Wings
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The boy spoke in a slow, lazy voice. Although Madeira was glaring at him icily, he continued to talk to her and stare at her body, completely oblivious that she was mentally ripping him from limb to limb.
"So…" He drawled, "Are you part of some Mafia thing?"
Madeira shot him a murderous look. "Excuse me?!" She snapped.
"You know…hit men and stuff?"
The pretty Italian woman grunted. "I am from a royal bloodline, fool. You've seen The Godfather too many times. That kind of thing doesn't happen anymore." She said shortly. Lee looked at her blankly. Casually he glanced over at the grass, where Wing was picking small white flowers for her mother. He hated having to play baby-sitter. He also had to take her to town in about a half-hour, to 'spend some quality time' with his young niece.
"I've been to Italy." He started again.
"I know you have." She interrupted. "You were there with Malattia and Yuy when I met them."
Lee shook his head. "I mean I went to Italy when I was a kid. I went when I was 16."
Madeira looked over to the child. "Shouldn't you be watching your niece? You're hardly paying attention to her." She said, and thought, And leave me the hell alone?
"She's fine." Lee shrugged. Madeira was about to come back with something, when she heard someone calling her name.
"Madeira!! Jeez! I've been looking for you all morning!" A woman shouted in exasperation. Madeira looked around to face the soft silver eyes of Siriya Kakana. Surprise flickered on her face momentarily.
"Siriya?" She questioned. "What are you..?"
"Aw, my boyfriend is in the meeting…that guy from last month was hassling me, I can't go in." Siriya complained.
"Join the club."
Siriya shrugged. "Hey, sorry about getting you in trouble with him."
The woman waved the apology away. "I wasn't in trouble, its no big deal." She glanced sideways at Lee. "I'll show you around," She said, hoping that Lee would not attempt to follow. She smirked for a moment. "Granted, I can't show you the Militia HQ, but the grounds of this place are great."
"Sure thing." She smiled, and followed Madeira away from the pale-haired young man. He watched Madeira with excited eyes, his imagination wandering.
As the images in his brain turned to things that would make a nun faint, Lee Smithe smiled. (1)
~*~*~
"So there hasn't been any contact?" Duo Maxwell asked. "No notes? How did you find out about TO-U in the first place, then?"
The tall woman seated next to him nodded. "Do you know their demands?"
Heero and Wufei sighed inwardly. "They haven't contacted us at all. It was a rumor, something we pieced together through connecting other small terrorist attacks in the neighboring countries." Heero responded. Duo and Lady Une accepted the answer and fell silent.
"Do you think the rumors of Gundanium shipments are connected to TO-U?" Relena asked quietly. Heero's eyes darkened instantly.
"I should hope not, Relena." He said tightly. The other eleven people in the room nodded solemnly.
"That would be disastrous." Sally Po said coldly. "If TO-U is serious…millions might die…"
"It's a revolution, these people want some kind of new order…possibly a new ruler…" Quatre spoke up.
"Well, democracy sure didn't work!!" Duo spat. "After we elected what's-his-name as the World Nation president, look what happened!"
"You're not talking about me, are you?!" A young red head questioned bitterly. Bright indigo eyes rested upon Marimeia Khushrenada, and shook his head.
"No. Not that." He said truthfully. Marimeia sighed, and Lady Une wrapped her arm around the young woman's shoulders.
Everyone else knew what Duo had meant. The World Nation had been challenged brutally by all kinds of groups, and eventually, the young nation resorted back to monarchy after only 5 years. The president had been a good man, and had been assassinated three years after election. The president directly after was no good, and his weak spirit for peace was the direct cause of the World Nation's collapse.
"But…isn't this what everyone wanted? It's why he was killed! For monarchy! And now they don't want it anymore?!" Zechs said in a dangerous tone.
"We can't rule out dictatorship…they want one sovereign…possibly a military dictator…like the Alliance and Oz…" Trowa Barton pointed out. All former Oz and Alliance soldiers nodded in agreement.
