A Girl Named Xero

Chapter 12

The halls of the spacestation Libra were eerily quite as Trowa traipsed the halls in search for Xero. He had to find her and tell her he loved her. He had been foolish enough to hide it from her the entire time they had been together and had nearly lost her forever. Now, with his memory back, he had a second chance and was determined to right his mistake. With each step he took his body ached more and more to have her in his arms again. The evens that had occurred in the time between when he disappeared and when he regained his memory were hazy, but he remembered their conversation in the recreation room.

"I think you should know that we did love each other. The ironic part is that neither of us knew that the other felt the same way." Xero had told him this freely and easily because it had not really been him. It had been a shell of himself, and now that he was back, he wanted desperately to hear her say that she loved him, knowing full well that it was him she was speaking to.

Trowa paused and pressed himself against the cold metallic wall as he listened to the sound of lightly thudding footfalls as they raced through the hallway perpendicular to the one he was hiding in. He reached for his gun prepared to take down the fledgling soldier he assumed would be rounding the corner, but paused when he saw the flash of red. 'Xero'. There she was right in front of him, her petite form clad in black jeans and white cami, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail with one loose strand hanging in her face. Her expression was hard with concentration, eyes searching for something she was desperate to find. Trowa moved from the wall and the sound alerted Xero to his presence. Her expression turned fierce as she spun around, her hands filled with crackling blue energy.

The fire faded from her features and the energy dissipated as Trowa's face registered to her. Her eyes began to well up and Trowa realized she already knew. Xero flung herself into his arms with a loud sob and buried her face in his chest. "Trowa!" she gasped his name between sobs. Surprised at her actions, but genuinely pleased, he wrapped his arms around her and for the first time in almost a year, he held on tightly to the woman he loved.

:

Quatre turned the corner, he had heard Xero yell and hoped that he could get to her in time. The scene that he found himself in was one he had not expected. There was Trowa and Xero locked tightly in a fierce embrace. Tears were streaming down her face and Trowa was placing kisses in her hair. They had been reunited and it seemed that their feelings for each had resurfaced. Quatre's heart tore in two and all hope for their future together left him. "I'll never leave you again," he heard Trowa proclaim. "I love you Xero…I love you so much." Trowa lifted her face so he could look into her eyes, stroking her tear-streaked skin. He gently wiped the tears away and with more determination than he had ever put into anything before, he kissed her.

Quatre, heart-broken and crushed, turned on his heel and sprinted away to anywhere that he wouldn't have to face what he had lost.

:

Trowa's kiss scorched through Xero and she was caught breathless. His hands roamed over her shoulders, down her back and rested at her hips as his mouth feverishly claimed hers. This was what she had been waiting for, a kiss from Trowa that signified how he felt for her, but there was something wrong. Her heart pounded in her chest as he pressed her body against the icy metal of the wall dominating her completely. Xero raised her hands and gripped the front of the black form fitting suit specially made for the Gundams, trying to release herself from his hold, but found him resisting her. He had mistaken the movement for passion and pressed the weight of his body against her, slicking his tongue across her teeth.

Xero didn't want to hurt him, but she didn't want this. This wasn't the kiss she craved, his lips weren't the ones she wanted, she realized in a moment of finality. Placing her palms flat against his chest she pushed against him making it clear she wanted him to stop. Trowa pulled away, his face contorted in surprise and confusion. "I can't…" Xero sobbed. It was Quatre! It had been Quatre since she had come to terms with the loss of Trowa. She had made peace and made her decision before she even realized it herself. "I'm sorry Trowa… my heart…" She could see she was causing him pain, but Xero needed to be true to her heart this time. She would always love Trowa, but as the Trowa shell had said, she had moved on with her life…and how could he blame her for that?

"Belongs to him," Trowa finished for her. "I see," he was visibly devastated. Tears continued to flood from Xero's eyes. She had never wanted to hurt him. "I'm so sorry…"

Trowa silenced her from continuing by placing three fingers to her lips. "Go find him, Xero." Grief stricken green eyes pleaded with her to spare him from any more pain just now. "He's looking for you too. Just go, and be happy." That was the only encouragement she needed. Xero turned from him, taking the opportunity to escape with only one destination in mind. 'Quatre! I'm coming!'

