Disclaimer: I don't own Hilde, Duo, or anything that has to do with Gundam Wing. Anyway, I did this under the influence of no other fics, meaning I am dong this based on my ideas and my ideas alone. If any of my stories resemble any others in any way, it is purely by coincidence. Oh and if you think I'm trying to copy Katsu's style of writing, don't. I admire her too much to do that. She's an awesome writer, even though I AM a little squeamish about the yaoi part of her story, it is still the greatest fic I have ever read. So no suing, flaming or being stupid. Get it? Got it? Good. ^_^.
And yes I'm a non-yaoi, meaning I'm not against it (freedom of speech, people. You have no right to flame yaoi authors. You don't want to read yaoi, then don't), but I AM super squeamish about it (in turn it means you have no right to flame me either).
Author's note: This story is from Hilde and Duo's point of view. It switches back and forth.
The Schbieker Chronicles
By Shadow@ngel
Sweet sixteen came too soon for Hilde...
Part 1: Where's Hilde?
You know, I was never really important until I met Duo Maxwell. I was just an Oz solder, obeying every command, doing everything right and being Miss perfect. I was considered a prime example to the new recruits of what a real Oz soldier was supposed to be. It was the same every day. Nothing changing, just a normal routine .
And it was like that for years, until Duo strut straight into my life and happily took me strutting with him. He made the difference in my life. He made me realized just who I was and who I should've been fighting with in the first place. He let me know that we weren't enemies. And I couldn't resist him.
He's got charm that even managed to reach me, of all people. He helped me so much, I'll never be able to thank him.
But that's exactly the problem. All the things he did left me in his shadow, and no one ever recognized the little German girl who sneaked onto Libra and stole crucial files.
It sincerely hurts when it comes down to that. And the worst part is, you can't even let anyone know you're hurting until it's a little too late.
Let me tell you that I'm not exactly who you think I am. You probably think that I'm a polite, easy to bend and break girl. But I'm not, and because of Duo's shadow, I'll never be able to show anyone the REAL me.
I wanted to change that so bad, that when I hit sweet sixteen, things began to fall apart.
It mostly started at the surprise birthday party everyone was so obviously planning for me. Considering Duo was unknowingly blurting out hints every three words, of course I'd know. I'm pretty perceptive for my age, believe me.
Anyway, the birthday was going to be at Four in the afternoon. Duo was supposed to take me out to a restaurant or something and stall me while everyone got ready at the party. Lessee… Trowa was supposed to get the decorations, Quatre the cake, Heero the guest list and the invitations, and finally, Wufei handled everything else: all the miscellaneous stuff. See? You can't keep anything from Hilde. It was kind of hard to imagine Trowa, Heero and Wufei singing 'Happy Birthday.' But if they actually did, I'd be terrified.
So we were going down to the movie theater in Relena's …pink car. (Duo resisted at first, but Relena insisted that she get us there. "It was the least I could do!" she said. Pheh. Poor Duo.) It was bad enough that his braid made him look like a girl. Now a pink car? Oh, it was too good a deal to pass up. This was for all the practical jokes he played on me.
The air conditioning was up full blast and it was getting super cold in the back of that car. I started rubbing my arms to keep warm. Duo, it looked like, wasn't doing any better. His teeth were chattering loudly. Luckily, Pagan looked in the rear view mirror and noticed us.
The little window in front of us lowered and Pagan started to speak.
"Miss Schbieker, Mr. Maxwell, are you all right?" he asked. I could see his eyes in the mirror, no doubt he could see mine.
"C-C-Cold! Turn off the conditioner, wouldja?"
"Before we turn into icicles?" Duo remarked. I shook my head. Typical Duo. At least I wasn't the one who had to take the extra twenty minutes to stay in the bath and THEN refused to use the hair dryer. I had never EVER met a guy who cared about split ends. Neither did I know you COULD get split ends that way. Hm, it wasn't so bad having a guy friend like that. It was nice. I mean, in a friend-ish kind of way.
But before we could do anything, we pulled up to the building. I was very relieved at that point. If I had stayed in that car any longer, I didn't know whether I would die form freezing to death or from listening to Duo whine about it.
No, he doesn't really whine. I'm just exaggerating. Really, I am.
