The banging on the office doors startled me.
"What's going on in there?" a muffled voice shouted. I glanced back at the door.
"Open up!" another voice exclaimed. The pounding continued.
"Break it down!" a third voice ordered. I frowned and checked my surroundings. There wasn't much to work with; everything in there was going to make more of a splat than I would if dropped six stories. Let that be a lesson—wood furniture looks nice, but is completely useless when trapped on the top floor.
I kept looking around, including a quick glance for a secret passage behind the bookshelf. My luck had run out; there was no secret passage, only wall.
/
Ania kept staring up at the window and got nervous when I disappeared from view. She knew that technically she was supposed to get that chip back to base, regardless of Chona's fate; but her blood bond said 'fuck technicalities' and that sounded like a great idea to her.
"C'mon, Chona," she whispered.
A sudden noise behind her caused her blood to freeze and her body to go rigid.
"Well, well, well… what do we have here?" a mysterious voice said. "Another righteous babe trying to make a name for herself?"
Ania slowly turned to face her intruder and saw the silhouette of a man with a long, thick braid emerge from the shadows.
"Who are you?" she asked. He ignored her question.
"Looks like you picked the wrong day to make a name for yourself, sister. Time to face the God of Death."
She narrowed her gaze on him.
"Okay, you don't expect me to take that seriously, do you?" she asked.
"I'll take that," another voice behind her said. Before she could respond, the box was snatched out of her hand. She spun around, red-orange eyes now blazing in anger. This new man stood at least a foot over her.
"Nice work, Trowa," the man with the braid said. Ania's head snapped back in his direction. The one known as Trowa checked the box, confirmed its contents, then lifted his wrist to his lips and talked into a hidden microphone.
"Quatre, Wufei… the chip is secure," he said. To the man with the braid, he added, "I'm going to help them secure the area."
"And I'll make sure this little one doesn't try to run off," the other told him and offered a salute to the retreating man. Ania's hands balled into fists at her sides as she stared hard at the stranger. He grinned as he moved closer and his features became distinguishable.
He was tall with blue-lavender eyes and brown hair. He wore black jeans, a matching leather jacket with a red shirt underneath, boots, and a mechanic's cap. She ignored the fact that he had a handsome face and, instead, focused on the hatred boiling in the pit of her stomach.
"God of Death, was it?" she asked through clenched teeth.
"You can call me Duo," he told her, still moving closer. Ania inched backward. "And you are?"
"No one you need to know," she retorted. He grinned and she felt the uneasiness in her gut begin to grow.
/
"Where is the chip?" a deep voice asked. I jumped and spun around, sweeping a whole shelf of books to the floor. A man with brown hair, a green tank top, and black shorts had a gun trained on me. I couldn't stop my gawking.
"How the… hell did you get in here?" I blurted. He stepped closer.
"Where is the chip?" he repeated and I noticed the callousness in his blue eyes. The pounding on the door suddenly became louder and shouts behind it reminded me that my time was almost up.
I glared at the stranger.
"You're a little late," I replied. "It's with my partner and, by now, far away from here."
He grunted. "I doubt that." To the communicator on his wrist, he said, "Duo, do you have the girl?"
"Yup, she's right here, safe and sound," Duo replied over the device and I heard every word loud and clear.
"The package?" the stranger asked.
"With Trowa and the Heavy Arms by now."
"Good."
He lowered his wrist, gun still aimed at my chest. My first sensation was fear—fear that Ania was somehow in unimaginable danger. The next sensation was blind rage. I was so tense, my vision started to go fuzzy and I was pretty sure I was shaking.
"You're coming with me," he said, and I recognized that it was a command, not a suggestion.
"Go to hell," I spat. His already furrowed brows snapped closer together.
"Almost through!" a guard yelled through the door. There was a flash of lightning outside followed by an earth-shaking crack of thunder. The sky wasn't going to hold off much longer.
"You have three options," the man before me began. "You can come with me and live. You can fight me and die. Or, you can wait for those guards to break through and exit in OZ custody."