:

Quatre stumbled his way into the main control room, wounded and broken. "Well," a familiar voice said, "if it isn't the groom!" Quatre raised his eyes to find a cackling Dorothy standing triumphantly in front of the gigantic screen displaying the battlefield. She held a bulky ceramic helmet with wires protruding like sprouting weeds from its cranium.

"So," Quatre threw back, "it was you controlling the mobile dolls. I should have known."

"Where's your little fiancée? Oh that's right! It was all an act wasn't it?" Dorothy grinned cruelly at the defeated looking man. "I knew there was something screwy about her and now I see… she's a freak!"

"Get to the point Dorothy? Why are you still here? You've failed." Quatre said.

"I stayed behind hoping you and your fake fiancée would show up. I want to fight you hand to hand rather than going round about with these stupid mobile dolls." A wicked light glinted in her eyes. "Oh and, I want to kill Victoria."

This drove Quatre to the edge. He had only snapped like this once before and that was when he lost his father. Now he had lost Xero to his best friend and his normal docile personality melted giving way to a new more violent Quatre. "Quit talking and let's fight Dorothy. I'm ending this." The ice queen seemed pleased by this reaction and she proceeded to retrieve two foils she had prepared just for this occasion. Tossing one foil to Quatre, Dorothy readied herself taking a wide stance.

For a moment, they stood there staring each other down waiting for the first move to be made. The seconds sluggishly ticked away until, in a blinding flash of movement, Dorothy dealt the first blow springing into the air and bringing the blade down onto Quatre. He deflected her attack, raising his foil just in time, and counter-attacked slicing dangerously towards her chest. They battled back and forth with furious intent for carnage for several minutes more. Sweat glistened on Quatre's forehead and Dorothy panted heavily attempting to catch her breath.

"You know," Dorothy sneered, "I don't think she ever really cared about you!" She raised her arm and slashed through the sleeve of Quatre's space suit drawing blood. "How awful it must feel! It was so obvious back at the Cinq Kingdom how much you loved her, and to think she was just using you Quatre!" The words were torture to him and it showed. His brow was furrowed with the strain of the battle. Quatre was having a hard time separating his emotions from the fight.

"You're wrong!" He screamed and swiped at Dorothy loosing his footing in the process. Dorothy took the opportunity to side step him and plunge her blade into his abdomen. Quatre's eyes bulged and he gasped for breath as blood began to seep from the wound. She stepped closer and he found himself pressed against Dorothy in a mock embrace as she drove the blade further into his body.

"It looks like I win," she whispered in his ear, lips brushing against a soft lobe. "You're little bride will be next, I promise you." She laughed menacingly as she shoved him away from her wrenching the blade out of his mangled flesh. Quatre dropped to the floor with a sickening thud, the impact knocking the air from his lungs. He lay there struggling to breathe again, but his lungs refused to let him inhale. Paralyzed, he watched as Dorothy closed the distance between them raising her foil above her head to deal the final blow.

A savage scream echoed through the room and a crackling blast knocked the foil out of Dorothy's hand. Xero flew at her in a rage energy blazing from her hands. Dorothy crashed to the ground as she was hit with the lethal blow writhing and retching just as the mobile suit Xero had destroyed did on L3.

Xero turned from the pathetic scene of her enemy dying to tend to Quatre. His blood pooled around him on the floor, the color draining from his face. "Quatre. Quatre please stay with me" Xero begged. She scooped him up in her arms laying his limp body across her lap.

"I'm….happy…for you….Xero," Quatre choked out the words. He coughed loudly and blood spattered on Xero's white cami. "You…finally have him back." He smiled bitterly up at her, his head resting on her shoulder. Quatre breathed in deeply the scent of Xero's skin wanting something to take with him. The world was darkening for him and his head rang as if he was buzzed from alcohol.

"No, Quatre… you don't understand."

"I'm so glad… you two can finally be together." His head lolled against her as he swayed in and out of conciseness.

"But I want to be with you!" Xero sputtered as big hot tears splattered Quatre's hair. This seemed to rouse him enough for him to listen. His heavy lidded eyes struggled to stay open as he gazed up at her in disbelief.

"But, I saw…you and Trowa…" he managed to say, voice cracking.

