BWAHAHAHAH! Yesss! I've done it! =D I've finally gotten the third part of Confessions up! WOO! *dances around* I'm sooo prooooud! Haha, sorry to keep you all waiting. ^^;;; I really didn't meeean tooooo! *puppy face and shoujo sparklies and stuff* Oooh, speaking of puppies, I just got two new doggieeees! =D Well, not that you guys care.. but... @_@;; I just had to share XD Anyway! Um um um ok, so, here it is. Sorry, some of it doesn't make sense. I'm working on the fourth part right now. ^-^
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CONFESSIONS Part 3
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The bathrooms in Quatre's house had five toilets and three shower stalls each, and there were two bathrooms. Each bathroom was filled: the first by Aud, Ahmed, Abdul, and Rasid, the second by Quatre, Trowa and Heero. Wufei and Duo and spectator Tseng were in the living room playing a game of noisy and violent checkers.
"King me!" shrieked Duo.
"Shut up, Duo! You don't get kinged until you reach one end of the board, which you haven't!" yelled Wufei, followed by a loud smacking sound.
Hikaru smiled softly to herself before slipping into a bathroom. She tried to be as quiet as possible, trying not to attract Trowa or Heero's attention. They were standing at the sink, washing their hands. She slipped quickly into one of the stalls without any of them noticing her.
Hikaru shed her clothes and stepped under the showerhead. She turned the knob, but with some difficulty. The water was cold at first, but soon warmed up, and she welcomed the feel of the cleansing liquid on her dirty and two-days-unwashed skin.
"Duo! Stop cheating!" Hikaru heard Wufei shout from the living room.
"I'm not cheating!" Duo yelled back. "King me, you rat bastard!"
Hikaru stifled a giggle with her hand, and she heard Trowa and Heero leaving the room. Quatre was showering, and as soon as the door closed after Heero and Trowa, Quatre began to sing. His voice was trembling and melodious, and he was singing what sounded like a love ballad. It was in a foreign language, but he seemed very comfortable with the dips and swings of the words. It was beautiful, even without music to accompany it.
Hikaru smiled with pure joy at the sound of Quatre's voice. Then she reached for the bottle of shampoo, squirting a glob into her palm and working it through her hair. The one good thing about having such short hair was it took much less time to groom it.
"Hold on, you loser, I gotta go wee," Duo said loudly. "When I get back, you better have kinged me."
Wufei snorted.
Hikaru froze, and Quatre's singing stopped. Hikaru suddenly felt stripped bare without his strong voice in her ears.
"Hey, mah bitches," Duo called to Quatre he swaggered into the bathroom. Hikaru could see his blurry outline through the frosted shower curtain moving in a dark shroud. "I didn't know you could sing." He cackled.
Hikaru was suddenly very afraid of being found out. Her mind began to wander to the consequences if she was found out. Would she be executed? Probably not. But...what would happen? She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.
Hikaru cowered against the cold tile wall of the shower stall, her whole body shaking. She looked for a towel to cover herself with, but the only towels were hanging on racks outside the curtain. She would have to reach out and would be noticed. She couldn't remember having ever been so frightened in her life. She remembered, though, her father telling her about episodes like this… Panic attacks, he called them. From extreme fright or paranoia.
Great.
Duo suddenly stopped in the middle of the floor. "Oi, who's in the shower?"
"M-me," stammered Hikaru.
"Hi, Kinjiro!" Quatre and Duo both called at the same time.
"Hi," she squeaked.
She realized Duo's blurry figure was getting larger - which meant he was getting closer. She saw a smudged pink blotch reaching out for the edge of the curtain.
"Duo, no!" she yelled.
The pink blotch drew back quickly. "Sorry, Kinjiro, didn't know you were in that one," he apologized.
"Yeah, sure," Hikaru snorted.
"I didn't!" Duo protested, snickering.
"I didn't even know you were in here," Quatre said, turning off his shower.
Hikaru washed her sudsy hair and began soaping herself, glancing at the shower curtain every few minutes to make sure Duo wasn't peeking his head in or something like that.
Hikaru finally finished a few minutes later, but was worried about turning off the shower and stepping out. Duo and Quatre were still standing in the bathroom, talking about nothing particular.
