A Fallen Angel- chapter 4



Disclaimer: (her hands are over her ears and her eyes are closed) Idonotowngundamwingsopleasedon'tsueme (begins to sob hysterically into a bewildered Quatre's arms)







"Checkmate!!!!"

"Wha...INJUSTICE!!"

"I beat Wu-man, I beat Wu-man!!" Duo chanted in a sing-song voice. Quatre looked up from his book and smiled, while Heero made no response.

"You cheated."

"No I didn't, I won fair and square!" Duo's nose went up in the air as he continued to chant, "I beat Wu-man, I beat Wu-man!"

"I let you win, and don't call me Wu-man!"

"You didn't let me win, you're just saying that because you're to weak to admit that I won!"

"Ok, that's it!" Wufei smiled evilly as he shoved Duo out of the room and into the hall. He then quickly closed and locked the sliding door. "Now maybe he'll shut up."

No such luck, "Hey, you guys locked me out, no fair!!!" he pounded on the door, "Please let me in, I'll be good."

"Sure you will," sneered Wufei, "go bug Trowa."

"But he's no fun; he doesn't do anything!" Pound, pound.

"So?"

"Ahh, come on you guys," pound, "let me in!" Pound, pound.

"........"

"Please?"

"........"

"Fine, I'll just wait out here until you decide to be nice and let me in."



"Do you really think we should just leave him there?" Quatre asked.

"Yes."

Quatre shrugged, "Well, I just thought it was a little cruel, that's all."





One hour later.......



Knock, knock.

"Go away Duo."

"It's Trowa." Quatre walked over and unlocked the door; and Duo fell on the floor, fast asleep. "Why's Duo on the floor?" Trowa asked.

"Ask Wufei," replied Quatre.

Trowa looked up at Wufei. "He was being annoying, so I locked him out." Everyone looked at Duo, who was now french kissing his hand, muttering Hilde's name in between kisses. They all sweat-dropped in unison. Wufei kicked him hard and he woke up with a yelp.

"What ya' do that for?"

"No reason."

Duo attempted a death glare, making him look hilarious, Quatre stifled a giggle, failed, burst out laughing, though he stopped abruptly when Duo stuck his tongue out and stormed away to bother Heero.

"Do you want to play chess?" Quatre asked, glancing at Trowa, "no one wants to play."

Trowa nodded as he sat down in front of Quatre.

"What color do you want to be?"

"Black," Trowa replied, answering in the least possible words, like always.

"Alright then, I'll be white, you can go first."

"Hey guys, I think you may want to see this," Noin's voice over the intercom called. Duo immediately bounded out of the room, tired of bugging Heero and getting no response. The rest followed.

They entered into the control room: a grey room with buttons of every color blinking. A large screen that normally showed nothing but stars now showed a pure white gundam, desperately trying to fight a losing battle with nearly 200 tauruses.

"We think it's the sixth gundam that Quatre's always talking about." announced Sally.

"Is it?" questioned Noin.

"Hey, I've only seen the pilot, not the suit," Quatre argued, "I have no way of knowing if that's the sixth pilot or not."

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out," she pressed a couple of buttons, allowing the pilot to see and hear her, "This is Lt. Noin speaking, do you read me?"

"This is pilot 06's answering machine speaking, pilot 06 is extraordinary busy right now, if you will please leave a message after the beep, she will be pleased to answer at a time when she is not fighting for her life," an extremely sarcastic female voice answered.

"I'm liken her already," Duo commented.

Rhia's face appeared on the screen as Quatre cheered and gently shoved Noin out of the way. "Hi Rhia! You took your braid out, it looks good that way!"

She glared at him, "I really don't have time for this."

"Need any help? Shinigami is always willing to help damsels in distress."

"No thank you."

"Be serious Rhia," debated Quatre, "you're out numbered nearly 200-1"

"198-1," she corrected, slicing two tauruses with a laser sword.

"Still, you're badly out numbered."

"I've got it under control, just cut off your connection with me," Rhia reached her hand up and pressed a couple of buttons above.

"What!? No!"

"Quatre....."

"Why would I want to do that? I just found you again!"

"Because I said so."

"That's not an answer."

"Then at least step away from the damn control panel!" with that, her face vanished from the screen. The control panel, on the other hand, started to go crazy: everything turned on, then off as a unit as the pilots were plunged into darkness.

"We're out of power!"

"Really, I didn't notice."

"Duo, the air is off."

"Oh well, I lived through it once, I can do it again, right Wu-man?"

"How many times must I tell you not to call me that?!"

The power came back as Rhia's face appeared once again, ghastly white and pampered with sweat.

"Everyone ok?" she asked weakly. They all nodded. "Alright then, I'm coming in," her face disappeared, leaving everybody left to stare out at a silent, stary night, as though nothing had ever happened.

They walked into the landing room where Sally was already directing the ash covered gundam into landing; she seemed to sense that the pilot didn't even have the strength left to do it on her own. The gundam landed, the cockpit opened, and Rhia staggered out. She waited patiently for the rope to begin to start lowering, where she then grabbed on and allowed it to lower her down, instead of jumping out like they usually did.

"Hey Rhia, you feeling alright?" Quatre asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I guess so," she lost her balance as she landed and grabbed onto the rope to save herself from falling, "just a little worn out."

"A little!? You can barely stand, let alone walk, why don't you lean on me, beautiful?" Duo gave her his lopsided grin and a wink as he placed her arm over his shoulder.

"Do I really have a choice, flirt?" Rhia replied, trying to sound sarcastic, but they could all sense the weakness in her voice. Quatre bent down and grabbed her other arm and legs.

"It's ok Duo, I've got her," he picked her up and held her, letting her head fall limply on his shoulder.

