Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam. I bet you I never will.
The Lost Girl
Part 10
When I woke up, the sun was just rising in the east. Trowa and Quatre were no longer asleep, and if Wufei and Heero had ever been, they weren't now. All four pilots were sitting around a slowly dying campfire, talking in hushed voices.
I got up slowly, the pain in my side jabbing at me as I stood. I ignored it, walking over to the campfire.
Quatre looked up as I approached.
"Morning," he greeted me, scooting over just a bit so I could sit down next to him. There was something in his voice something that wasn't right. It didn't sound as cheerful as it usually did. I brushed it off, figuring he must be tired. I knew I certainly was.
"We think we have a plan," Trowa told me as I sat down between him and Quatre. "But we need you to help us." His voice, too, was tight.
"Anything," I said quickly, hoping to at least be able to do something to help Duo.
"We're going to send Heero in to the last OZ base where they're holding Duo," he began.
"But we don't know where that is!" I protested. I had been there, and I didn't know where it was. How did they possibly know?
"Yes, we do," Wufei said.
"How?"
He stood and walked over around his Gundam; he reached behind the leg and pulled something out. Or, rather, *someone*.
"Binns."
"Right," Wufei said, coming back over and dragging the well-bound man with him, a smirk on his Oriental features to rival Duo's most devilish grin. "Look what we caught sneaking around here last night."
Above his gag, the Lieutenant's eyes were wide and frightened, and I was pretty sure that whatever Wufei had done to him, it had not been nice. His clothes were tattered, and rust-colored stains - bloodstains - crisscrossed his sleeves.
"Talked up a storm, after I convinced him it was better than remaining silent," Wufei said smoothly.
"He told you where they're keeping Duo?" I asked, hope once again beginning to shine through the clouds.
Wufei nodded. "It took some persuasion. But he talked in the end."
"Okay," I said slowly. I didn't like the mental picture I was getting - I was pretty sure that I would never, ever want someone like Wufei to interrogate me - but somehow I couldn't feel as sorry for Binns as I would have thought.
He knew it was my fault, and he wasn't afraid to say so. Like Heero, and like Wufei.
Not now.
"You're going with Heero," Trowa said.
I was going in? To get Duo? Part of me was ecstatic - that I could go, that I could personally make sure he was all right. But what good was I? They wouldn't send me without a reason. My stomach twisted a bit.
"Not that I'm complaining - I want to go - but why are you sending me in? I mean, I'm an extra body with no real purpose -" Was I going to convince them to keep me here when I really did want to go?
"You have a purpose," Heero said.
"Let's just hope we don't have to use it," Quatre said shortly, then stood, turning toward Sandrock. "Come on, I've got some extra weapons packed away."
I stood, looking down at the two pilots still seated and the Chinese boy holding the bound soldier.
Something was off. And I didn't like it. And as much as I wanted to go right now, not ask any questions, just go and get Duo
I couldn't.
"Okay," I said firmly, and Quatre turned back around, the worry suddenly clear on his face.
"What is going on?" I demanded, making sure my voice was as firm and level as I could make it. Getting hysterical wasn't going to make them tell me anything. Not that I was one to get hysterical, but having everyone shut off from me like this especially Quatre, who had thus far been nothing but kind and open
Quatre looked at the ground, and Trowa tried to remain as impassive-looking as possible.
"You're a traitor," Heero said coolly, after a moment of silence.
Hadn't we already been through this?!
"I'm *not* a traitor," I said, unable to keep the slight exasperation from my voice. I thrust my right wrist out, the newly-applied gauze of the night before gleaming white in the morning sunlight.
I ripped off the gauze, revealing the scabbed, slightly jagged wound that lay beneath, that I was more than certain was going to scar.
"You don't trust me, after you took this *thing* out! That I didn't know was there?!"
"You could have been lying," Wufei said levelly. "You *were* lying."
Beside him, the Lieutenant's green eyes sparkled, the fear leaving them momentarily.
Green eyes.
*He* was
That cab driver. He'd been driving the cab, that day I left for San Francisco. It was him. And then at Sally's camp, and now here in AustraliaWhat was this all about?
"He he was you've been following me!" I exclaimed, looking straight at Binns. He didn't turn away. He didn't even blink.
"Listen," I pleaded, pointing to the captive still in Wufei's grasp, "did he tell you that? He's been following me, then, ever since"
"You showed up back on Earth," Wufei finished.
Earth? Had I been?
The OZ base. The one where I was being held, where Duo was still being held. That had been in *space*?
"How did you get back here, to the docks? How did you get out to go after Heero?" Wufei asked, the suspicion in his voice clear now.
"I I don't know," I had to admit. There was a sick feeling in my stomach, like I had dropped down an elevator shaft. Like I was in freefall, with nothing left to grasp at, nothing to hold on to and no one to reach out for me
"You're a spy. He told us."
I looked at Wufei pleadingly, like how could he believe someone like that over
Someone like me. I had no excuse. But I had known them, hadn't I? For months? Why would they?
Because of Duo, because of what OZ had made him do. Because, like they were implying, all the evidence was solid, and it all pointed to me.
But it couldn't be true.
It couldn't be.
But I couldn't remember anything. What if what if I *was*?
I felt like I was going to die, like I was going to collapse. I turned and saw Quatre, looking at me with this deep, unreachable pity in his eyes.
He didn't believe this, something inside of me whispered. And if he did, he didn't want to.
Trowa had remained silent as well. Maybe
There was no way. What else was I going to do? No amount of talking was going to convince them if I couldn't back it up.
And I couldn't.
I blinked.
It was too perfect. The odds were too stacked against me.
"You're coming with me," Heero said smoothly, softly. "And I'm going to trade you for Duo. And then I'm going to kill you."
Quatre looked like he wanted to say something. But he didn't, just looked at me with those deep green eyes filled with pity, and turned away, going over to his Gundam and sitting down, refusing to look over.
Trowa was looking at his feet. Wufei was looking at me like he wanted to kill me right here and now, and I could tell that if Binns could have smiled - grinned - he would have been.
What could I do now?
Except go, and let Heero trade me for Duo.
An eye for an eye. A life for a life. Was this what it was going to take?
AN: Thanks again to continuing reviewers! It means a lot! And yes, the boys are going to kick some ass!