Dark Secrets by Alaeta Naveen Yuy

She stealthily crept down the dimly lit corridor, her gun at the ready. There were no guards, no scientists, no signs of life at all. Cold shivers ran down her spine as she approached two large steel doors. She slowly pushed open the heavy doors and a stream of fluorescent light engulfed her body as she stepped in. All she could see was brightness until she could just barely make out a figure standing before her. She reached out her hand. Her fingertips were almost there, almost touching his, when, "BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ!"

She opened her eyes slightly as she reached her arm over to the small table next to her bed and shut off the alarm clock. She sighed heavily, still in sort of a daze from sleep. "That dream again. Why can't I ever see his face, who is he?" She gave a surrendering sigh and stood up out of bed. She got dressed and headed downstairs, toward the kitchen, where she was greeted by Quatre cooking breakfast as usual.

"Morning guys." "Good morning, Alana" Quatre replied. "I trust you had a pleasant nights sleep." She just grabbed a glass and poured herself some orange juice. "Has anyone seen Panther this morning?" Duo, who was too busy stuffing his face to notice Alana had entered the room, answered her, "Oh, morning Lana. She left already. She said to meet her at the lake." She gulped down her last swallow of juice and headed for the door, "Thanks, Duo. I'll see you guys later." Quatre was just sitting down at the table, but stopped short, "You're not going to have something to eat before you go?" "No thanks, I'm not really hungry this morning." Quatre started to say something, but was cut off by Duo, "Say hey to Panther for me." "Will do. Catch ya later." Alana stepped outside and took a deep breathe of fresh air. "The sky is so gorgeous today, I think I'll walk." she said to herself as she began to take a leisurely pace towards the lake.

: Author's note : Alana and Panther worked for the Preventers office along with the Gundam pilots. They were assigned to work together six months ago and all though none of them would admit it, the guys very much liked having the two of them around. They were all living in one of Quatre's many luxurious estates on Earth. This one was in Montana, right on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, about two miles from Flathead Lake. They were at least thirty miles from any city, however. And right now, the group were on a 'vacation' of sorts. In other words, they had the week off from work. :

Little did Alana know, she was being watched.

It was almost twenty minutes later and while Duo and Quatre were going stir crazy having nothing to do, Heero and Trowa were deadlocked in a very intense chess game and Wufei had found a good book on The Art of Chinese Swordmaking. Two moves later, Heero looked up at Trowa and in his usual monotone voice said, "Checkmate." At that Duo stood up and threw his hands into the air, "Okay, that was fun, but now who wants to have some real fun!" "Shut up Maxwell," Wufei snorted, "some of us are having fun in our current activities." Duo just gave an innocent little smirk, "Yeah, but don't you think that it would be even more fun if we took our fun activities outside for a while, at say, the lake, for example." The guys exchanged looks and all agreed almost instantaneously. Quatre stood up, "The lake it is then. I'll pack us some lunch." A few moments later, Duo was at the door and ready, stereo and every cd he owned in hand. "Drop it Duo." was Heero's response. "No way, we need something to occupy ourselves with out there." "Well, don't you have a pair of headphones you could bring?" Quatre interrupted. "Nope, but" Duo just frowned sheepishly and tapped the floor with the tip of his shoe, "Panther said she would get me one for Christmas, unless you want to give me one now." Duo looked up with big puppy dog eyes at Quatre. Trowa just shook his head. "Just keep the volume low or I will blow it up." Heero said flatly. Duo hugged his stereo as if it were a small child, "You wouldn't dare." Heero just gave a small smirk. "Okay, you are really scary when you do that." "Lets go, already." Wufei shouted from the garage as he started the engine of his jeep. "Hey," Quatre said, "Alana's bike is still here." "The lake isn't that far, she probably walked." Heero stated mater of factly, as he jumped into the jeep and fastened his seatbelt. "She couldn't have made it to the lake yet, we will probably pass her on the way." Trowa said. And with that they were off.

Alana was almost to the lake. She had been walking for about thirty minutes now, all the while with the feeling that someone was behind her, but every time she turned around, there was nothing there. She just pushed the feeling aside and kept on walking. "I should be able to see the lake in a few minutes." she said to herself. Just then, she heard footsteps behind her, she glanced slightly over her shoulder. She saw four men were following her. She began to increase her pace and so did they. She broke out into a run, but they were gaining on her. One of them grabbed her arm, but she easily broke free from his grasp. He had slowed her down enough for the other three to get ahead of her. She was surrounded. They stood in silence, catching their breath until one of them spoke, "Don't fight it, Miss Alana, we outnumber you. You will only be making this harder on yourself." "Who are you and what do you want from me?" "Who we are is not important. Our job is to bring you in for interrogation." "Interrogation?" "Yes, you see, you have some information that our employer needs." "Oh, and who is your employer?" "You'll find out soon enough, now cooperate and you will not be harmed." "And what if I refuse to cooperate?" Just then a black van rolled up a few feet behind them. "Then we will have to use force." "Sorry, but I'm going to have to make you work for this." "Very well." And with that, they attacked. She narrowly avoided a couple of punches. They were good, she had to admit, but she was better. She landed a few good shots of her own; she knocked one out cold and was doing a pretty good job of keeping them at bay, when the driver sneaked up and caught her off guard by grabbing her from behind. The apparent leader of the lot pulled a small bottle from his pocket and poured the contents onto a cloth. She struggled to release herself from his hold, but could not budge. He placed the cloth over her nose and mouth, trying to avoid being kicked by the struggling girl. After a few moments of breathing in the noxious fumes, Alana passed out. They quickly carried her into the van and piled in. They were in such a hurry, that they almost hit a jeep that was driving past, but narrowly avoided the collision and drove off in a hurry.

