Chapter 3
"What? You knew? Why didn't you tell us before? Sally and Wufei, wherever they
are, may even be dead right now, and you tell us that Sally had a radar watch on her all the
time?!", Duo lunged himself at Colonel Chavin, and held the official up by the scruff of
the shirt at his neck. "Well, who's face should I beat to a pulp today? Is it yours?", Duo
nodded in a computer technician. "Or you?", he gestured with his head at the frantically
typing worker who immediately stopped and turned around. "Or is it you, Colonel, whose face
I should punch in today? The death of 2 people who I called friend, is caused by this...
ignorant mistake!" Duo raised his hand to punch, but Heero caught his fist. When Duo
looked mad enough to punch the Japanese, Heero let go, but shook his head slightly, and Duo
let the colonel down.
He pointed an accusing finger at the colonel, and jabbed it at his chest. "Where is
the signal coming from? Show us the map!"
Colonel Chavin hastily led them over to a computer. "There", he pointed to a
blinking red dot in a field of neon green and black.
Heero sat down in his chair. He began to type madly, breaking every password and
every page was skimmed over, barely read. Finally, the monitor showed the dot was coming
from a place about 30 minutes away from Paris.
Everyone in the room groaned. "We knew that! Where in the palace is are they kept
is what Duo Maxwell wants to know! We already knew she was being imprisoned at the palace
of Versailles in France, so we need to find out specifically where it's coming from", Duo
was tapping his foot in a futile attempt to keep his anger in check. His words were coming
out between gritted teeth.
Colonel Chavin trembled mightily and said in a squeaky voice ,"We don't have a map
of the palace, so we can't pinpoint it -"
"What?!", more than one person yelled. "Now you tell us!"
Lady Une shook her head. "I'm putting this branch of the Preventers under new
management when this is over. For now...", the Lady shook her head. "We'll leave it as it
is." When Duo, Quatre, and Trowa frowned at her (Heero was too busy typing at the computer),
she raised her hands up to the sky in exasperation. "There's simply no time to do anything
today! Or yesterday! All attacks! I still haven't check the daily report for the attempt
of self - destruction that L4 tried to do the day before yesterday!"
Everyone was surprised when a small form parted the busy crowd and tugged at the
Lady's sleeve. Lady Une bent down and lifted the sleepy face us toward her own tired face.
"Yes, Mariemeiya, what's the matter?"
The little redhead rubbed her eyes sleepily and when she lowered her hands, she
asked quite innocently ,"What's going on, Lady Une?"
Behind the Commander's eyes flashed as slight look of pain and anguish. "Mariemeiya,
dear, Wufei and Sally are missing."
The little girl came awake at once, and snapped into her 'general' mode. "Where are
they being kept? You should know that by now, right?"
Heero answered for everyone ,"She and Wufei are being kept in the French palace of
Versailles. There is a radar signal coming from both Sally and Wufei's Preventer watches,
but we can't pinpoint it because it seems that all the maps to the palace of Versailles has
already been covered up, not able to be seen from any Preventer station or our own computers.
Unless someone would be able to let us use their computer for emergency, then we have no
where to get information."
Mariemeiya's eyebrows knitted slightly together, a look she had inherited from her
deceased father. Lady Une was tempted to smile, but this was not time to smile, not when 2
of the closest people she had ever worked with were missing.
"Why didn't you put out this fire when it was still small? It has grown quite big,
and it will continue to build; it will take everything we've got now to put it out. We
haven't even prepared, and even if we were to try to, there are too many traitors in our
society to know who is on which side."
Not even Duo tried to joke on this one.
"However, maybe it was a good thing I was awakened by your shouting, Duo Maxwell. I
have been to Versailles in just the past year or so. Dekim took me there before we started
the attacks. I can probably draw you a map. Paper and pencil, please", the little redhead
shook her hand out and materials were immediately shoved into her hand. She motioned
everyone to come in closer, and even Heero came to look.
"Now, the main entrance it here, right? There's a garden in front. It's empty
except for flowers and a fountain in the middle. When you enter the palace, you immediately
see the great hall..."