I wracked my brain for a sassy option number four to throw in his face, but I never even had an option number one; plus, I wasn't thinking clearly. So I just kept staring angrily, waiting for my body to accept what my brain already had: that I was going to accept his offer and go with him.
The door cracked under the poundings and I snapped out of my boiling reverie.
"So what will it be?" he asked. I grunted and the door cracked again. One more and it would give way.
"Let's go!" I yelled, sprinting toward him. The door was hit again and it flew open, splintered off the frame. The man wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into him as he propelled himself out of the window.
The men that ran into the room began firing just as we cleared the opening and started our freefall. A bullet ripped through my sleeve and burned a slice in my arm as it sailed past. I inhaled the rush of air and it took my breath away. I felt his arms close around me as we turned in mid-air so that his back was facing the ground.
"Duo!" he yelled. I was flung from his grasp but landed in another pair of arms.
"Got ya!" Duo exclaimed. I scrambled to my feet and shuffled away from him. The man who'd rescued me landed in a crouch with what appeared to be zero injuries. "Nice throw, Heero."
Impossible… even for a computer! I thought. Impossible for clearly everyone but him…
He stood up and he and Duo ushered Ania and I across the yard, barely dodging the gunfire from the sixth floor, and into the woods lining the property. We were stunned when we reached a clearing. Two mobile suits knelt in the glade just below the tree-line.
"What the…" Ania muttered. "Those are—"
"Gundams," I finished for her. My gaze focused on the one called Heero. He couldn't be… could he? He yanked me over to the legendary Wing Zero, secured his foot in a cable, drew me close, and we were pulled up to the open cockpit of the mobile suit. I glanced over toward the other suit I recognized to be the Death Scythe Hell and watched as Ania and Duo climbed up.
Gunfire pinged off of the alloy armor of the Gundam and Heero returned fire before he dropped into the chair, yanked me into his lap, and closed the hatch. This is impossible, I told myself, but somehow we managed to fit.
"Up you go!" Duo said, pulling Ania onto the door of his mobile suit. The Wing Zero stood up and began covering his escape with heavy gunfire.
"We can't both fit in here!" she shrieked over the noise.
"Today we are."
"And how do you propose we do that?"
He grinned. "You get to sit on Santa's lap," he said, patting his right leg. Ania glared at him.
"You're joking right?" she asked as he yanked her into his cockpit and sealed the door. Apparently not.
"Trowa, we need to get the chip to Aria Station," Heero told his fellow pilots over the comm.-link.
"I'm on it," Trowa replied. A video of a boy with blond hair and blue eyes popped up on a screen to Heero's right.
"Heero, Duo—you guys go ahead. Wufei and I will wrap up things here." His voice was gentle, unlike the others.
"Then we'll meet you at Aria," Heero said. He powered up his mobile suit for flight and rocketed up into the sky. Duo and Trowa followed. I noticed the sky broke and rain began pouring to earth just as we passed through the troposphere. Then, there was the stillness of the earth's atmosphere.
"Hurry up Quatre, Wufei. We'll have pizza back at the station." Duo told them.
"Sounds good," Wufei said, gunfire blazing in the background. Then the comm. channels closed and there was utter silence save for the boosters pushing us into outer space.
/
Ania and I had been thrown into a holding cell the moment the Gundam pilots had docked at the space station called Aria. For our first trip to outer space, we'd barely seen any of it. Trapped in that cell, we couldn't tell where we were; might as well have been earth.
Our hands were cuffed, our stomachs were growling, and we had no idea how long we'd been sitting there. The bullet graze on my arm was throbbing. We avoided talking, knowing we were being monitored, and sat in silence. I was tired of it; I had cotton mouth and I could taste my bad breath. Now who was going to be intimidating in interrogation? That's right, me. Let that be another lesson: don't let your hostages build up defenses because you'll free pretty stupid offering them a breath mint.
I had zoned out on Ania and caught her gaze when she looked up. I grinned.
