Episode 3- Five Gundams confirmed
Summary: Heero has ended up in a hospital with the solider Sally Po who tries to get information about him from Relena. Duo comes and frees him but Heero tries to commit suicide until Relena's cry stops him. Meanwhile Quatre and Trowa attack the same base and begin to fight one another until Quatre steps out of his gundam saying that it isn't right to fight one another. Duo raises both gundam 01 & 02 while Heero fixes his leg.
Outside the Alliance hospital:
"Thanks, I'll help you thresh the wheat later," Duo hung up the pay phone he had been talking on, stepping out of the booth and looking up at the hospital building before him. "Now, I should go visit that patient. You coming with Alexa?"
The blond pilot sat on a weathered park bench nearby, arms crossed over her chest as she stared up at the top story windows. "I'm going in, not you." She replied, keeping her gaze locked on the building.
"Hey now, I'm not sure what the deal is between you and this guy but that doesn't mean you can order me around on a mission!" Duo's voice wasn't mad, more annoyed at being bossed around, but it was still enough to draw Alexas' gaze earthward again. Silently she looked at him, blue eyes cold and emotionless, until Duo gave a little shiver and shifted uneasily. "What's up with you 'Lex? I've never seen you freeze during a fight before, then all the sudden this kid shows up and not only do you freeze, but you have like a total personality shift…." His voice trailed off and a flicker of sad emotion crossed Alexa's face.
"Fine," She almost spat out, pushing herself roughly into a standing position. "If you don't trust me, go break him out yourself. I'll erase his record from the hospital memory banks." Her short ponytail swung a little as she turned away from Duo, walking away with hands shoved defiantly into the pockets of the loose, black pants that hung from her hips.
"Hey, I didn't say I didn't trust you!" Duo called after her, face wrinkled in confusion. "I just wanna know how you know him that's all!" Alexa continued walking, stepping lightly over the concrete sidewalk as Duo watched. "Geez, girls!" He muttered to himself as he picked up his bag and started off after Alexa to make plans on breaking in. "I don't think I'll ever understand them!"
Inside the hospital:
The roar of an explosion hit Alexas' ears milliseconds after the shock wave did. With a grunt she fell to her knees in the middle of the linoleum hallway. "Idiot," she muttered to herself, jumping up again. "Why does he always have to do it the noisy way?" Peering around the corner to see if the coast was clear she dashed forward and wrenched the door open, instinctively catching it before it slammed noisily into the wall.
"Huh?" the medic manning the console just had time to look over his shoulder before she sent him crashing to the floor with a heavy fist. His foot caught the chair as he fell and it tumbled to the gray speckled linoleum, twisting and trapping his legs around it. Satisfied that he would be out for a bit, Alexa turned to the computer screen before her. Callused fingers flew over the keyboard as she began erasing all records and video from the containment room for the last few hours. On the edge of her vision she saw Duo and Heero hurrying through the blast hole and out of the room. "Good," she said to herself, finishing her work and forcing the computer to crash and erase all digital tracks of her intrusion. "Time to fly."
Alexa ignored the smoke and dust still hanging in the air from the blast Duo had created, as she pelted down the stairs from the observation room. Another explosion rocked the complex and the girl slammed into the wall but kept moving.
"Geronimo!" Duo's voice rang faintly through the metallic halls over the security alarms and Alexa hurried down the passage towards it.
"The explosion came from there!" A female voice echoed down the hall and the pilot froze instantly, avoiding capture was usually easier than trying to escape later. But the two women that flew down the corridor intersecting hers didn't spare a glance to the side; they were too intent on reaching the chaos. Unseen she followed after them to the hole Duo had blasted through the outer wall.
"Oh no! HEERO!" Alexa experienced a shock that the girl knew her comrades real name, but she didn't stop, roughly shoving the two women aside and following the boys flight through the gapping escape hole.
"It's way too late now!" she heard Duo cry out below her. Clinging two handed to the spinning light rod that allowed her to sink rather than fall through the air Alexa risked a glance downward to see what he was yelling about. A gasp broke through her lips as she saw Heero plummeting towards the rocky shore, too close for the only half open parachute to stop him. Sickened she watch him hit and roll with incredible speed down the steep slope and onto the shore. Luckily Heero struggled quickly to his feet, though he didn't put any weight on one leg.
Moments later Alexa landed gently a few feet from the two pilots, listening to Duo finish his angry tirade, "Now I can understand wanting to take your own life, but next time just maybe you can think of another way of committing suicide buddy!" Duo was furious, he saw no point in rescuing someone who just planned to kill himself. "I'm not asking you to trust me or anything, but right now I'm the only friend you've got pal." The braided boy slung Heeros' arm over his own shoulders to support him. "And Alexa too," he added spotting her.