* * *
By morning, Mariemeiya was fast asleep in the Lady's arms, Duo was snoring loudly,
Quatre was half - slouched on the platform where Mariemeiya drew the directions, Trowa was
quietly sleeping (unlike the pilot of Deathscythe), head on folded arms, but the only one
who was still awake was Heero. After examining the map one last time, he glanced at the
peacefully sleeping people around him, got up soundlessly and out the door. Just when he
reached the door, something caught his ankle. He looked down and saw it was Duo.
"Where are ya goin'?", he whispered, looking around also.
Heero obviously couldn't shake the talkative pilot off, so he told the truth. "I'm
going to pretend I'm a tourist. I'm going out to buy some appropriate clothes. Now, will
you let go?"
Duo grinned his infamous daredevil grin. "Only if you let me go with you?"
Heero tried again in futility to shake the hand off his ankle. Now what! Look what
trouble you got yourself into this time! A never - stopping - to - take - a - break talker!
"Onegai?"
Heero rolled his eyes. "Does it seem like I have a choice?"
"That's as good as a yes! Let's go!", Duo got up kneeling, then risked taking his
hand off Heero's sock. He barely missed the kick that came whistling past his ear.
"Watch it", Heero warned without looking back. Duo hurried behind.
* * *
Wufei woke up groggily. He had the impression that something horrible happened, but
he couldn't quite put his finger on it right now, he was too tired...
He woke up as his hand touched a lifeless hand close to his. The reality of last
night struck him like a thunderbolt.
Sally's dead. She really is.
Before he knew it, a tear rolled down his cheek.
Then another.
And another.
They came raining down on Wufei's tank top, splashing their way though the flimsy
material and dampening the skin underneath. A flood...I can't remember the last time I
cried so hard.
Ah, yes I do...it was Mother's birthday. And death day.
He was so busy with his thoughts he failed to hear the click of the prison door
opening. A voice called in ,"Wufei?"
The Chinese caught himself and wiped away the last few tears that came down. He
recognized that voice: it was Duo's. Wufei turned his head to the door and saw the outline
of Duo's dark silhouette against the light outside. He tried to stand up, but found he only
collapsed. The 'talkative pilot', as Heero had called him, rushed inside and helped his
friend to stand. "Where's Sally?"
Wufei heard this and felt the tears burning in the corners of his eyes. He pointed
to the ground where his love lay.
Duo gasped in sympathy, then supporting Wufei with one arm and holding Sally with
the other, the two former pilots hobbled out. Heero was waiting in the hall. He took one
look at Sally and shook his head sadly and sighed. He motioned to hand her over. Duo then
did the most surprising thing: he scooped Wufei up in his arms and started to run down the
hall.
"Let go of me -", Wufei tried to speak, but he coughed a bit of blood up instead.
Duo, unlike usual, didn't even look at the stain on his shirt.
Doors were opening on every side of the hall. Shooting started and Wufei realized
something: if Duo was holding him and the shooting was coming from behind...
That meant that Duo was trying to shield him!
"No, really, Duo Maxwell, put me down this instant!", Wufei tried in vain to wriggle
out of Duo's grasp. "They want me alive, so if I surrender myself, then I might be able to
get you two out."
Duo flashed a quick grin at his Preventer friend. "Not a chance, buddy. We came
here to get you to the front door. It's just too bad if we get killed, isn't it?"
Wufei felt like crying at those words. He felt even more like crying when a bullet
hit its mark in Duo's back. The L2 pilot stumbled a little, but regained himself and ran
even harder.
Wufei had a split second before he realized he was in the open night sky. He
breathed in the air, welcoming it back into his body after that long in the stuffy prison
cell.
"No time to enjoy the French air, Wufei. When I count to three, I'm going to let go
of you. You have to make it to the first car, and do it fast, cuz I'm gonna climb up behind
cha."
Wufei saw the distinct nod that was passed between Heero and Duo and knew that they
both knew what to do.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three!"
Wufei felt the rush of air and landed on his feet, catlike, and ran to the nearest
car. Noin stepped quickly out and began to fire a machine gun at the soldier behind the
slower pilots. Wufei only had time to sit before Duo and Heero piled in, and Pagan drove
them away. Heero and Wufei both examined Sally one more time, and confirming that she was
indeed dead, stopped the elderly driver and put her in the trunk. Then they swerved their
head backwards and watched other black limos following them.