"I pushed him away Qautre. I told him my heart belongs to you!" Xero desperately clung to him. "Please, just hang on a little longer…" She bent down burying her face in his blonde locks. "I love you Quatre, I want to be your wife and have your children, and grow old and senile with you." She laughed and choked on the wetness her tears and saliva were building up in her throat.

"That sounds…wonderful," Quatre slurred and smiled up at her one last time before he let the darkness take him. Xero screamed over and over until her throat was raw begging Quatre to wake up. A hand grasped her shoulder and another began to untangle her from Quatre's limp body.

"Let me have him Xero," Trowa's voice was soft and sympathetic. Xero managed to let go and Trowa hauled Quatre into his arms. He stood and regarded the broken young woman immersed in a pool of red sticky blood on the floor. "He'll be ok; I just need to get him back to the vessel we came here in. I can fix him up enough for him to make it back to Peacemillion where a doctor can look at him." Xero nodded gratefully and wiped her eyes with a sticky hand. Quatre's blood smeared across her face and burned her eyes as she watched Trowa rush Quatre's body to the docking bay. She sat there for a while, in shock and the room danced around her. Images of Quatre laughing, smiling, and of him staring at her intensely the night they had almost made love spun around her as she silently prayed to whatever god may be out there that she would be able to see him look at her that way again.

Cold, sharp metal dug into her neck bringing her out of her reverie. The wicked cackle began softly and rose in pitch until it pierced Xero's senses. "That was some trick little girl." Dorothy taunted from behind her as she dug the blade deeper into Xero's neck nearing her jugular. "Do you think, if I decapitate you, you would heal?" Blood began to gush from Xero's neck in huge splashes mingling itself with her love's on the icy marble floor. "Why don't we test it out hmm?" Dorothy drew the blade back in preparation for the first hacking slice, and swiftly brought it down.

Xero flipped her feet up from under her and with one lightning quick motion; she twisted around and grabbed the blade in her bare hand. She tore the foil out of Dorothy's grasp and flung it out into the hall beyond the room. The skin from her hand flapped around in the air before it began to seal itself back up. Xero leaped to her feet and caught Dorothy off guard with a well placed punch to the jaw. She could feel bone snap and crunch underneath her fist as she put all her weight behind the assault on Dorothy's evilly twisted face. The girl's great bone structure would never be the same, Xero thought with a modicum of satisfaction.

The snarling girl staggered back as she clutched her face. "You little bitch!" Dorothy seethed.

"The name's Xero." The redhead corrected her. "Xero Winner. Don't forget it."

:

The news announced the death of Treize Kushrenada and groans of mixed emotions passed through the crowded cafeteria on Peacemillion. What did this mean for them? What would happen now? Duo shook his head and made his way to the infirmary to check on Quatre who had been rushed in under critical condition. He pressed his hands against the glass that separated him from his friend. He was hooked up to many machines providing him oxygen, nourishment, and a blood transfusion. The gaping wound in his abdomen had been stitched up and sealed with liquid flesh. The doctor had said the blade just barely missed vital organs and that Quatre was an extremely lucky man.

His face was still very pale, but color was slowly returning. Duo looked to the nurse and she nodded her permission. Quietly, he entered the room and took a seat next to his friend. He picked up Quatre's hand and squeezed it. Slowly, but surely the young man's eyes fluttered open, and met Duo's. "Xero…?"

"She didn't come back with you and Trowa. She's still on Libra for the moment." Duo explained softly. "Heero went off on his own to fight Zechs who has engaged the battlefield in Epyon." I'm assuming the end is near."

Quatre attempted to sit up, but cringed and sank back into the bed. "We have to get Xero out of there before it's destroyed" Quatre insisted.

"Hey man, take it easy." Duo chided him. "Don't worry we'll get her out in time." Appearing to be satisfied with this answer, or maybe just too weak to argue, Quatre allowed himself to be taken over once again by exhaustion and slipped away into sleep.

A/N: We are nearing the end my friends, but please stay with me for a couple more chapters here. I am already working on the next installment to this series and will be posting it up as soon as I finish Xero's story. I can't post the next story until then, or else there will be spoilers. Please review! Your imput is important to me! Thanks guys!