Tenshi- That seems to be going around.
Spirit- I know. Thankfully I over came it long enough to produce this chapter for you all! I keep wanting to speed things up, but what I end up doing si slowing things down. Oh well.
Disclaimer- I claim no ownership to Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing.
PAIRINGS: (note: I will NOT be changing these. If you don't like them...well Tough)
Hotaru/Heero Usagi/Mamoru Haruka/Michiru Quatre/Minako Trowa/Setsuna Duo/Makoto Ami/OC Rei/OC Wufei/Sally
THANKS TO ALL WHO REVIEWED!!
Relena sat with the pilots in the conference room. They had received all of their school information and were now going over the times the guys would be watching herself and Hotaru. Currently the violet eyed girl was out with Lady Une, shopping for clothes and other necessities. The plan was a little tricky seeing as Hotaru was a freshman and the rest of them were seniors. Trowa was now going as a student teacher for two of her classes, while Wufei was going undercover as various students, faculty, and just what ever was needed. They knew it was going to be tough at first, but this was certainly not one of the most difficult challenges they've had. The rest of the boys were returning as students and would be following the two through-out the day in shifts. This was the way it had to be, at least until they figured more out about the ones behind the base.
Three days had passed and still they were able to gather no further information. All the records and files they had recovered from the base were proving to be more annoying than useful. They weren't coded, yet made no absolute sense. Besides the records of inventory and the detainees, it was like they were just typing up any random thing that came to mind. Come to think of it, it was like if Duo were given a pen, some paper, and too much free time. The pilots were half expecting to flip a page and find little stick figure drawings or doodles. Either the scientists really didn't care about much else, or it was in a completely made up code. None of their anagram experts were able to find anything useful out of the messages. Everything was getting frustrating, and everyone was getting fed up. Hotaru told them about the experiments she and the others were put through, but had no idea what exactly they did. All she knew was that they wanted some powerful crystals and that very few people in the world had them.
"I'm back." the new voice made everyone look up to see Lady Une walk into the room with a few shopping bags. The pilots had to admit that looked a little weird, especially since the woman was also wearing a plain white shot-sleeved blouse, black loose fitting pants, and a pair of sneakers. She also had her hair down.
"Is. . . that Lady Une?" Duo asked, blinking his eyes several times to make sure his sight wasn't failing him.
The woman gave him a stern look as she set the bags on the large round table. "Walking around in a mall with my uniform on would attract way to much attention. And since we are supposed to be protecting Hotaru that would not be a wise choice."
"Where is Hotaru?" Trowa asked, sitting casually in his chair as usual.
"Out in the courtyard. She wanted to stay outside a little longer, and since there are a number of soldiers out there, both on and off duty, I didn't see a problem with it."
"I better go check on her just to be safe though." Quatre said. The others didn't object as he got up and left the room.
88888
Hotaru sat in the cool grass under the shade of an old maple tree. Her violet eyes took all that they could in. Soldiers walked by, chatting to their buddies, while some were on patrol or guarding a few doors. She could imagine this area was busy around lunch time. It had such a relaxing atmosphere. Much like the parks she used to go to with her friends. Remembering them made her look down at her lap sadly. She really missed them, and what was worse, if she did return to them they wouldn't remember who she was.
"If I died. . . would it matter?" she whispered to herself.
"It would matter to me." the girl jumped and backed away from the source of the voice. "I'm sorry Hotaru-san. I didn't mean to startle you."
Looking up she found it was just Quatre. She dropped her guard, but not all the way. She still felt a little uneasy around the pilots. He sat down about two feet from her and began to look around. Hotaru just watched him out of the corner of her eye, wondering what he was up to. Out of all of them, she was able to tell by now that he was the most friendly. However all the acts of courtesy and gentleness did little to hide what he really was. A boy train in the art of killing. A boy who has killed many a times. And a boy who would probably kill again. Hotaru didn't know if she was the only one that could see this. Usually she was very good at looking past the bad in people, but ever since the day she was kidnaped, she found it very hard to believe there was good in humans. For every time she seemingly met a good person, they were stripped away from her, until only the bad ones were left.
"Hotaru-san? Are you ok?" Quatre's concerned voice broke her out of her thoughts and she gazed back over at him.
"Gomen nasai." she said in her native tongue. "I was just thinking."
He nodded. "If you are uncomfortable, I could leave you."