After getting tired of waiting for the drive to end, Heero turned and realized that
Duo was hurt. The shinigami had been shot in the back, which came to the conclusion that
Heero came up with.
"The bullet's not deep. We can wait until we get to the hospital. I could take it
out right now, but it would hurt more without a tweezer. Wait a little, Duo."
Duo nodded a little and dropped off into a restless sleep.
Wufei stared out the window, at the brightly fluorescent lamps that were stationed
on lampposts. He thought back to the last few days of torture and shuddered. Sally's death
was a sudden surprise, but I guess it was predictable. And now that I'm a little more over
it, I feel...
Empty. Devoid of anything.
My mind is still working. That's strange, I thought it had shut down a long time
ago.
Sally's dead.
Wufei stopped dead at that statement.
Did I really mean what I said back there in the Versailles prison? Did I really
love her? Was I truthful, like I'd been to Meiran?
Meiran's dead, Wufei reminded himself. You yourself was the cause of her death.
She forgave me. That matters too.
Yes, the voice agreed. But even though you ignored her for most of your pathetic
marriage, you still wept when she was buried, and put into the ground, never to be seen
again.
Back to the subject, the other voice argued back.
Wufei softly mouthed words, but no sound came out. Heero read them and realized
they made no sense at all.
The car drove on, it's passengers (except one) oblivious to the fact that Wufei had
left his heart, his soul, and his life behind.
* * *
"Here, help me get Wufei out", Duo grunted and strained, favoring his arms rather
than his injured back. Heero obliged and slung Wufei over his shoulder. Quatre and Trowa
held Sally in front of them and everyone filed in the hospital.
Almost immediately they were surrounded by Conquistador soldiers, and Heero realized
that they all had guns.
Damn. Too many of the bastards have surrounded us, he thought. Grabbing a gun
won't be easy, even for me in this one. And with only one gun, I'd hate to see what I could
do with that.
His had strayed to the gun in his back pocket and heard a distinct click from
behind.
They're sharp. But not sharp enough. His eyes detected a movement to his right.
It was Duo, running fingers through his hair and muttering something unintelligible.
One of the soldiers nodded at the seemingly asleep pilot. "What's wrong with that
guy? Is he asleep?"
No one answered.
"What should we do?", Noin whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "Do you have a
plan?"
"No", Heero whispered back. "But sometimes the best plan is to have no plan."
Noin shook her head. "I don't think that works for this case."
Quatre wrinkled his nose doubtfully, something he hadn't done in a while; he only
did when they were in some sort of danger. "We could do anything. Wait, let me ask them
something."
In a timid voice, but one that didn't lack authority, he said ,"Can any of you tell
me who your leader is? If I could, I would like to negotiate with her."
The soldiers started to answer, but all were cut short by a feminine voice, a voice
that Quatre both adored, feared, and was suspicious of. His suspicions were confirmed by
her words.
"I am in charge of this operation. I think all of you know who I am."
The ex-Gundam pilots and Noin all whirled around at the familiarity of that voice.
Her hair swayed in the breeze, silvery blonde hair that reached past her knees.
Piercing blue eyes searched every face for fear, and hooked eyebrows crowned her forehead.
She was dressed in a green uniform, with a few badges and pins on her jacket. High -
quality black leather boots peeked out from the green slacks that matched the color of her
coat.
There was no mistake. It was Dorothy.
Quatre trembled and almost fell to his knees. "Dorothy, what do you think you're
doing? You ...did you lie when you said you wouldn't take it on us? What have you done?"
Dorothy smiled, or rather, smirked. "Is it a sin to lie?"
"Of course! My Allah curse you! You have tricked us all! We have given you
everything: a home, lots of friends, we have given you what we believe is out friendship and
most of all, our love. And yet, you still betrayed us -"
"I didn't do anything! It was your fault you believed me!", the challenging smile
was gone from Dorothy's face, and instead, a cold look settled on her features. The forked
eyebrow twitched. "I'm sure Lieutenant Hitchcock had a lot of fun playing with poor
Preventer Sally Po over there", she nodded at the comatose figure slung between Trowa and
Quatre. The confident smile returned. "She didn't even put up a fight. The lieutenant
e - mailed me right after and told me that he wanted another toy to play with. The new one
called Sally Po broke...poor toy, I suppose you'll discard it now?"