"Thanks Pagan." I waved to him as he turned and drove off. He didn't say good-bye or anything. I wasn't expecting he would ether, so it was okay with me. Duo didn't notice, as usual. He was busy looking at all the movie flicks being played at the moment. He was eyeing a certain action movie that I had sworn on my life I would never watch. It was one of those macho guy movies that girls HAVE to avoid at any cost.
I, however, was eyeing a certain romance movie. Yes, the kind that guys will avoid at any cost. And it was then and there that I knew we'd never get into the movie theater.
"How 'bout this one?"
"No."
"…"
"I said no. I hate those kinds of movies."
"Well, there ain't no way in hell I'm going to watch any of those warm and fuzzy feeling movies. Fuzzy is right. You might as well cough up a hairball while you're at it." He was being kind of serious (serious as he'll ever get anyway.) but I laughed all the same.
"Fine. Just this once. I'll probably be at the snack shack all day." He shrugged. "Oh stop it. I'm just joking."
"Okay then! Crimson Capes it is!" He grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the ticket booth where he mysteriously ran out of money. He was short only a few bucks, but it was still annoying. It was my birthday and I had to use my snack money to help my best friend pay for the tickets. (The bastard) I thought and smirked, leafing through the money I had stashed away in my left sock. What I had left was just enough to pay for some M&M's or something. I had only brought so much money. Like eight bucks or something. Hey- I didn't know I was going to use it for tickets.
I sighed and trudged straight through the doors into what was going to be nothing but exactly one hour and 45 minutes of hell…
Well it turned out that I didn't really have to sit there ALL that long. I escaped every now and then by dumping the snacks I bought under the seat and claiming I ate them all. I got away, having Duo to think that I was going out to get more snacks. That I was, but still, at least I could get out of it for a little while rather than watching the whole thing.
Here's where the whole thing began. I was sitting down on a bench outside the doors when three people walked up to me with solemn looks on their faces. I stopped in mid-chew of a stubborn gummy bear.
"Excuse me miss, are you Hilde Seb-iker?" I nearly choked on it. Darnit, that was the fifth time someone mispronounced my name today, alone. I could have marched straight home, came back, and shot them through the head with a pistol.
"Yes, and that's Schbieker." I swallowed the gummy whole. The chair creaked. I accidentally hit my foot against it as I stood up.
(Ow…) I thought. I rubbed my toe with my other foot, but still kept eye contact with the lead man.
"Is there something I can help you with?" I could see my face in the reflection of one of the badges they wore. Seemed that I looked more worried than I thought.
I felt a little suspicious of them. After all, not every day would some guys in suits come walking up to you and mispronounce your name. Really, though. It was unnerving.
"We need you to come with us." He took off his pair of glasses and wiped them on his shirt. Well, at least that made me feel a little better. That gesture suddenly made me feel like he was a human, so I relaxed my shoulders. I hadn't even known I was getting stiff. I didn't need to see myself to know how bad I looked.
"What..?" I said. I was a little surprised at their command. "I'm kind of busy today."
"Miss-,"
"Schbeiker." I said, interrupting him. I could tell he was getting annoyed, because the side of his mouth was starting to twitch.
"Miss Schbieker. We need you. Now." That got my attention right away. Just the seriousness in his voice caused me to stop. I turned back toward them, suddenly remembering that Duo was still waiting for me in our seats.
"O-Okay. But need to tell Duo. He'll need to know I'm going somewhere. I'll be quick," I said. I really hadn't known what inside of me made me say yes. I jogged toward the doors of the room, but someone abruptly grabbed my arm. I paused. That was the last straw: I whipped around and faced him, looking him straight in the eye.
"Hey, Listen you! It's bad enough you're dragging me off-," I was mad. But I stopped in my tracks and shut my mouth as he said,
"HILDE. NOW." I didn't say another word. I found myself being dragged into another one of those over-conditioned limos, but this time, didn't say anything about it. The whole trip there was really silent. It was a little scary, everyone was staring straight at me. I faced forward, just trying not to let them know it was bothering me.
I wondered what Duo would think when he noticed I was gone.
********
I looked at Hilde's empty seat, then behind me at the double doors of the cinema. Where was she? It wouldn't take THAT long of a time to get some snacks. The only way something like that would take so long was if the gummies came to life and were boycotting her or something.