"I'm fine. Your presence does not bother me anymore." she said. ". . . why would it matter to you if I died? You know nothing about the real me."
"The real you? What do you mean the real you?" Quatre asked, hoping to open the girl up a bit more.
Hotaru looked down at the shortly cut grass. "How I used to act around my friends and family. You don't know what my favorite color is. What kind of music I like to listen to. Nothing. All you know was that I was once a prisoner to a bunch of crazy evil men."
The blonde nodded. She was right. None of the pilots knew anything personal about this girl. And none of them had bothered to ask her about her feelings on all the matters they had been dumping on her. Did she want to go to school? Did she even want to be here anymore? They hadn't even assigned her a psychiatrist. All they had been doing was locking her up once more. Though not in a cage, but in their plans. They had been so set on figuring out the situation, that they all ignored the one who really needed their help.
In shame, Quatre hung his head. "I'm sorry Hotaru-san." her violet eyes looked up to see him in a gloomy state. "We should have took better care of you. Instead we have been completely occupied with finding the ones who did this to you and all those others."
The girl could see he was now hurting inside and it almost pained her to know that she was the source of that hurt. "It's your job to find the bad guys. I understand that. And don't worry about taking care of me. I can do that on my own." with that she stood up and brushed of her new pair of jeans.
Looking down at the boy she gave him the tiniest of smiles, for reassurance. "I've survived this long without anyone's help. I don't think I need any."
Quatre watched her walk away. It felt like a large heavy door had just been slammed in his face, no matter how hard the girl had tried to let it close softly. She was blocking them out. She was even worse than Heero. Where the 01 pilot did guard himself heavily, it was only due to his training and not wanting to be found out by possible enemies. But this girl, the door she used to guard herself, felt like it was made out of hate and disgust for the human race. Was it now too late to save her? She always acted so nice to Relena and a lot of the others there, but was that all just to get them to leave her alone?
He remembered what she said before he had made himself known. She had asked if it would matter to anyone if she died. The poor girl, the way she said it, the tone she used didn't make it sound like she was giving up now. It sounded like she had already given up and just wanted to know if her death would affect anyone.
88888
It was late at night. Heero, as usual, was the only one left in the Preventers offices. Though this time he wasn't looking over all the file from the PIMA base. Instead he was looking over missing persons reports for Hotaru. So far there was no one matching her description. What was weirder was that she wasn't listed in any schools or even in government records. Whoever these people were, they were very skilled in hacking into govn't files. But how could they completely erase someone from existence? No one was that good. Right? Not even he, the great Heero Yuy, could locate all the files on one person and just delete them. And you would think that someone would have reported her missing. A remaining family member or something? Hotaru hadn't given them any information on relatives that were still alive. They only knew that both of her parents were dead.
Perhaps he should try looking up her father. However he didn't have his first name and Tomoe was a pretty common last name. Looking in past death records might narrow it down though. His fingers flew over the key board and the site changed to a new one. He scrolled down until he found a possible match. The mans name was Shuichi Tomoe, who was a famous scientist. He was found dead in his basement after a experiment of his went wrong and exploded. That was listed as the cause of death, but Hotaru had said that he was murdered. There was also no record of him ever having a daughter.
"Either she's lying to us, or these people know what they are doing." he mumbled to himself.
The sound of light weight metal dropping onto the tile floor made him get out and immediately draw out his gun. He looked through the blinds of his office at the cubicles that were shrouded in darkness. The only lights were a couple of emergency lights and his monitor, which he quickly shut off. Moving to have his back at the wall, he peered out his office window again. A dark figure moved silently through the spaces between desks. Whoever they were, they were heading for the stairs. The Perfect Soldier slowly opened his door and followed them. He wanted to find out what they wanted before attacking.
The figure went into the room that had the stairs. Heero waited for them to get far away enough before following. He kept as close to the wall as possible so he wouldn't be seen. However, luck was not on his side. Gunfire rang out as a bullet drove into the wall two inches from his face. Having no choice, Heero returned fire and picked up his pace. The intruder continued to fire until entering the fifth floor. The brown haired teen followed closely behind.