Trowa gritted his teeth when she laughed. Suppressing the urge to let go of Sally
and strangle Dorothy, he turned to Quatre and mouthed ,"Plan?"
Quatre looked around before answering. "Nope. Not a bally idea. It's like my mind
has gone blank."
"That's not good."
"Of course it's not. Noin asked Heero a few minutes before, and he told her that
sometimes the best plan was to have no plan."
Trowa allowed a tiny smile, a ghost of a smile to flit for a moment over his face.
"He surprises me sometimes, his sick sense of humor."
Quatre, startled by Trowa's sudden smile, regained his composure and answered ,"Yes,
he has changed after the Mariemeiya incident. It's a good thing that he now keeps in touch
more and talks more, now. He send me an e - mail almost every other week."
Trowa nodded before one of the guards shouted at them ,"Oi! What are you two
planning? To attack us?"
Heero flung Duo to the ground in a flash, and Trowa was not surprised to find that
the thrown pilot landed on both feet, indigo eyes wide open. He threw something all around
and smoke filled the air. Everyone took this moment to get out of the crowded building,
only to be sprayed by a hail of bullets once outside. They escaped inside a small pub, and
was startled right outside of it again when they saw it was full of enemy soldiers.
Quatre handed Trowa Sally and quickly dialed a phone number. As he spoke, a car
drove around the next corner. It happened to be the exact thing Quatre wanted: a taxi.
Everybody piled in, not regarding whether they happened to be sitting in someone else's lap
or on the seat.
Only Heero had the sense to look up at the driver.
The driver was wearing a green military suit, gloves, and Heero was sure he could
smell freshly put gunpowder in the handgun that hung by the man's side.
And suddenly Heero knew what to do.
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
Author's note:
I hate these suspenseful endings. But I guess it's up to the author to decide when
he/she wants to stop writing. I chose here. Don't complain!
Andrea Weiling
"What? You knew? Why didn't you tell us before? Sally and Wufei, wherever they
are, may even be dead right now, and you tell us that Sally had a radar watch on her all the
time?!", Duo lunged himself at Colonel Chavin, and held the official up by the scruff of
the shirt at his neck. "Well, who's face should I beat to a pulp today? Is it yours?", Duo
nodded in a computer technician. "Or you?", he gestured with his head at the frantically
typing worker who immediately stopped and turned around. "Or is it you, Colonel, whose face
I should punch in today? The death of 2 people who I called friend, is caused by this...
ignorant mistake!" Duo raised his hand to punch, but Heero caught his fist. When Duo
looked mad enough to punch the Japanese, Heero let go, but shook his head slightly, and Duo
let the colonel down.
He pointed an accusing finger at the colonel, and jabbed it at his chest. "Where is
the signal coming from? Show us the map!"
Colonel Chavin hastily led them over to a computer. "There", he pointed to a
blinking red dot in a field of neon green and black.
Heero sat down in his chair. He began to type madly, breaking every password and
every page was skimmed over, barely read. Finally, the monitor showed the dot was coming
from a place about 30 minutes away from Paris.
Everyone in the room groaned. "We knew that! Where in the palace is are they kept
is what Duo Maxwell wants to know! We already knew she was being imprisoned at the palace
of Versailles in France, so we need to find out specifically where it's coming from", Duo
was tapping his foot in a futile attempt to keep his anger in check. His words were coming
out between gritted teeth.
Colonel Chavin trembled mightily and said in a squeaky voice ,"We don't have a map
of the palace, so we can't pinpoint it -"
"What?!", more than one person yelled. "Now you tell us!"
Lady Une shook her head. "I'm putting this branch of the Preventers under new
management when this is over. For now...", the Lady shook her head. "We'll leave it as it
is." When Duo, Quatre, and Trowa frowned at her (Heero was too busy typing at the computer),
she raised her hands up to the sky in exasperation. "There's simply no time to do anything
today! Or yesterday! All attacks! I still haven't check the daily report for the attempt
of self - destruction that L4 tried to do the day before yesterday!"