"And Relena…" Noin started quietly, "Relena is probably the biggest obstacle they have to face…"
"…They're trying to get to me through my people…." Relena murmured. She didn't look up at the eyes of her friends. A cold chill spread through her body, she was scared…for one of the first times in her life. They didn't care about hurting her, they only wanted her powerful influence out of the way. So TO-U was striking where it hurt…the people of Sanq. The defenseless civilians of the Sanq Kingdom were their targets.
With empty, cold eyes, she looked down at her watch. "Well…we've certainly been in here a while. Lets break for a little while. Go get some lunch." And she shut her eyes and leaned back in her chair.
Without another word, the other eleven stood up, and began walking to the door, leaving Relena her time to think.
Marimeia looked out the window as she passed it, gazing onto the nearby city. So beautiful, she thought, why would anyone ever want to hurt this?
And she paled as the ground beneath her feet trembled.
In horror, Marimeia watched a large building disappear into white fire as it exploded.
~*~*~
The scene that lay before Heero Yuy's eyes was a familiar one, yet it still sickened him. This time the casualty list was much shorter, only 63 dead, but that was 63 too many. Everyone had disappeared off to some duty, leaving him to stand amongst the debris and watch. He couldn't help but feel directly responsible. Something like this, something this big, it could have been avoided if he'd worked harder…
You didn't take it seriously, did you? He questioned himself. You just figured, big deal, a bunch of no-name terrorists having fun with some explosives. Let a few hundred people go up in a big boom, its out of your hands anyway.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lee approaching with Wing. Instantly he reacted, racing over to the idiot.
"Why the hell did you bring Wing?!" He spat.
"We were in town, sir. I'm not on duty today. I was watching her, and I came over to see what happened." Lee responded coolly.
"Then stay where you are, and keep your eye on Wing. This is a dangerous place, I actually think you should take her home." Heero continued.
"We'll be fine." The younger man said icily. "I'll watch her."
Heero frowned and walked away, gritting his teeth.
Lee smirked at his own tiny victory. His eyes scanned the destruction, looking for a certain Italian beauty. And he saw her, helping a paramedic with a survivor. Her uniform was smudged with dirt and blood, her hair a mess, and her face marred by dirt and a small cut. As the survivor was taken to an ambulance, Madeira drifted around to help someone else. She caught him staring at her, and glared at him murderously.
In all of this, Lee did not notice when Wing pulled her tiny hand free and wandered off, looking for her mother.
~*~*~
Madeira wiped her forehead, taking a moment to breathe. Dust was thick in the air, the scent of blood and smoke overwhelming. "I need a second…" She told the paramedic she'd been assisting. "I can't breathe…"
The taller man nodded, and thanked her for her help. She staggered away, gasping for clean air. She almost tripped on a piece of bent metal, but regained her composure quickly before she fell. She stopped walking and stood there, panting with sweat pouring into her eyes.
After a minute or so, she continued walking. She finally put a fairly good distance between herself and the destroyed building, and sat down on a chunk of concrete.
Her head snapped up as she heard a high-pitched childish giggle. What's that? Who would bring a child to this place?! And her eyes searched the crowd for the source of the giggle.
Madeira spotted a familiar bright blonde child walking near the road. "Damn!" She exclaimed to herself. "That's Wing!" She stood, and began to walk in Wing's direction. I need to get her away from there before a car co-
The woman was not even able to finish that thought as she saw an ambulance approaching at top speed. Her blood turned to ice and her heart skipped a beat as the ambulance raced down the road, which Wing was just beginning to cross. They don't see her!!! Oh God!!!
"WING!" She screamed as loud as her voice would allow. "GET AWAY FROM THE ROAD!!"
The girl stopped in the middle of the road, and turned to look at her. Madeira broke into a desperate run, making it to the street. The driver that had not seen Wing did see Madeira standing protectively a few feet from the small girl. Letting out a loud shout in surprise, he frantically turned the wheel to swerve and avoid hitting her.
Madeira didn't even blink when the ambulance failed to swerve.