Upon opening the door, he quickly ducked as a waist basket was chucked at his head. He brought up his left arm in time to block a kick. Apparently the intruder was either out of bullets, or was better at hand to hand combat. Either way it was too dangerous to use his gun now. Whoever this person was could easily swipe it from him. Throwing the gun away Heero aimed for the intruders head. The figure ducked out of the way and punched Heero in the stomach. Before the Perfect Soldier could recover the person grabbed one of his arms and hurled him over their shoulder into a cubical's wall. It broke under his wait but Heero wasted no time in getting up and catching the intruders foot when they tried to kick him again.
This time it was the intruder who went flying. Heero had thrown him over the cubicles and into the back windows. They slide to the floor when their head made contact with the hard glass and remained unmoving. Recovering his gun Heero aimed it at the person and slowly made his way over to them. When he was a good five feet away he stopped. His head was starting to feel light. Something wasn't right. Soon a dull pain started to throb in his head. It felt like his very skull was contracting on his brain. His left hand went up to clutch his head as he unintentionally lowered his firearm. Without even hearing the person get up he suddenly felt his gun get kicked out of his hand and the intruders hand grasp his throat and lift him up.
"Where is she?" the person said. By the low voice Heero was able to tell it was a man, and by his accent Japanese was obviously not his first language. He wondered how the guy even knew he was Japanese.
Without waiting for an answer he threw the chocolate haired boy into the air. Heero waited for the fall, but before he could hit the ground his body stopped. He looked around and saw that he was floating a foot off the floor. His body then rose higher and soon he was floating upside down. His blue eyes looked towards the intruder and he saw that the guy had his hand extended to him. Was he actually doing this?
As if the guy had read his thoughts he pulled his arm toward himself and Heero floated closer to him. Twisting his hand till his palm faced his own face, Heero's body turned till it was parallel with the other guys. "What the hell are you?" Heero asked in English.
"As of right now I am of no importance to you." the intruder continued to say in Japanese. "I know you understand what I am saying. Now tell me, where is the girl you found at the base?"
"Not here." Heero hissed. Suddenly the pain in his head from before came back. He flinched as it became more painful than before.
After a couple more seconds it faded away. The intruder sighed, "I see. She is safe then. Listen up Heero Yuy, I'm not the one you should be worrying about."
At this the man let his hand fall and as a result so did Heero. The intruder then began to walk away. Quickly Heero grabbed his gun again and aimed it at the guys back. "Hold it!" the guy stopped. "You know who is after her don't you? Tell me what the hell went on at that base and what they did to the people there."
The figure turned half way back around and looked over at him. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much. I was never at that base so I don't know what happened to those people or the survivors of it."
"Survivors?" Heero questioned. "There was more than one?"
"Yes, however they escaped before you got there. There are three of them, however I have only met two. The last one is nearly impossible to track." now he turned until he was fully facing Heero. The Perfect Soldier then caught sight of a small folder her had in his hand. The guy set it on a small coffee table. "I was ordered to give this to you Heero Yuy. It may help you and the others."
Lowering his weapon, Heero rose to his feet. The guy turned back around and started walking away again. "We will leave her in your care for now. One day though, we may just come to retrieve her."
"Why?"
He stopped in the doorway but did not glance back. "She is not like over humans. And one day she will fully realize what I mean by that. Like the rest of us, she does not belong in your world."
Something fell over which drew away Heero's attention. When he looked back the guy was gone. Putting away his gun he walked over to the table and looked down at the folder. In black marker it read:
For the Gundam Pilots-
THE CARRIERS PROJECT
He picked it up but didn't open it. Instead he only stared and remembered what the guy had told him. There were even more people with these "crystals" in them? What do they do exactly? And what did that guy mean when he said that they didn't belong in his world? Inwardly he sighed to himself. He was hoping that guy would bring answers. Instead he only brought more questions. Fishing around in his right pocket he pulled out a cell phone. After dialing a number he placed the phone to his ear while he began to walk out of the room still staring at the folder.
"Quatre, wake the others up and get Lady Une. We need to have an emergency meeting right away. Meet me at the conference room." after getting an affirmative, he hung up on Quatre and began to descend the spiraling stairs. Before putting the phone away he called one more person.
"Relena? I need you to bring Hotaru over to the conference room immediately. I need to ask her a few questions."
"Ok. . . . Heero!! She's gone!"
Spirit- I was hoping for them to get into school in the next chapter...but I ended up with this happening instead.
Tenshi- What the hell is going on?!
Spirit- You'll just have to wait and see I'm afraid. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out soon, but I can't make any promises. Especially since I start college this Monday. Anyways please review!! Ja ne
Death