

"I can hear these people sing,
It the song of joyful men
it is the music of a poeple
who now are free again.
And the beating of their heart
echos the beating of the sound
that peace brings
when its around."

With the last word she fainted into Wufei's arms. he caught her, looking at her worried. She was in a dead faint. He looked at the others. They got into their suits and returned to base.