Everyone was surprised when a small form parted the busy crowd and tugged at the
Lady's sleeve. Lady Une bent down and lifted the sleepy face us toward her own tired face.
"Yes, Mariemeiya, what's the matter?"
The little redhead rubbed her eyes sleepily and when she lowered her hands, she
asked quite innocently ,"What's going on, Lady Une?"
Behind the Commander's eyes flashed as slight look of pain and anguish. "Mariemeiya,
dear, Wufei and Sally are missing."
The little girl came awake at once, and snapped into her 'general' mode. "Where are
they being kept? You should know that by now, right?"
Heero answered for everyone ,"She and Wufei are being kept in the French palace of
Versailles. There is a radar signal coming from both Sally and Wufei's Preventer watches,
but we can't pinpoint it because it seems that all the maps to the palace of Versailles has
already been covered up, not able to be seen from any Preventer station or our own computers.
Unless someone would be able to let us use their computer for emergency, then we have no
where to get information."
Mariemeiya's eyebrows knitted slightly together, a look she had inherited from her
deceased father. Lady Une was tempted to smile, but this was not time to smile, not when 2
of the closest people she had ever worked with were missing.
"Why didn't you put out this fire when it was still small? It has grown quite big,
and it will continue to build; it will take everything we've got now to put it out. We
haven't even prepared, and even if we were to try to, there are too many traitors in our
society to know who is on which side."
Not even Duo tried to joke on this one.
"However, maybe it was a good thing I was awakened by your shouting, Duo Maxwell. I
have been to Versailles in just the past year or so. Dekim took me there before we started
the attacks. I can probably draw you a map. Paper and pencil, please", the little redhead
shook her hand out and materials were immediately shoved into her hand. She motioned
everyone to come in closer, and even Heero came to look.
"Now, the main entrance it here, right? There's a garden in front. It's empty
except for flowers and a fountain in the middle. When you enter the palace, you immediately
see the great hall..."
* * *
By morning, Mariemeiya was fast asleep in the Lady's arms, Duo was snoring loudly,
Quatre was half - slouched on the platform where Mariemeiya drew the directions, Trowa was
quietly sleeping (unlike the pilot of Deathscythe), head on folded arms, but the only one
who was still awake was Heero. After examining the map one last time, he glanced at the
peacefully sleeping people around him, got up soundlessly and out the door. Just when he
reached the door, something caught his ankle. He looked down and saw it was Duo.
"Where are ya goin'?", he whispered, looking around also.
Heero obviously couldn't shake the talkative pilot off, so he told the truth. "I'm
going to pretend I'm a tourist. I'm going out to buy some appropriate clothes. Now, will
you let go?"
Duo grinned his infamous daredevil grin. "Only if you let me go with you?"
Heero tried again in futility to shake the hand off his ankle. Now what! Look what
trouble you got yourself into this time! A never - stopping - to - take - a - break talker!
"Onegai?"
Heero rolled his eyes. "Does it seem like I have a choice?"
"That's as good as a yes! Let's go!", Duo got up kneeling, then risked taking his
hand off Heero's sock. He barely missed the kick that came whistling past his ear.
"Watch it", Heero warned without looking back. Duo hurried behind.
* * *
Wufei woke up groggily. He had the impression that something horrible happened, but
he couldn't quite put his finger on it right now, he was too tired...
He woke up as his hand touched a lifeless hand close to his. The reality of last
night struck him like a thunderbolt.
Sally's dead. She really is.
Before he knew it, a tear rolled down his cheek.
Then another.
And another.
They came raining down on Wufei's tank top, splashing their way though the flimsy
material and dampening the skin underneath. A flood...I can't remember the last time I
cried so hard.
Ah, yes I do...it was Mother's birthday. And death day.
He was so busy with his thoughts he failed to hear the click of the prison door
opening. A voice called in ,"Wufei?"
The Chinese caught himself and wiped away the last few tears that came down. He
recognized that voice: it was Duo's. Wufei turned his head to the door and saw the outline
of Duo's dark silhouette against the light outside. He tried to stand up, but found he only
collapsed. The 'talkative pilot', as Heero had called him, rushed inside and helped his
friend to stand. "Where's Sally?"