"Let's get out of here," the girl said simply, as she pulled the gundanium knife from her leather-brown boots and began looking around for enemies. Duo nodded and began hauling a limping Heero back towards the abandoned harbor.
On the dredge barge-
"There, I've pulled yours up too. You could at least show a little gratitude. Huh, what's he doing?" Duo commonly kept up a running commentary with himself, and Alexa listened with only half an ear as she checked to make sure all three gundams were secure from falling back into the sea. Behind her she heard Heero grunting, and turned slightly to see what was up. Duo grimaced as they heard a loud crack and Heero rolled to his feet.
"Uww, I can't take much more of this. He just goes and puts a broken bone back into place. Man it just totally grossed me out thinking about it!" Duo said, cringing. Alexa rolled her eyes a little.
"Well what else was he gonna do? It's not like we can take him to the doctor's and get it fixed." The pilot asked her companion, powering down the controls. When Duo didn't have an answer she continued, "I'm going down to make sure they're covered up, we'll leave when dusk falls."
Walking with efficient strides she headed down the catwalk to the stairs that would take her to the main deck. Her shadow brushed over Heero as he stood, staring down at the dripping mobile suits. Alexa's steps hesitated for a moment as she passed, watching him from the corner of her eye. Heero turned, his dark blue eyes locking with her lighter ones for just a moment, then he set off down the steps. Alexa gave a start and hustled after him. Wordlessly they dragged out the giant sheets of canvas stored in the gundams for concealment in situations like this. Quickly with the ease of practice they covered Deathscythe and Starfire from prying eyes, deciding that Wing Gundam was well hidden enough in the water. As Heero tugged the last corner down Alexa couldn't stand it any more and broke the silence.
"He told me that you were dead," her voice was calm and steady, but the girl pilot rocked nervously, perched on top of the gundams canvas covered leg.
"J did?" Heero replied, not looking up at her as he made sure the wind wouldn't catch the edge of the fabric and blow it up.
She nodded, "He said you were crushed when the MS bay collapsed." Taking strength from his silence she slid to join him on the salt-crusted metal of the deck. "Then he told me that it was too dangerous to try and return to L1, that I had to disappear on L2."
"Hmm," the boy replied, finally looking up from his work and straightening to look her in the eye. His gaze was cold and unblinking, but she matched his stare, blue eyes asking questions though her mouth didn't move. Simultaneously they looked away, out over the water that glittered with the setting sun. "Did you really believe that?" Heero finally asked.
"I thought it was too coincidental that there just so happened to be another scientist creating a gundam on L2 but…" her voice trailed off, shame flushing over her face.
"But you still believed that I was dead." Heero spoke up; it was a statement, not a question.
"I accepted that you were, all our training wouldn't let me do otherwise. It was easiest that way. What mattered was the mission, not fallen comrades. There is no time to grieve, only train and plan." Alexa recited the sentences almost as though they were lines she had learned by rote, and from the glint of recognition in Heeros' eyes they may have been.
"Hey guys!" Duos' voice rolled down from the level above. "I found the kitchen in this place, and there's actually some good stuff!"
"I hope you didn't eat it all you glutton!" Alexa challenged back, shifting into her more playful personality. Duo grinned down impishly at her in response.
"Well you better hurry up and find out!" he retorted, disappearing back inside. Eagerly Alexa started up the stairs after him.
"Wait." The verbal command stopped her as fast as a hand on her arm, and inwardly the solider cringed at the depth obedience and loyalty had been drilled into her. "Alexa I'm doing this on my own. I'll live and die on my missions because of my own actions."
Furiously she spun to face him, "Are you saying I'm useless?!?" Emotion actually appeared on Heeros' face at her outburst, but the stunned expression quickly reverted into the soliders blank stare that was his mask. "Doctor J trained us both to be pilots," Alexa continued, not quite yelling but still angry. "I can fight just as well in a mobile suit as you can. I can hack any computer or data disk just as fast, escape from almost any type of prison, create explosives that even experts can't detect until it's too late." Breathing heavily she looked at Heero with flashing eyes. "You know I can fight any battle just as well as you can."
"You'll just get in my way." Heero stated, matching her stare with one of his own. For several seconds they glared at each other again, but at some unspoken signal broke off.
"We were a team Heero…a good one…what happened to that?" Alexa looked back at him with curious and sad eyes, but Heero refused to meet her gaze.
"Let's go eat." He said, ending the conversation. The girl pilot hesitated for just a moment, and then started up the stairs again, still wondering what had happened to her best friend.
A/N- Ok that it for this episode, please R&R. Also I just wanted to say that I hope the interaction between Heero and Alexa doesn't come off as boyfriend/girlfriend, just as close friends and comrades. Hopefully I succeeded, I just don't want to lead anyone astray!