Duo was playing his music too loud already and Heero was about to shoot him and the stereo, when they were almost thrown out of the vehicle when Wufei had to swerve to avoid hitting a black van that wasn't paying much attention. He immediately pulled the jeep off to the side of the road and was about to pull out his katana, but the van was already halfway out of sight down the road. "What were they doing way out here, I thought no one lived between the lake and the city but Quatre." Duo asked, a little confused. Quatre grabbed his chest and grabbed Trowa's arm, who was sitting next to him. "Quatre, what is it, whats wrong?" "Someone is in trouble, close by. I think its Alana." Everyone's eyes got wide. "Get to the lake, now Wufei!" Heero practically shouted. Wufei floored it. They arrived at the lake in no time at all and stopped at Panther's car. Heero was the first one out of the jeep. He ran up to where Panther was, but there was no sign of Alana. "Hey, guys, whats going on, You look worried." Panther greeted them with her sword and a polishing cloth in hand. "Wheres Alana?" Heero asked almost shouting. "She was supposed to be on her way here, why, what happened!" she asked, now alarmed. Quatre informed her of what happened on the way. "Why didn't you go after her? Why did you come here!" "I thought she may have made it here and was with you." "Did you look for her on the way here? Maybe she went off of the road." "We didn't see her." Heero stepped in between them, "Okay, then, we split up, Wufei, Quatre, and myself will take Wufei's jeep and you three in Panther's car. We will take the left and you take the right. We will meet back at Quatre's." "Agreed, lets go."

Alana woke up with one hell of a hangover. She opened her eyes and was blinded by bright fluorescent lamps pointed directly at her face. She went to cover her eyes, but couldn't. Her arms were restrained to the arms of a chair, as well as her legs. She also had sensors attached to her body. "What the-" "Oh, good. Your awake, I see. For the amount Gavin gave you, you should have been knocked out for at least a few more hours." "Who are you?" she asked hazily. "I must admit, you have a very strong constitution. That was pretty potent stuff Gavin used." was the only reply from the man in a white lab coat, who was standing over her, now checking her vitals. "Where am I?" she asked as she began to pull against her restraints. "I wish you wouldn't do that, miss. You might hurt yourself and we have strict orders that you are to be kept unharmed." "Orders from who?" she was now furious and speaking through clenched teeth, "What is going on!" She was silenced by the man bowing as what appeared to be his employer, walked into the room. "Leave us." The man in the lab coat bowed again and exited. Once the door clicked shut, he approached her, but stopped just short of the lamplight so that she could only make out a figure. "Who are you and why have I been brought here?" she demanded. "You retain knowledge that I require, Alana." He pulled a chair over and picked up what appeared to be a small box from the table nearby. "I don't want to hurt you, Alana, so please tell me what I want to know." She closed her eyes lightly and spoke, "I'm sorry, you see, you have me at a disadvantage, you know my name, but I haven't got a clue as to who you might be. And it is rude to ignore a lady, you know." He gave a small chuckle, "Very well, you may call me Darius ... my lady." "What exactly do you want from me, Darius?" "I want the codes for the Preventers classified files." "Sorry, but I don't have them." "My sources tell me differently, Alana." "Your sources are wrong." "Please don't make me hurt you. I was hoping so much that you would be as smart as you are beautiful and join me." "Not on your life." "Very well." He pressed a small button on the box he was holding, which immediately sent shock waves to the sensors that were attached to her body. She clenched her teeth and when the current stopped, she let out a sigh of relief. "It looks very painful, Alana. I don't want to do this, but you leave me no choice, now tell me the codes!" "Go to hell!" Darius threw down the receiver in frustration and stepped into the light. She gasped in surprise. He was the same man in her dreams, she could tell. She now knew what her dreams had meant, but it was too late. He got mere inches from her face, "I will give you twenty four hours to decide. Tell me or you and your friends will die." "They have nothing to do with this, leave them out of it!" "Your twenty four hours have begun. See you tomorrow." He stormed out of the room and she could hear the lock turn as the door shut behind him. "I have to warn the others, Darius will be coming for them." she thought to herself as she struggled against her restraints.

The pilots and Panther had searched for hours and finally at nightfall they had to return to the mansion. "Did you find anything at all?" Panther inquired before any of them had a chance to get out of the jeep. "No sign of her, except for several sets of footprints, indicating a struggle." Heero said. "We also found a piece of cloth soaked with chloroform." "So, she was drugged?" "It appears that way." "I have a bad feeling about this, we have to find her soon." Trowa placed a comforting hand on Quatre's shoulder, "We will find her, but right now we must remain calm if we want to help her."