I stood up and right away, someone threw a kernel at my head.
"SIDDOWN!" He yelled. Well, obviously wasn't going to take anything from this guy, so I grabbed the first thing I could and threw it. Unfortunately the thing I grabbed was a soda can. A full soda can.
"Okaaaay, Duo is LEAVING the building!" I muttered and I raced out of there, glad the guy was too lazy to come out after me. A lot of people are like that these days, too lazy to do anything. Now me on the other hand- is so lazy as to sit through a tornado with a remote controller in my hand. Not literally, but you get the point.
I suddenly remembered that I was out there because was looking for Hilde. I was kind of angry that she was making me miss part of the movie, but was guessing she had a good reason for it. (She better.) I thought with a wide grin on my face.
I made my way to the vendor and leaned over the counter.
"Hey, uh. You wouldn't happen to have seen a young girl about my age, dark blue hair, pink beret walk by, did ya?" the girl turned to me and shook her head. But then she looked up at the ceiling as if she remembered something. Luckily she did.
"Hey wait a minute. I DID see a girl with a beret walk out of here with three other guys. And they were in a hurry too. But I can't be too sure about what she looked like, because I didn't see her face." She pointed outside at the parking lot. "She left in this black limo." I nodded, still confused.
"Thanks, ma'am!" I walked out of the theatre. I'd have a hell of a time explaining it to all of them waiting back at the apartment.
And when I got back there, the lights were off and everyone was in their hiding places. I opened the door and hollered,
"SHE AIN'T HERE!" A few 'Huh?'s and 'What?'s sounded out and I flicked on the light. First thing that happened was that Relena walked up to me and asked,
"Duo, what's going on? Where is Hilde?" I didn't really know what to say and I shrugged. That got a few surprised replies. I closed the door behind me. "I dunno."
"Whadda you mean you don't know. Weren't YOU the one who took her to the movies?" said Sally. I nodded, STILL not knowing what to say. Relena looked a little mad, probably because the look on my face probably said, 'Big Deal'. I did care, but I didn't know how else to look like.
"Yea, but she went out of the cinema to grab some snacks and she never came back," I said. It was the honest truth, but a lot of them looked skeptical. The pilots just looked like they always did. Bored. That got on my nerves a bit, but not really that much. I was used to them being like that. You'd think after a year that they would at least be more… uh… peppy. Something like that.
"So basically you're telling us that you lost Hilde?" Relena again.
"Come on, guys, cut him some slack. I'm sure he has a perfectly good explanation for this," She gave me a quick glance, "Right, Duo?" Well, at least Noin was still on my side.
"Actually, I don't," I replied to her. Everyone looked at me like they wanted to strangle me.
"I don't know where Hilde is. One minute she's off buying snacks, the next minute she's gone. It's not like she's been kidnapped or anything. Or..eh… I hope not." I muttered the last few words under my breath, but I might as well have screamed it out because everyone heard it anyway.
"I doubt it. She doesn't have very many people with a vendetta against her. It's been a year since the war, now," Wufei said. I nodded again, thinking the exact same thing. HAD there been someone with something against Hilde, I'd have kicked their behinds a long time ago. My hand shot toward my forehead and I slapped it, suddenly remembering something.
"OH! The girl at the counter said she walked away in some black limo with some guys in suits," I said. I didn't know if that helped, but it made it a little easier on me. I didn't need them on my back because of something that wasn't even my fault.
Relena sighed and crossed her arms. "Don't worry about it Duo. She'll be back soon. She may be a girl, but she's still a soldier. She knows how to take care of herself." I nodded, still as doubtful as I was before. And I had the right to be worried.
Because that night, she didn't come home…
Next time on the The Schbieker Chronicles: Hilde is brought to a facility where she learns the reason for her abductor's quick actions. Meanwhile, back in the city, Duo sends out a search party of close friends to look for her. As things unfold, Hilde learns the purpose of her presence there and a secret that could shatter the peace that was brought by Relena and the pilots not long ago. Find out what happens next on The Schbieker Chronicle Episode 2: Terrorist Strike.
Review! Review! Review! Whadda ya think? I kno my fic's rilly bad, but still. I'd like reviews all the same. Lots of em'. *Sigh* -_-. Anyway... thanks.