"What's so funny?" she asked. The sound of her voice was a relief compared to the static humming of the ventilation system.
"I told you I'd get out," I replied. Her face contorted into a shape that said: I am not amused. I backed off and went back to practicing my role as a mute.
A door opening into the detainment deck vibrated through the metal walls and the sounds of footsteps put us both on our feet. Moments later, the thick hatch to our cell was wrenched open and two guards appeared with Duo who was holding three boxes of pizza.
"Anybody hungry?" he asked, smirking. The guards grabbed us by the arms and yanked us down the corridor to a steely interrogation chamber; I clenched my teeth and trapped the wince in my throat as the guard's thumb mashed my wound. We were both a little surprised to see four other faces staring at us. The guards aggressively suggested we take seats at the table and then left the room. The door closed with a loud clank.
I was expecting a drawn out silence to attempt to intimidate us, followed with a "so". So's are always bad news. But the moment the door closed, Duo dropped the pizza boxes on the table, opened the top one up, and inhaled.
My stomach growled.
"Anybody hungry?" Duo asked again, pulling a greasy slice from the box with cheese stringing off of it. My mouth was watering and cursed cotton-mouth was history. "A cheesy, yummy slice of pizza anyone?"
We didn't say anything.
"All you have to do is answer a few questions and you can have all you want," he told us. Ania glared at him.
"That's an interesting tactic," she said. "Certain socialist regimes and insurgent military operations use starvation as a form of torture."
Duo took a moment to process that; the outcome presented a face that let us know he wasn't pleased at being compared to a socialist. He leaned closer to my sister and waved the pizza under her nose.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"I don't answer to socialists," she hissed. He stood upright and took a bite out of the pizza.
"That hurts my feelings," he said around a wad of cheese and bread.
"No… sophisticated guy like you? I don't believe it."
"Pretty determined for a hostage," Duo remarked and took another bite of pizza. I was starting to enjoy myself; if I could get my hands on a piece of pizza, I thought it would be a pretty good show.
I glanced over at the other pilots and noticed the frown on the blond boy's face; I thought he looked like he didn't agree with Duo's methods, but I couldn't know for sure.
"No," she corrected him. Her tone was hard, punching syllables; whoa, I thought, danger, danger, high voltage, red alert. "I just don't like you."
He put his face in hers and evened out their glaring contest.
"That makes two of us, babe," he uttered darkly. After a moment of silent threats daggered between their eyes, he turned to his fellow Gundam pilots. "Careful of this one, you guys. She bites."
"Then I would be especially careful handling my partner," Ania remarked. All eyes turned on me. Oh, right, scary mode, I thought and went into my serious face. Truth is, I was finding the banter really amusing and might've briefly slipped out of my solemn warrior countenance. Grrrr, I thought, and sent grr's straight at Duo via invisible psywaves.
Duo sighed and crammed the rest of his pizza in his mouth, as if the very idea of attempting to talk to me was more than he could deal with. He sauntered over to his buddies, grabbing another slice of pizza on his way over. Damn you, I thought. Stop eating that! You pig, monkey, sea cucumber!
"They're not going to talk," Trowa said to Duo when he was close enough to whisper to.
"Yeah," Duo agreed, exhausted by our stubbornness. "Any suggestions? Cause I'm about ready to start shooting—"
"Duo!" Quatre scolded. "We're not going to kill them."
"I never said 'kill', I said 'shoot'. A few ones in the leg might readjust the attitude, that's all I'm saying."
"Separate them," Heero said calmly.
"Heero's right," Wufei chipped in. "They're strong because they're together. Separate them, and their resolve will weaken."
"I don't know about that," Quatre said. "Would it do the same for any of us? I don't know that they're our enemies."
"Who cares?" Duo sighed. "They piss me off."
Heero pushed off of the wall he was leaning on, crossed the room to where I sat, and ripped me out of the chair. Again with the pressure on my wound; jerks, all of them! He guided me out of the room by aggressive suggestion. Must be friends with those guards, I thought.