~*~*~
"WING! GET AWAY FROM THE ROAD!!"
Heero twisted around violently, hearing Madeira's panicked scream. His eyes darted around, and locked upon the road. There was no time to get to the street, and bitterly he knew he was too late to stop what was about to happen.
Wing had made it across the road, and Heero's eyes were now on Madeira as the ambulance slammed into her. She flew upward, hitting the hood and shattering the front window. The ambulance screeched to a stop, and Madeira's limp body rolled off of the hood and lay in front of the ambulance wheels, blood slowly beginning to pool beneath her. Her eyes fluttered, and closed slowly.
Many people screamed in horror.
Several others screamed her name helplessly.
It was not until later that Heero realized that he was one of them.
~*~*~
Holding her daughter tightly to her chest and rocking slowly back in forth, Relena cried quietly. Wing was silent, as were the two others in the room. Relena cried for her child, whom she had nearly lost, her people, who she might continue to lose, and the woman who nearly sacrificed her life for Wing. Not one person could honestly say that they believed Madeira had lived. The accident had been too serious.
However serious it had been, she lay merely unconscious now, in a hospital room down the hall, a few hours after surgery. There had been some internal injuries, a few broken ribs, her collarbone and a large bump on the head. Tests concluded that there was no permanent damage.
"Relena…" Heero spoke lightly, "You can stop crying. Wing is fine and Madeira…well, she'll be fine."
Relena shook her head. "She would have given up her life for Wing…without hesitation…oh God…" She nestled her face into her daughter's soft hair and murmured, "She's an angel."
Heero resisted the urge to snort. Wufei, who had only come as the driver for them after discovering Heero had a rather serious hand injury from a hysterical survivor who had actually bitten his hand, looked toward Heero from the corner of his eye.
"I haven't exactly met with Brindisi…" He said simply, "but I can tell one thing about her from what she has done today."
Relena turned to him, her eyes red rimmed and watery. "What's that?"
"This woman knows the price of honor." He spoke swiftly, words like that were practically alien to him, but still honestly. "From what you've said about her," He kept one eye on Heero, who remained stoic, "I assumed she was another woman trying to 'prove' herself with false motivations…but today….only people with true intentions to protect would so easily give their lives."
Heero shut his eyes, the words burning holes into his soul. He's right…not just about Madeira, either…damn…
And it was at this moment that he realized he'd been calling her by her first name. Somewhat amused, he smirked. I guess I've just found a whole new level of respect for that girl. Hn, wonderful.
He looked down to his bandaged hand, and briefly thought of the woman who had bitten him. He'd reached into a pile of broken concrete and twisted steel, and suddenly the woman had clamped onto his hand like a rabid dog. Although he had been bleeding rather profusely, he did not even look at his hand until he'd pulled her from the pile. And even then, he'd been too distracted by Madeira getting hit by that ambulance to even bother with his hand.
She'd bitten near the base of his thumb, which would make writing and shooting increasingly difficult. He found the fact that he'd actually been bitten was so unusual that undoubtedly Duo would find some way to make it funny by the end of the day, unless even Duo Maxwell was too distracted by the bombing to crack a joke at his friend.
An elderly nurse came around the corner into the waiting room and softly announced that Madeira had woken up. She actually seemed rather surprised.
"You're welcome to visit her, but only one at a time." And she nodded her head cheerily and walked off. Relena and Heero exchanged a quick glance.
"Go." She said firmly. Heero narrowed his eyes and muttered something incoherent before standing and walking down the hall to Madeira's room. He paused at the door, then hesitantly turned the handle and stepped into the room.
Madeira's head snapped up, and gazed at him with a bewildered expression, looking distant from the medication. Inwardly he grinned. Ano, Heero thought, tenshi ha, doko a o bata no tsubasa de a ro ka? (2)
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Review? Please?
1-EWWW!! ::hits a chibi Lee::
2- "Hm, angel, where are your wings?" {Arigatou, Ayumi Hikaru!!}