Wufei heard this and felt the tears burning in the corners of his eyes. He pointed
to the ground where his love lay.
Duo gasped in sympathy, then supporting Wufei with one arm and holding Sally with
the other, the two former pilots hobbled out. Heero was waiting in the hall. He took one
look at Sally and shook his head sadly and sighed. He motioned to hand her over. Duo then
did the most surprising thing: he scooped Wufei up in his arms and started to run down the
hall.
"Let go of me -", Wufei tried to speak, but he coughed a bit of blood up instead.
Duo, unlike usual, didn't even look at the stain on his shirt.
Doors were opening on every side of the hall. Shooting started and Wufei realized
something: if Duo was holding him and the shooting was coming from behind...
That meant that Duo was trying to shield him!
"No, really, Duo Maxwell, put me down this instant!", Wufei tried in vain to wriggle
out of Duo's grasp. "They want me alive, so if I surrender myself, then I might be able to
get you two out."
Duo flashed a quick grin at his Preventer friend. "Not a chance, buddy. We came
here to get you to the front door. It's just too bad if we get killed, isn't it?"
Wufei felt like crying at those words. He felt even more like crying when a bullet
hit its mark in Duo's back. The L2 pilot stumbled a little, but regained himself and ran
even harder.
Wufei had a split second before he realized he was in the open night sky. He
breathed in the air, welcoming it back into his body after that long in the stuffy prison
cell.
"No time to enjoy the French air, Wufei. When I count to three, I'm going to let go
of you. You have to make it to the first car, and do it fast, cuz I'm gonna climb up behind
cha."
Wufei saw the distinct nod that was passed between Heero and Duo and knew that they
both knew what to do.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three!"
Wufei felt the rush of air and landed on his feet, catlike, and ran to the nearest
car. Noin stepped quickly out and began to fire a machine gun at the soldier behind the
slower pilots. Wufei only had time to sit before Duo and Heero piled in, and Pagan drove
them away. Heero and Wufei both examined Sally one more time, and confirming that she was
indeed dead, stopped the elderly driver and put her in the trunk. Then they swerved their
head backwards and watched other black limos following them.
After getting tired of waiting for the drive to end, Heero turned and realized that
Duo was hurt. The shinigami had been shot in the back, which came to the conclusion that
Heero came up with.
"The bullet's not deep. We can wait until we get to the hospital. I could take it
out right now, but it would hurt more without a tweezer. Wait a little, Duo."
Duo nodded a little and dropped off into a restless sleep.
Wufei stared out the window, at the brightly fluorescent lamps that were stationed
on lampposts. He thought back to the last few days of torture and shuddered. Sally's death
was a sudden surprise, but I guess it was predictable. And now that I'm a little more over
it, I feel...
Empty. Devoid of anything.
My mind is still working. That's strange, I thought it had shut down a long time
ago.
Sally's dead.
Wufei stopped dead at that statement.
Did I really mean what I said back there in the Versailles prison? Did I really
love her? Was I truthful, like I'd been to Meiran?
Meiran's dead, Wufei reminded himself. You yourself was the cause of her death.
She forgave me. That matters too.
Yes, the voice agreed. But even though you ignored her for most of your pathetic
marriage, you still wept when she was buried, and put into the ground, never to be seen
again.
Back to the subject, the other voice argued back.
Wufei softly mouthed words, but no sound came out. Heero read them and realized
they made no sense at all.
The car drove on, it's passengers (except one) oblivious to the fact that Wufei had
left his heart, his soul, and his life behind.
* * *
"Here, help me get Wufei out", Duo grunted and strained, favoring his arms rather
than his injured back. Heero obliged and slung Wufei over his shoulder. Quatre and Trowa
held Sally in front of them and everyone filed in the hospital.
Almost immediately they were surrounded by Conquistador soldiers, and Heero realized
that they all had guns.
Damn. Too many of the bastards have surrounded us, he thought. Grabbing a gun
won't be easy, even for me in this one. And with only one gun, I'd hate to see what I could
do with that.
His had strayed to the gun in his back pocket and heard a distinct click from
behind.
They're sharp. But not sharp enough. His eyes detected a movement to his right.