Hikaru peered out from behind the curtain and saw Quatre standing at the sink. He was naked and dripping wet save for a small white towel slung loosely around his slim pale hips. Duo was sitting next to him on the counter, shirtless, untangling his hair with a wire brush. Duo's skin was unusually tan and dark compared to Quatre's snowy complexion, and his brown hair looked browner in comparison to Quatre's blonde locks.
Finally, she heard Duo and Quatre get up and leave. "Thank god," she sighed, and turned the shower off. She wrapped a towel tightly around herself and dashed out.
"Ha!" she thought to herself. "I didn't screw up. So there, Dr. I."
- - -
Hikaru scaled the body of her Gundam and shoved herself into the cockpit. The metal of the console and the joystick were cold to her touch. Her blood was pumping in anticipation of the mission.
To her left was Sandrock. To her right was Heero in the Wing Zero. Quatre was napping in the cockpit of Sandrock, and Heero was sitting on the chest of his Gundam, in some sort of pre-mission trance. Duo told her it happened all the time and to just ignore him, which she usually did anyway.
The carrier bumped and swayed soothingly, but Hikaru was filled with adrenaline. She couldn't have relaxed even if she had wanted to.
This was her very first official mission, and she was psyched. She knew she'd do well; she was determined not to screw up, as she was so prone to do.
Suddenly she heard scuffling from the leg of her Gundam. She stuck her head out the cockpit door and saw Quatre and Duo's blonde and brown heads coming closer.
"Hi, guys," she greeted them, a little surprised.
Duo looked up, his purple eyes twinkling. "Yo, Kinji-ro," he teased.
Quatre turned his face up. Hikaru smiled openly at him, and his ocean-blue eyes creased into a grin.
"Look, we wanted to come to wish you luck," Quatre said after the three of them were all inside the cockpit. "Tseng was really nervous on his first mission, and we wanted you to know that there's four of us to back you up, so you don't have to worry. You'll be fine with us watching you."
"Oh, I feel so much better," Hikaru retorted.
"Look," Duo went on, and slung a casual arm around Hikaru's shoulders. She moved subtly closer to him, but he didn't seem to notice. "There's nothing to be afraid of. We're doing this for the colonies, not ourselves."
"I'm surprised you remembered that so long, Duo," Quatre said, laughing.
Duo shrugged proudly. "Yeah, me too."
Hikaru talked with them for the rest of the trip, which was two hours. Halfway through, Wufei came to join them, and he and Duo got in a heated argument about checkers and proper method of getting kinged.
"I have a checkerboard in my Gundam. You want me to check the instructions?" Duo challenged.
Wufei squared his shoulders. "Yeah. But I'm right and you're wrong and you know it!"
Duo snorted. "Whatever." Then he scrambled off the Gundam to get his board and instructions.
Hikaru and Quatre looked at each other and dissolved into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
Duo's head popped back up over the edge of the cockpit door. "What?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. Hikaru giggled. "What's so funny, dammit?"
"You and Wufei," she gasped, holding her stomach and collapsing onto her back in the cockpit.
Suddenly, there was a loud "thud" and the plane jerked as it landed with a harsh bump. Duo toppled over, and Quatre was pitched forward. Hikaru was thrown forward and landed hard on top of Quatre. He cried out in pain as one of his ribs cracked against the console and the left joystick jammed into his hip.
Hikaru shrieked as she slammed against the cockpit windshield and the air was knocked out of her. Quatre threw his arms around her shoulders and they lay, chest to chest for a moment, regaining their surroundings.
Suddenly Hikaru realized Quatre was sobbing quietly into her neck. She pulled away and looked at him. Blood was leaking out of one side of his mouth and there was blood staining the left hip of his khakis.
"Unnhh..." he groaned, and shut his eyes tight. His breathing was shallow and pained. "Kinjiro..."
"Oh my god," Hikaru gasped. "Oh… oh...Quatre, don't move...please, just don't move..."
"I..." Quatre coughed, and then clenched his teeth.
"Don't say anything, don't speak, Quatre," Hikaru put her hand on his cheek, which was flushed and hot. "Shhh… It's gonna be okay...Just hold on a little longer, Q..."
Duo scrambled up and launched himself into the cockpit. His whole body froze as he spotted the helpless, agonized Quatre, lying in Hikaru's arms. Hikaru lifted her hand from his neck and it was covered in blood.