"Where are you taking her?" Ania asked, hiding her concern behind monotone curiosity. Duo ignored her question and dropped the open pizza box in her lap.
"Tell me," he said. "What's a girl like you doing playing thief?"
/
Heero tossed me back in the cell and I stumbled a few steps. Geez. Take these cuffs off and try that again, I thought. Unfortunately, he was a lot stronger than the guard who'd escorted me earlier and my arm was pulsing in pain. He'd really opened the wound up and now there was fresh blood all over my flak jacket.
Heero noticed the tension in my face and checked his hand. Blood slicked across his fingers. Without questions, he pulled a med-kit off the wall and came into the cell with me. I stepped to the back of the cell, not really sure where I thought I was going, and slumped onto the wall bench.
"Take off your jacket," he said as he knelt next to me, opened up the kit, and began preparing antiseptic. I hesitated and then unzipped it and pushed it off my shoulders. With my hands still cuffed, taking it off entirely was impossible.
I nearly broke teeth grinding them together as he cleaned my wound and took a needle and thread to it.
"Who are you?" he asked as he wove the needle through my skin. I threw my head against the wall and stared up at the ceiling.
"Uh-o, don't ask me questions while I'm standing in for needlepoint practice."
He applied a little pressure on my cut and I winced.
"Your name," he insisted and continued to sew.
"Aren't you a bit of a sadist?" I asked. "Go ahead and rip out the stitches. I'm not talking."
Surprisingly, he finished the job, taped a cotton square over the stitches, and wrapped my bicep in gauze. I was expecting more questions, but Heero just packed the kit up and walked out. The door closed with a heavy thud and the lock slid in place.
"Damn it," I muttered. I pulled my sock hat off and scratched my head. What the hell had we gotten ourselves into? I shrugged my jacket back over my shoulders and slumped against the wall. In a fit of anger, I threw my sock hat across the cell. It went about five feet and crumpled on the floor. How anti-climatic… I thought and stared at the ceiling again.
/
When Heero returned to the interrogation room, Ania noticed the blood he was wiping off his hand and feared the worse.
"You've gotta be kidding me…" she muttered. She never thought the Gundam pilots, symbols of hope in the fight against OZ, would resort to physical abuse.
"What happened in there?" Wufei asked. Heero gave a slight shake of his head and went to stand next to his comrades. They whispered amongst each other again.
"Anything?" Heero asked.
"Nothing," Duo replied.
"This is going to take some time," Trowa said. "Days, possibly weeks."
"Like we've got that kind of time," Duo reminded him.
"It's our only option for now."
Duo glanced back at Ania. "Man," he groaned. "You and your partner sure are a pain in the ass."
"Runs in the family," she retorted. Duo's ears perked and he smirked.
"The family, eh? So your sisters," he said. Ania frowned at him, mentally kicking herself. "Well," Duo muttered. "Now that is something…"
He walked over to Ania and reached for her wrists.
"I think that deserves a bite," he started to say, but the moment he undid the cuffs, Ania's hand flew out and she smacked him hard across the face. He stepped back, hand to his cheek, as the guards rushed over to restrain her and snap the cuffs back on.
The look in her eyes was of pure hatred.
"Well if you're gonna be that way about it…" Duo muttered and turned to walk out. "Good riddance." Wufei, Heero, and Trowa moved to follow him. Quatre crossed to Ania and knelt at her side.
"Are you okay, miss?" he asked. She could read concern in his round, blue eyes and didn't know how to respond. Her throat was swollen tight by her anger.
"Quatre," Trowa called from the door. "Don't bother. Let's go."
Quatre sympathetically touched her knee and followed the rest of his companions. The two guards then ushered her to her own cell. When the door sealed her inside, Ania collapsed on the bench, faced the wall, and curled up.
/
I was pretty sure it was the middle of the night when the lock on my door cranked and the heavy, metal hatch swung open. It felt like the middle of the night. The lights had been dimmed and, well, that was really all I had to go on.