It was Duo, running fingers through his hair and muttering something unintelligible.
One of the soldiers nodded at the seemingly asleep pilot. "What's wrong with that
guy? Is he asleep?"
No one answered.
"What should we do?", Noin whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "Do you have a
plan?"
"No", Heero whispered back. "But sometimes the best plan is to have no plan."
Noin shook her head. "I don't think that works for this case."
Quatre wrinkled his nose doubtfully, something he hadn't done in a while; he only
did when they were in some sort of danger. "We could do anything. Wait, let me ask them
something."
In a timid voice, but one that didn't lack authority, he said ,"Can any of you tell
me who your leader is? If I could, I would like to negotiate with her."
The soldiers started to answer, but all were cut short by a feminine voice, a voice
that Quatre both adored, feared, and was suspicious of. His suspicions were confirmed by
her words.
"I am in charge of this operation. I think all of you know who I am."
The ex-Gundam pilots and Noin all whirled around at the familiarity of that voice.
Her hair swayed in the breeze, silvery blonde hair that reached past her knees.
Piercing blue eyes searched every face for fear, and hooked eyebrows crowned her forehead.
She was dressed in a green uniform, with a few badges and pins on her jacket. High -
quality black leather boots peeked out from the green slacks that matched the color of her
coat.
There was no mistake. It was Dorothy.
Quatre trembled and almost fell to his knees. "Dorothy, what do you think you're
doing? You ...did you lie when you said you wouldn't take it on us? What have you done?"
Dorothy smiled, or rather, smirked. "Is it a sin to lie?"
"Of course! My Allah curse you! You have tricked us all! We have given you
everything: a home, lots of friends, we have given you what we believe is out friendship and
most of all, our love. And yet, you still betrayed us -"
"I didn't do anything! It was your fault you believed me!", the challenging smile
was gone from Dorothy's face, and instead, a cold look settled on her features. The forked
eyebrow twitched. "I'm sure Lieutenant Hitchcock had a lot of fun playing with poor
Preventer Sally Po over there", she nodded at the comatose figure slung between Trowa and
Quatre. The confident smile returned. "She didn't even put up a fight. The lieutenant
e - mailed me right after and told me that he wanted another toy to play with. The new one
called Sally Po broke...poor toy, I suppose you'll discard it now?"
Trowa gritted his teeth when she laughed. Suppressing the urge to let go of Sally
and strangle Dorothy, he turned to Quatre and mouthed ,"Plan?"
Quatre looked around before answering. "Nope. Not a bally idea. It's like my mind
has gone blank."
"That's not good."
"Of course it's not. Noin asked Heero a few minutes before, and he told her that
sometimes the best plan was to have no plan."
Trowa allowed a tiny smile, a ghost of a smile to flit for a moment over his face.
"He surprises me sometimes, his sick sense of humor."
Quatre, startled by Trowa's sudden smile, regained his composure and answered ,"Yes,
he has changed after the Mariemeiya incident. It's a good thing that he now keeps in touch
more and talks more, now. He send me an e - mail almost every other week."
Trowa nodded before one of the guards shouted at them ,"Oi! What are you two
planning? To attack us?"
Heero flung Duo to the ground in a flash, and Trowa was not surprised to find that
the thrown pilot landed on both feet, indigo eyes wide open. He threw something all around
and smoke filled the air. Everyone took this moment to get out of the crowded building,
only to be sprayed by a hail of bullets once outside. They escaped inside a small pub, and
was startled right outside of it again when they saw it was full of enemy soldiers.
Quatre handed Trowa Sally and quickly dialed a phone number. As he spoke, a car
drove around the next corner. It happened to be the exact thing Quatre wanted: a taxi.
Everybody piled in, not regarding whether they happened to be sitting in someone else's lap
or on the seat.
Only Heero had the sense to look up at the driver.
The driver was wearing a green military suit, gloves, and Heero was sure he could
smell freshly put gunpowder in the handgun that hung by the man's side.
And suddenly Heero knew what to do.
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
Author's note:
I hate these suspenseful endings. But I guess it's up to the author to decide when
he/she wants to stop writing. I chose here. Don't complain!
Andrea Weiling