Wufei poked his head in, looking unusually concerned. "You guys alrigh - Quatre!" He gasped, and joined Duo in the cockpit. His eyes were wide and his face was pale.
"This can't be happening!" Hikaru moaned, her whole body frozen and her mind in a frenzied state of denial.
Quatre looked at Wufei and smiled through his pain. He raised one trembling hand and wiped away the tears that stained his cheeks. "I think..." he wheezed, "I think my ribs are broken..." He opened his mouth to say more, but it ended up as a snarling yell of agony as Duo bent down and picked the blonde boy up.
"Duo, what are you doing?" Hikaru yelled. "Don't move him, stupid!"
Duo fixed her with his cat-eyed stare, and placed Quatre on one hip like a baby. Then he proceeded to climb out of the cockpit into the platform of the harbor, still carrying Quatre. The carrier had come to a complete stop, and several aides were rushing in. Two spotted Duo carrying the bloody Quatre, and yelled for EMCs.
Duo deposited the still-crying Quatre on the proffered stretcher and walked back to Hellraiser where the pale-faced Wufei and frantic Hikaru were waiting anxiously. "So?" Hikaru urged as Duo came back. "What's wrong?"
"Quatre can't be in this mission," Duo said gravely. "Kinjiro, it looks like it's gonna be just you in the base."
Hikaru couldn't hold back a scream of fear, frustration, worry and denial. "No way!" she shrieked. "Not gonna happen!"
Duo put his hands on her shoulders in a reassuring gesture, but she shoved him away. "No, Duo! It can't just be me… You don't understand!"
"I'll go," Wufei said, and made his way back to the abandoned Nataku. It sat waiting for him, and he got inside. The Gundam roared to life, and he piloted it outside into the landing flat. "Come on!" he shouted, his voice muffled through the microphone.
Hikaru rubbed her throat, thinking. She didn't know Wufei's battle tactics, or if he could sneak well, but it was better than just her alone.
Duo climbed into Deathscythe Hell, and Heero awoke from his trance long enough to start up WZ.
"Tseng's coming by afterwards," Duo told Hikaru, as if to calm her. "You don't have to worry about anything."
"Alright," Hikaru said, and steeled herself. The image of Quatre's pained face and the blood - his blood - on her fingers sent shivers through her body and blurred her vision with hot tears. "Come on, we'd better hurry. Dr I told me that they were putting a time limit on this mission."
"Probably to test you and how good your skills are," Heero told her deadpan. He didn't seem to mind that one of his teammates was lying inept in an ambulance, bleeding and wounded.
"Probably." Hikaru shook hair out of her face and looked down at the console. She knew how to pilot Hellraiser; she had since the first minute she had sat in the pilot's seat, and the hulking destroyer seemed to have a spirit and mind of its own.
Duo snorted. "Well, whatever they tryin' to do, let's one-up them, shall we? Show 'em that Kinjiro is not to be messed with."
Hikaru laughed happily, and waved her crossbow in the air to show her appreciation to Duo. He saluted her with the huge hand of his Deathscythe Hell.
The three of them piloted their Gundams outside to where Wufei was waiting, his left hand in the shape of a dragonhead, already poised.
"So," Wufei began, sighing. "Our mission has a time limit?"
"Apparently so," Heero said.
"When does the time limit start?"
Hikaru shrugged. "I don't know," she told him. "But Dr I said that it would start when the real mission began, so I guess we've got to move it when we enter the base."
Wufei made a small affirmative noise, like "Hn," and gunned his busters. Nataku shot up in the air, straight up at an incredible speed. Hikaru followed him up and wondered briefly if he really knew what he was doing.
Duo joined them after a few minutes. The bat-like wings of his Gundam flapped and contracted as it moved. He reached into a small attachment that looked like a giant steel pillbox that was attached to the leg of Deathscythe and pulled out six ten-foot-long orange batons. They had a glowing wick on one end. Duo tossed them into the air, and then a few more over a range of a few hundred feet. As they settled in the air, the wick burst into a bright flame. Those were the blazers.
Hikaru couldn't help but feel enthusiastic. This was routine for Duo and Wufei but Hikaru had never done this before. It was her first official test, and she *had* to pass. Her whole life depended on it. She began to tremble in anticipation, and bit her lip hard to steady herself.