I sat up on the bench as the silhouette in the door came closer and Quatre appeared.
"Oh, you're awake," he said softly. "I didn't mean to wake you."
I have to admit that I kind of wasn't thinking about what he was saying and had, instead, zeroed in on the tray of food he'd brought me.
"You didn't…" I muttered, but I was really thinking, is that soup I smell?
"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly and set the food tray beside me. I snapped out of the soup-trance and narrowed my gaze on him; well played, sir, I thought. This is an angle I didn't expect you to try.
"I'm not some wounded victim you rescued," I reminded him. "I'm one of the bad guys, remember?"
He smiled at me like I was stupid.
"Oh, I don't about that," he said and motioned to my arm. I glanced at it and noticed the gauze through the slice in my flak jacket. "You seem wounded enough to me."
Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.
Quatre knelt in front of me.
"Consider this scenario," he began. "We had the same objective: secure the chip containing information imperative to Operation: Shooting Star and deliver it to the resistance for analysis. You and your sister get there first."
Little alarms went off in my head when he used the word "sister". They'd found out, somehow; how much more did they know?
"I believe we're on the same side," he continued. "There are many organized resistances but they usually all lead back to the same place."
"Do your friends know you're talking to me?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"No," he admitted and pushed the tray closer to me. "They're a little rough around the edges but their intentions are for the best. Eat."
I stared at the soup and bread, the water and hot tea, and tried not to drool.
"Their intentions…" I repeated. "I don't really like that word. Intentions are shit next to actions."
He nodded, stood up, and turned to go. Wait, that's it? I asked myself. He was really going to accept that and go?
"Is there anything else I can do to make you more comfortable?" he asked.
"Yeah. Take off the cuffs and let me go."
He smiled like I was actually joking, closed and locked the door, and I was alone again. Well, it was worth a shot.
I chugged half the glass of water in about three seconds and attacked the soup and bread.
"Potato…" I mumbled around a mouthful and tears nearly came to my eyes.
/
Quatre prepared another tray of food and went next door to Ania's cell. When he entered, she was glaring from the far corner of the room. He thought she looked like a fox—small, cornered, and dangerous.
"I hope you're hungry," he said, for the sake of small talk, mostly; he knew she was starving but thought bringing it up could be insulting.
"This episode again?" she asked. There was venom in her words.
"No. I promise," he assured her and set the tray before her. She searched his eyes for answers and he smiled gently. "I just came from your sister. She looks better. Her arm is all patched up."
"Patched up?"
"Heero must've done it earlier when they separated you. There was no fresh blood, so it must be healing well."
"Oh…" was all Ania replied with, and she curled back into her own thoughts. The blood she saw was from helping her sister?
"I proposed an idea to your sister and I'd like to know what you think," he said, and ran through the scenario he'd presented minutes before, ending with the conclusion that they were on the same side. "What do you think?" he asked.
"I think it doesn't sound implausible," she answered, slowly rotating her spoon in circles in her soup. Truth be told, that sounded exactly right. Curses.
"I think once we start examining the situation, we'll all realize that we're on the same side," he said as he moved to the door. "And that there's no reason to keep you here."
Ania glanced up at him before he left.
"You know," she began. When she had his attention, her gaze dropped to the ripples in her soup. "You separated us with the intention of breaking us but…" Her red-orange eyes hardened eerily. "We'll never talk. If you hope to start a dialogue, you'll put us together." She eyed him. "After all, what's the harm… if this is really just a misunderstanding…"
Quatre nodded to let her know he understood and locked the door when he left. Heero and Trowa were waiting for him outside the cell.
"You're undoing what we're trying to accomplish," Trowa said. Quatre sighed.
"I'm not trying to hide anything," he said, "but that doesn't mean it was necessary to mention. You'd be surprised what a little kindness and compassion can accomplish." He saw some microscopic change in Heero's expression and decided he wanted that to mean guilt. "The same goes for you, too, Duo," he said when the Gundam pilot appeared in the doorway.