"Thanks Quatre," she whispered before her eyes closed and her body became even limper in his arms.





Rhia awoke sometime later in a bed with pure white sheets. A hospital? No, it doesn't smell right, but where am I? Something happened, what was it? Something with the gundam pilots, I'm in space with them. Well, I guess I should find them. She put her feet on the cold, hard floor.

"Hey, ya' woke up!" That must be Duo. Sure enough, duo was standing opposite of the bed with a yo-yo in his right hand. Let's see how well Dr. J. has trained me; Duo is talkative, outgoing, and optimistic, I have to be the same.

"Good morning Duo! Or is it good afternoon, I never can tell in space." She put on a cheerful smile, fake of course, everything about her always seemed to be fake.

"I thought Quatre said you weren't talkative," hesitated Duo.

"People used to say we would never live in space, now look at us."

"Yeah, I guess you're right....." his voice trailed off, then his mood shifted suddenly, "You just woke up, ok?

Rhia looked at him curiously.

"Quatre made me promise to tell him the moment you woke up."

"Oh, ok, if you say so."

"Come on," Duo commanded as he grabbed Rhia and dragged her towards the door, "let's go!"



Quatre certainly was happy to see her, though he decided not to show it; it would probably make her terribly uncomfortable. The others simply watched, surprised that this girl, this girl who was barely over four feet tall and who couldn't weigh more than 60 pounds, was the mysterious guardian angel they had all heard about. She was more of an ethereal being that came to their aid when needed, even when it wasn't needed, she was there. One of them could be surrounded, fighting for their life when, from a distance, a few shots would be fired, making victory possible. But, try as they might, they could never find that person. And, though she would send them disks with much needed information on them, even Heero couldn't track her, for he knew neither her name or what she looked like. Therefor, she remained anonymous, until now, that was. Now she was there, right in front of them all ,and no one had any idea what to do.

"How did you manage to destroy all those tauruses in a matter of seconds?" questioned Heero.

"There's a system installed in my gundam that enables me to send of energy when connected, no big deal."

"But how did you do that when we first met," Quatre pointed out, "you weren't in your gundam then?"

She shrugged, "Excess energy."

"I'd like to look at that system," Heero began as he turned away from his laptop, "it may be useful later on."

A crimson blush spread across Rhia's cheeks, "You see, um, actually," she stuttered, "I have a rare blood type and only I can do that."

Oh, how she hated to tell him that, but he only shrugged, "I'd still like to look at it."

"If you say so," she followed Heero out of the room, "oh, and I need to get my guitar as well."

"You put a guitar in your gundam?!" remarked Duo, "Where the heck did you put it?"

"Under the seat, I was bored, so I decided to make it into a compartment."



Quatre strayed behind the others and watched Rhia from a distance. What happened to her, she seemed so different; she was never this happy and talkative before. Her eyes, her eyes used to break his heat: they were so lifeless and empty, now they were full of life, but he sensed something else, though he didn't know what. It was though she wore a mask similar to Heero's but different. He'd have to ask her about it later, but he doubted he'd get an answer. Rhia was full of countless mysteries and he would probably never learn them all. On the other hand, Quatre was told he had a way with people and he had already gotten Trowa to open up, a little bit, he would just have to work on her.

"Hey Quatre," Duo called, "you ok, I thought you'd be happy to see Rhia."

"I am, it's just...."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Ya' sure?" Duo's face was full of concern.

"I'm just tired, that's all."

"If you say so." The look on Duo's face clearly showed that he was unconvinced, but he shrugged it off. Gosh, why is everyone so secretive around here?





"I can't believe it, I'm winning again!"

"I told you Duo," Rhia said, "I suck at chess."

You're letting him win, Wufei thought, there's no way you could have fallen for everyone of those extremely obvious traps.

"Checkmate!" Duo yelled, " I bet I can even beat Heero now!!!"

Heero looked up from his laptop, "No you can't," he said in his usual monotone voice. Within moments, Duo had challenged Heero to a match, Heero had accepted, and they were already setting the game up.

Unnoticed by the rest, Rhia quietly slipped away from the group and crept away; the happy expression wiped from her face. Wufei saw her and watched, confused. How could someone be so cheerful one moment and so dull the next? The natural sense of caution perked up in Wufei's mind, what if she was a spy? I think I'd better follow her. He followed her silently to the takeoff room where their gundams patiently waited. She's going to steal our gundams! His mind raced, he didn't have his gun. Wait, what's she doing?

Rhia, seemingly completely unaware of Wufei's presence, picked up the guitar from out of the corner of the room and began to walk towards the gundams but then, on a sudden impulse, turned around and walked back towards the door, ignoring the quick hiding of a bewildered Wufei. She took a small post it note from the guitar case and stuck it on the front of the door. There, it was done, the note would explain her disappearance and, though she hoped not, her goodbyes. She had no more reasons to stay, so she wold leave. With that, she climbed into her gundam and just before she flew away she said with a smirk, "See ya' Wufei."

Stunned, Wufei looked around, was she really gone? But she wasn't even awake for a day. Wait, what did the note say? He sauntered over and pealed it off the door.



To Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Sally, and Noin,

Yes, I am gone again; my mission was to guard the gundam pilots from afar and that's just what I intend to do. We probably will meet again, but if we don't, good-bye.



Rhia



~*~





A/N- I am sooooo sorry that took so long to get out- it's just, I thought no one was reading it, so I didn't write, then when I re-submitted it and everyone liked it, it took me a while to get back in the hang of writing. The next one shouldn't take to long to write, and it should be out a little sooner, but, all I can say, is the more reviews I get, the faster it'll get out. So, with that in mind, please fill out the little form right under this, you don't even have to write a long review, short ones are fine with me.



~Rhia~