They spent the next 18 hours searching for anything that might point them in the right direction to finding Alana. They exhausted all available resources, including the Preventers mainframe computers. They came up empty-handed. They were all a bit on edge from lack of sleep and worry for their comrade. The silence in the room was deafening; a pin drop would have sounded like an explosion at this point. Panther finally broke the silence with a question they had asked at least a dozen times by now, "Why would they kidnap Alana?" Heero didn't look away from his laptop, but answered her question, "I think the question you should be asking is 'What is it they want from Alana?' " "What do you mean?" "What does Alana know that someone might find valuable?" "I don't know." "Come on, Panther, you know her better than anyone else." "Yeah, but I can't read her mind to know everything she knows." Trowa spoke up, "Doesn't she have the codes for the Preventers classified files?" "Yeah, but so does Sally, and she would be much easier to get to." Heero lifted his head from his computer, "Yes, but they are not the same codes." "What do you mean, Yuy?" "I mean there are two separate lists of classified files." "That's impossible, Yuy. If there were two sets we would know about it." "Your not supposed to know it exists, that's the point." Panther raised her head, "You can't steal it if you don't know its there." Quatre spoke now looking even more worried than before, "Then that means someone from high up in the Preventers has been leaking information." "Call Sally and tell her that we need her help with finding Alana, but don't indicate that we know anything about the files or the leak, just get her here. If that is what all this is about, we don't want to put Alana in anymore danger than she already is."

Meanwhile. . .

"I must admit, Alana, I am impressed that you still haven't given me the codes while you know your friends' lives are at stake here." Silence was her only response. Darius gave a deep sigh, "Why are you doing this to yourself? I know this is painful and you have the power to put an end to it. Give me the codes, Alana." She remained silent. "You won't even talk to me, Alana." "There is nothing to say," she said hoarsely. Her throat was dry. She had not been given any food or water since she was abducted. "Then I am afraid you leave me no choice. I will have to kill your friends." He moved towards the door, "I'll bring them here and let you watch them die, maybe then you'll talk." "You'll never find them," she said. "We found you didn't we." She waited until she heard the door click shut before she began to struggle against her restraints. Her wrists were already bloody from pulling against them for the past several hours. "I have to get out of here to warn them before Darius gets to them," she thought to herself. The more she struggled, the more the restraints cut into her flesh. Just as she was about to give up, she felt her arm slip a little. The blood was allowing her to move her arm slightly. She wriggled her arm a little more until she was able to dislocate her thumb and slip her hand through. She quickly popped her finger back into the joint and released her remaining bound limbs. She crept silently up to the door, there were 2 guards standing outside. She looked around the room for another possible means of escape, but found none. She picked up a clip board with what looked like medical charts that had her name at the top of the page and stood against the wall next to the door. She knocked over one of the lights that were glaring down on her earlier and immediately the door opened and one of the guards stuck his head in. Before he could react, she brought the clip board down over the top of his head and knocked him out cold. She then punched the second guard right between the eyes, knocking him out as well. She dragged their unconscious bodies into the room, tied them up, and put on one of their uniforms. She pulled her hair into a cap that one of them had, took their guns and walked out, locking the door behind her. She was in what appeared to be an old hospital. She made her way down the corridors without any interference until another soldier noticed the name tag on her shirt and shouted "The prisoner is escaping!" She ran and fired a couple of shots behind her. Several more soldiers appeared and began firing at her. She made it out the back door and jumped into one of the jeeps that were parked there. She shot out the tires of the vehicles surrounding her and sped off. It was only after she made it down the road a little that she noticed she had been shot. She ripped off one of the shirt sleeves and bandaged the wound in her side as best as she could. Right now, her focus was on getting to her friends before Darius did.

It was getting late in the day and the sky was steadily growing darker. Panther had the sinking feeling that they were running out of time and she could not sit still. She had been pacing the room now for a solid 2 hours, wearing an indentation into the rug. "Sit down, onna, you are driving me crazy." "I can't help it, I just know we've missed something that could have lead us to her." Duo stood up and wrapped his arms around her, trying in vein to comfort her. She wriggled out of his hold and went back to pacing, letting out a small growl or inaudible phrase every few minutes. Trowa spoke softly, "Panther, please sit down, save your energy for when we find the ones who kidnapped Alana." She stopped, threw her hands into the air and began to shout, "I'm sorry, but I can't just sit here on my ass while my best friend is probably being tortured and beaten for information I didn't even know she knew by an asshole we work for!" "Who is being beaten and tortured?" Everyone practically jumped out of their skin at the interruption. Alana was practically knocked over by Panther glomping her, relieved to see her friend alive and still in one piece. "I've never been so happy to be scared in my life—" she was cut off mid-sentence when the smell of blood caught her nose. She stepped back to look at her and Alana lost her balance and her knees gave out. Heero caught her just before she hit the ground. She had passed out from losing too much blood. Heero immediately carried her into the living room and set her down on the sofa. Trowa ran and fetched him a first aid kit. Heero cleaned and stitched the bullet wound and bandaged her up in no time at all.