"What the hell, Quatre," Duo balked. "I suppose I should've thrown roses out, maybe swept her off her feet? Would that be better for you?"
"You came up with that on your own," Quatre replied. Duo looked annoyed and his brow twitched.
"Hey, you said… and I… quit cornering me!"
Quatre moved down the hallway and out of the detention center with Trowa, Heero, and Duo in tow.
"Did you find out anything?" Trowa asked.
"Not directly, but I believe we're actually allies." Quatre explained his theory. "We should put them back together; if they are given a chance to agree that we aren't their enemy, we might actually get some answers from them."
"You're manipulating them," Trowa said.
"Not at all. As I said earlier, I think this is a misunderstanding. The fastest way to find out is through a little bit of kindness and a little bit of trust."
"I hope you know what you're doing…" Duo mused and they made their way up to the bridge.
/
I looked up hopefully when I heard the door open and was relieved when Ania was escorted into the interrogation room we'd been in the day before. They took off her cuffs, like mine before, and, this time, we were left alone. I stood up as Ania ran over to me and we hugged each other tightly.
"I thought they'd hurt you," she whispered.
"I think they wanted to," I replied. I held her at arm's length. "I don't know how long we'll have together, so we need to talk. Did Quatre come to you last night?"
She nodded. "He said he believes we both sought the chip to learn of Operation: Shooting Star and carry it to an organized rebellion against OZ."
"They are Gundam pilots," I said. "Most of the rumors are clear they are against OZ. Quatre seems to think we're allies. He wants us to talk."
"I know. What do you think?"
"Well he is right…" I said. "Maybe it's time to deal."
Ania nodded. "I don't really like that idea."
"I don't either… but it's better than sitting in these cells when there's still work to be done."
She agreed and looked up at the security camera in the corner of the room.
"Quatre!" she exclaimed. "We'd like to talk to you."
In ten minutes, we were surrounded by all five Gundam pilots and Ania's brow was twitching.
"I said Quatre," she exclaimed for the third time, like they hadn't heard it before.
"You were right," I said to the small, blond boy. "We've been involved with Serpent, a rebel group in the Rouya Kingdom, for the past three years. They contacted us with information that the details of Operation: Shooting Star were being held at Ohm Corporate headquarters in Telniv."
"We broke into Ohm and secured the chip. We were set to deliver it later that night," Ania explained.
"Serpent's headed by Roi LuGard, a lieutenant in service to Ms. Darlian," Quatre said. He glanced back at Heero. "It would've wound up in our hands regardless."
"How do we know you really work with Serpent?" Duo asked us.
"The safe word was starfish. Our code names are Python and Icarus."
"Python?" Duo asked.
"Like the programming language?" Ania said.
"Like the hacker who crippled the Sanshani database?"
She almost smiled. "Oh yeah…" She thought back to some private memory and chuckled. Ania and I exchanged glances, waiting for what would happen next.
"You did a good job infiltrating Ohm," Trowa remarked. "It was a smooth operation considering you had no power."
It was my turn to start twitching. Power came in all shapes and sizes.
"Power comes nicely packaged in a little thing called perspective," I said. He looked a little taken aback. Ania leaned closer to me.
"I think he was trying to compliment you," she whispered, tone edged in disbelief. Thank God I had her around to translate.
"You're Python? You're pretty good with computers," Duo told Ania. She just stared at him. I leaned over to her.
"I think he was—"
"I don't care," she snapped. I shrugged. Fair enough.
There was awkward silence for about forty-five extremely uncomfortable seconds.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"The Aria space station," Quatre replied. "I'm sorry for the confusion and the way you were treated. We can never be too careful. I hope that, from now on, we'll all be able to work well together."
Wait, work together? I asked myself. That was a terrible idea; I was already getting heartburn.
"One thing remains a mystery," Trowa said. "Who are you?"
I glanced at Ania.
"My name is Ania Spice and this is my sister, Chona," she said. "What happens to us now?"