"Calm, calm," she whispered to herself like a mantra. She could *not* screw up.
"You okay over there, Kinjiro?" asked Duo.
"I'm fine," she reassured him, sounding braver and calmer than she actually felt. Then she swerved Hellraiser around to face Wufei. "Tell me again why this base is important to the UESA?" she asked him.
"Well, the Cinq Kingdom owns not only earth but parts of space as well," Wufei explained. "This base is half on, half off of one of the sections of space that belongs to the Kingdom. So we can't fully destroy it, just infiltrate and evict all OZ occupants and return the base to its rightful owner."
Hikaru nodded. "I get it. When will we be there?"
"We should be arriving about -- now."
Suddenly, the floating colony that served as a base for OZ came into view over a hunk of suspended flotsam that once must have been a mobile suit.
Hikaru gasped softly. "It's so big..." she breathed, not caring if she sounded stupid. The base was immense, with the custom steel-paneled outer layers and small yellow dots serving as lit windows all about the circular structure.
"What, ya never seen a colony before, dude?" Duo asked in amusement.
Hikaru stared in amazement at the hulking creation before her. It wasn't that intimidating, really, but Hikaru couldn't help but feel afraid of it. It emanated a certain sense of foreboding. Hikaru could see the nodules that were the tell-tale signs of hidden beam cannons underneath the steel paneling, waiting to attack and annihilate any intruder who may have been obscure enough to trespass onto the surrounding area. She piloted Hellraiser nearer to the colony, desperate to get a closer look.
Duo swerved DH around so it was blocking Hikaru's path. "Don't go any closer!" he warned frantically. "See those little rises on the surface of the structure?"
Hikaru laughed. "Duo! Of course I know. Those are beam cannons, that would have vaporized Hellraiser in about three to five seconds had I ventured any closer - or had you not stopped me, you brave man."
Duo snorted. "Just don't forget."
Hikaru shook her head, all of a sudden serious. "Come on, you guys, let's go. I just want this mission to be over."
"What? What's this? I thought you were totally psyched for this mission, Kinjiro! What the hell happened?" asked Duo, concerned.
"Well, I was totally psyched. Then Quatre's...um, accident, sort of screwed up the joyful mood." Hikaru sighed again, and stared at her hands, closed tightly around the joystick of the controls. There was dark crimson blood staining the cuticles of her fingernails and it was smeared in a reddish-brown stain over the backs and palms of her hands. Hikaru shuddered.
"I hear ya, man, I hear ya," Duo said gravely.
"This one's for Quatre," Hikaru announced suddenly, her voice trembling. "This mission is for Quatre's sake. We can't fail."
"We can't let Blondie down," Duo yelled with bravado. "Not after what he went through. Comrades, to arms!"
Wufei and Hikaru both gunned their engines and charged forward, dragon and crossbow at the ready. "Die!" yelled Wufei as he began advancing upon the colony.
"No, no, Chang, none of that," said a firm and reprimanding voice. Hikaru, Duo and Wufei all stopped their charge quickly.
"Tseng?" Wufei asked quietly.
"Yeah, it's me," Tseng said, laughing. Hikaru felt her insides drop. Tseng had ultimately been a bad-luck charm for Hikaru; around Tseng, Hikaru's "I'm a guy" practice went to waste. Hikaru felt completely at ease with herself around Tseng, and when that happened, she let her guard down. When her guard was down, she was more prone to a) screw up, or b) screw up.
Hikaru flew Hellraiser away from Dragonlair and closer to the colony.
"You got here pretty quickly," Wufei said suspiciously. From what Hikaru had heard, Wufei and Tseng were on pretty thin ice with each other - they weren't very fond of the other's personality. Tseng could be a real pain in the ass to Wufei sometimes, because Tseng was clever and tactful whereas Wufei was just angry and antisocial.
"Yeah, so I tailed you for a few hundred miles. I got some pretty negative vibes from the doctors, and wanted to take a look for myself without having to wait. So what happened?"
Hikaru also knew that Tseng and Quatre were incredibly close. They did everything together. Basically, they were best friends, and were inseparable. Hikaru thought that they were pretty sweet together, and if one had been a girl, she was sure they would make Cutest Couple of the Century.
