Well, this started out as a Heero and Leichtenstein story, but seems to have evolved into Heero and Switzerland. . . oh well. Hopefully it's still good.
Enjoy!
Heero walked quickly through the dark corridors, staying close to the wall in order to lessen his visibility. As he had taken out the security cameras with the same power outage that gave him his cover, it was likely that his presence would not be noticed until they restored power, giving him a good five to ten minutes to get out.
Unfortunately, he seemed to have taken a wrong turn somewhere, as the entrance was nowhere to be found. A stream of silent swears flowed through his mind, though he was careful not to speak them out loud. Turning to backtrack his path, and hopefully find the exit, he heard a voice.
"Brother?" Heero froze, his eyes darting wildly around at the darkness in front of him. The quivering voice was female, and the speaker was young - a child. What was a child doing in an OZ base? "Is that you, brother?"
The light patter of footsteps came closer and Heero readied his gun. He did not know if he could kill a child in cold blood, but he could not fail his mission.
"Vash-?"
The emergency lights flickered on, and the two were bathed in a dim glow. A small girl, her blond hair cut just below her ears and tied at one side with a purple ribbon, stared at him with wide eyes. "Who are you?"
Releasing the safety, Heero pointed his gun at the girl, hiding his dismay. "Which way is the exit?"
"J-just down there." She indicated a corridor leading off of the main path just a little ways behind her.
Grabbing her shoulder, Heero held his gun at the small of her back. "Take me there." Obediently, the girl began walking.
"My brother's not going to be happy if he sees this." Despite the nervous shiver that had her shaking, the girl seemed to be threatening him - or warning him - her tone was anything but aggressive.
"Of course not." Approaching a door at the end of the corridor, Heero recognized it as the one he had entered through. The girl had not led him wrong. Opening the door slowly, he pushed her in first, a human shield to dissuade any trigger-happy guards.
"Lilli!"
"Vash!" Holding her back, Heero's eyes darted up to see the man the girl - Lilli - had warned him about. To his immense surprise, the eyes glaring daggers into his skull belonged to a boy who couldn't have been that much older than Heero himself, dressed in a green military uniform Heero didn't recognize. There was no arguing the physical similarity between the siblings, though from the way he had brought the high-powered rifle in his hands out of its resting position across his back and had it ready to fire in a single, fluid movement, this boy was just as dangerous as the pilot.
"Get your hands off of her!" The boy stepped forward, only to freeze in place as Heero turned, just enough that the gun at Lili's back was visible.
"I need out. You want your sister back alive. I propose a trade."
"If you hurt her I will tear you apart." The blond warned, taking a step back.
Heero nodded, "I will leave, no one-" he indicated the boy and the soldiers, "-will follow me. When I am far enough, I will let her go."
The two siblings shared a look, a silent message that Heero couldn't read. The boy took another step back, keeping his eyes on the pilot as he placed his gun on the ground before gesturing for the men to do the same.
Once the path to the outer door was clear, Heero edged his way across the room, being careful to keep the girl between him and the others. It was just as he was pulling the door open, no longer actively restraining the girl in any way, that the boy shouted a single word in a language Heero couldn't quite make out.
Heero grabbed for her shoulder, but was too late, as the girl had dropped to the floor. The next thing he knew, a gun was fired, and a burning pain erupted in his shoulder. Hissing in pain, Heero ran, slamming the door behind him. Another volley of shots shuddered into the metal door, as Heero made his escape.
Heero collapsed at the foot of his Gundam. Breathing heavily, he went about applying a bandage to the hole in his shoulder. The mission could have gone better, but the objective had been accomplished - he patted his pocket to double check that he still had the mobile dolls' original program chip. He would look at it later - after he did a thorough search of the OZ personnel files for information on the boy. . . Vash? Just in case.
Vash was worried about Lilli having a mobile doll factory on her land, so naturally, he had to see it. Just to make sure it wouldn't cause her too much trouble. Naturally, he picked the day Heero snuck in to steal the original control chip and replace it with one that would render the dolls defunct. Why he didn't just blow the base up after snagging the chip. . . it hurts more to have battle-ready dolls suddenly malfunction than to lose them with enough time to rebuild. Plus, I didn't want him to have a homicidal nation embodiment after him for scarring Liechtenstein. . . . :)
And, yes, Vash had more than one gun on his person. You thought otherwise?
Thoughts, comments?