"We're returning to earth," Heero said. "We'll take you as far as Soixante and you're free to go."
"We can leave…" I wanted to confirm. "Just like that?"
"Just like that," Wufei said. "We'll let Serpent know what happened. You can contact them later."
"You can return to Serpent and continue your work with them or," Quatre said, "you can remain and help us here."
Everyone in the room seemed a little uncomfortable—to put it lightly—with his suggestion.
/
After a hot meal, a shower, and a change of clothes, I felt a little more congenial. I shook out my shoulder-length brown hair and left it down to air dry then changed the bandages on my right arm. I snuggled into cargo pants with the legs tucked, my boots, a white tank, and my flak jacket. Ania was passed out on the bed when I left our room to explore Aria.
I was completely fascinated by the space station but worked hard to keep an unimpressed expression on my face. I worked my way into the hangar where dozens of mobile suits were stored. Mechanics were positioned everywhere doing fancy things with computers, fancy things with blowtorches, and even fancier things with what looked to be a heavy duty socket wrench.
I dodged the people who were actually working as I made my way across the cats. I'd never connected with Serpent's main force; Ania and I had operated like contracts—we were only contacted with private missions. Seeing everyone scattered across the space station, working and researching and fighting for the same cause, made me feel a little small, like a tiny cog in a bigger machine. It felt surprisingly nice.
The first flight of stairs I came across, I descended to the main floor and got closer to one of the mobile suits. It was really fascinating how someone could learn to pilot one of those things; I had to admit that I was curious but doubted I'd even get the chance. I glanced around to make sure no one was looking and got closer, climbed the ladder, and dropped into the cockpit.
The controls were complexly spread around me. I took hold of the handles of the piloting levers and got acquainted with the feeling. I was so distracted investigating the various buttons and knobs around me that I didn't notice someone cross the hangar and climb the ladder until they were right in front of me.
I swallowed my shriek when Heero appeared in the doorway.
"Oh shit, it's you… You, uh, surprised me," I said.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I was just lo—" I was interrupted by a hiccup. I pinched my mouth closed and waited. Hiccup! Damn it! It was all his fault for startling me. Heero eyed me with a completely unreadable face and I caught myself wanting to know what he was thinking.
"Do you know how to pilot one of these?" he wanted to know. I shook my head.
"Uh, not real—hic-ly," I admitted, pushing my wet hair away from my face. He hesitated like he was debating with himself and then reached into the cockpit. I instinctively leaned back.
"The computer and engines have separate start mechanisms," Heero explained. He lightly tapped a blue button on the ceiling above my head. "That's the power boot," he said and moved to the turnkey next to it, "and that starts the engine."
"Oh… hic! Good to know…" I glanced at his face but averted my gaze to all of the buttons around me when he looked at me. "Do you really use all of—hic—these buttons?"
"Not all the time," he replied. "Eventually." He motioned to my right side. "How's your arm?"
"Oh, yeah, it's better," I told him, feeling like the conversation was growing really awkward. "You did a real good jo—hic—b… stitching… it up…" Gyah, those hiccups were embarrassing. "So, you pilot the Wing Zero," I said and let a hiccup pass. "That's your mobile suit?"
"Yeah."
"Can I see it?"
He relaxed out of his crouch and stood up. Guess not.
"I need to get back to work," he said. I nodded.
"Yeah, I should probably be getting back to Nia. She might've woken up." Yeah right, I thought. She was sleeping like dead fish, exed-out eyes and all.
Heero was the first to climb down and I quickly followed. I watched him cross the hangar and took one last look up at the mobile suit I'd just sat in.
"I could do that…" I mumbled then hiccupped. "It didn't seem so hard." Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I shoved my hands into my flak jacket pockets and started to make my way back up to the room where Ania was still passed out. Something happening on the far end of the hangar caught my attention. I peered around several steel columns and resisted a jaw drop; a massive space ship was docking.
"That's a… battleship…" I muttered. Was there really such a magnificent thing out in space?