"Are you sure you want to hear this, Tseng?" asked Hikaru shakily.
Hikaru could almost feel Tseng's apprehensive curiosity. "Yes," he said slowly. "Tell me."
"It's about Quatre," Hikaru said. There was a brief strained silence, and then Tseng shouted, "Tell me, goddammit!"
"Quatre had a little...accident," Duo said darkly. "The carrier landed badly and threw us all off, and Quatre broke his ribs and generally got the shit knocked out of him when he was… thrown against the floor." Hikaru noted with surprise how Duo said Quatre hit the floor, not the control panel of Hellraiser.
"Oh, shit!" Wufei suddenly yelled. "They've spotted us. We've lingered too long!"
- T B C -
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Aren't you proud of meee? :B Bweeheheheh. Review review! n.n And as a side note, a big apology for any typos or things that didn't make sense in the earlier parts. I'm working on changing that for the next few parts, and focusing more on her relationship with the other pilots. It becomes a *lot* like a soap opera, actually... @_@; But you find out more about Tseng. And Hikaru, of course, is plagued by horrid screw ups all the way through. XD But it'll be up soon, I hope. ^^ Til then, keep reviewing.
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CONFESSIONS Part 3
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The bathrooms in Quatre's house had five toilets and three shower stalls each, and there were two bathrooms. Each bathroom was filled: the first by Aud, Ahmed, Abdul, and Rasid, the second by Quatre, Trowa and Heero. Wufei and Duo and spectator Tseng were in the living room playing a game of noisy and violent checkers.
"King me!" shrieked Duo.
"Shut up, Duo! You don't get kinged until you reach one end of the board, which you haven't!" yelled Wufei, followed by a loud smacking sound.
Hikaru smiled softly to herself before slipping into a bathroom. She tried to be as quiet as possible, trying not to attract Trowa or Heero's attention. They were standing at the sink, washing their hands. She slipped quickly into one of the stalls without any of them noticing her.
Hikaru shed her clothes and stepped under the showerhead. She turned the knob, but with some difficulty. The water was cold at first, but soon warmed up, and she welcomed the feel of the cleansing liquid on her dirty and two-days-unwashed skin.
"Duo! Stop cheating!" Hikaru heard Wufei shout from the living room.
"I'm not cheating!" Duo yelled back. "King me, you rat bastard!"
Hikaru stifled a giggle with her hand, and she heard Trowa and Heero leaving the room. Quatre was showering, and as soon as the door closed after Heero and Trowa, Quatre began to sing. His voice was trembling and melodious, and he was singing what sounded like a love ballad. It was in a foreign language, but he seemed very comfortable with the dips and swings of the words. It was beautiful, even without music to accompany it.
Hikaru smiled with pure joy at the sound of Quatre's voice. Then she reached for the bottle of shampoo, squirting a glob into her palm and working it through her hair. The one good thing about having such short hair was it took much less time to groom it.
"Hold on, you loser, I gotta go wee," Duo said loudly. "When I get back, you better have kinged me."
Wufei snorted.
Hikaru froze, and Quatre's singing stopped. Hikaru suddenly felt stripped bare without his strong voice in her ears.
"Hey, mah bitches," Duo called to Quatre he swaggered into the bathroom. Hikaru could see his blurry outline through the frosted shower curtain moving in a dark shroud. "I didn't know you could sing." He cackled.
Hikaru was suddenly very afraid of being found out. Her mind began to wander to the consequences if she was found out. Would she be executed? Probably not. But...what would happen? She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.
Hikaru cowered against the cold tile wall of the shower stall, her whole body shaking. She looked for a towel to cover herself with, but the only towels were hanging on racks outside the curtain. She would have to reach out and would be noticed. She couldn't remember having ever been so frightened in her life. She remembered, though, her father telling her about episodes like this… Panic attacks, he called them. From extreme fright or paranoia.
Great.
Duo suddenly stopped in the middle of the floor. "Oi, who's in the shower?"
"M-me," stammered Hikaru.
"Hi, Kinjiro!" Quatre and Duo both called at the same time.
"Hi," she squeaked.
She realized Duo's blurry figure was getting larger - which meant he was getting closer. She saw a smudged pink blotch reaching out for the edge of the curtain.
"Duo, no!" she yelled.
The pink blotch drew back quickly. "Sorry, Kinjiro, didn't know you were in that one," he apologized.
"Yeah, sure," Hikaru snorted.
"I didn't!" Duo protested, snickering.
"I didn't even know you were in here," Quatre said, turning off his shower.
Hikaru washed her sudsy hair and began soaping herself, glancing at the shower curtain every few minutes to make sure Duo wasn't peeking his head in or something like that.
Hikaru finally finished a few minutes later, but was worried about turning off the shower and stepping out. Duo and Quatre were still standing in the bathroom, talking about nothing particular.
Hikaru peered out from behind the curtain and saw Quatre standing at the sink. He was naked and dripping wet save for a small white towel slung loosely around his slim pale hips. Duo was sitting next to him on the counter, shirtless, untangling his hair with a wire brush. Duo's skin was unusually tan and dark compared to Quatre's snowy complexion, and his brown hair looked browner in comparison to Quatre's blonde locks.
Finally, she heard Duo and Quatre get up and leave. "Thank god," she sighed, and turned the shower off. She wrapped a towel tightly around herself and dashed out.
"Ha!" she thought to herself. "I didn't screw up. So there, Dr. I."
- - -
Hikaru scaled the body of her Gundam and shoved herself into the cockpit. The metal of the console and the joystick were cold to her touch. Her blood was pumping in anticipation of the mission.
To her left was Sandrock. To her right was Heero in the Wing Zero. Quatre was napping in the cockpit of Sandrock, and Heero was sitting on the chest of his Gundam, in some sort of pre-mission trance. Duo told her it happened all the time and to just ignore him, which she usually did anyway.
The carrier bumped and swayed soothingly, but Hikaru was filled with adrenaline. She couldn't have relaxed even if she had wanted to.
This was her very first official mission, and she was psyched. She knew she'd do well; she was determined not to screw up, as she was so prone to do.
Suddenly she heard scuffling from the leg of her Gundam. She stuck her head out the cockpit door and saw Quatre and Duo's blonde and brown heads coming closer.
"Hi, guys," she greeted them, a little surprised.
Duo looked up, his purple eyes twinkling. "Yo, Kinji-ro," he teased.
Quatre turned his face up. Hikaru smiled openly at him, and his ocean-blue eyes creased into a grin.
"Look, we wanted to come to wish you luck," Quatre said after the three of them were all inside the cockpit. "Tseng was really nervous on his first mission, and we wanted you to know that there's four of us to back you up, so you don't have to worry. You'll be fine with us watching you."
"Oh, I feel so much better," Hikaru retorted.
"Look," Duo went on, and slung a casual arm around Hikaru's shoulders. She moved subtly closer to him, but he didn't seem to notice. "There's nothing to be afraid of. We're doing this for the colonies, not ourselves."
"I'm surprised you remembered that so long, Duo," Quatre said, laughing.
Duo shrugged proudly. "Yeah, me too."
Hikaru talked with them for the rest of the trip, which was two hours. Halfway through, Wufei came to join them, and he and Duo got in a heated argument about checkers and proper method of getting kinged.
"I have a checkerboard in my Gundam. You want me to check the instructions?" Duo challenged.
Wufei squared his shoulders. "Yeah. But I'm right and you're wrong and you know it!"
Duo snorted. "Whatever." Then he scrambled off the Gundam to get his board and instructions.
Hikaru and Quatre looked at each other and dissolved into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
Duo's head popped back up over the edge of the cockpit door. "What?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. Hikaru giggled. "What's so funny, dammit?"
"You and Wufei," she gasped, holding her stomach and collapsing onto her back in the cockpit.
Suddenly, there was a loud "thud" and the plane jerked as it landed with a harsh bump. Duo toppled over, and Quatre was pitched forward. Hikaru was thrown forward and landed hard on top of Quatre. He cried out in pain as one of his ribs cracked against the console and the left joystick jammed into his hip.
Hikaru shrieked as she slammed against the cockpit windshield and the air was knocked out of her. Quatre threw his arms around her shoulders and they lay, chest to chest for a moment, regaining their surroundings.
Suddenly Hikaru realized Quatre was sobbing quietly into her neck. She pulled away and looked at him. Blood was leaking out of one side of his mouth and there was blood staining the left hip of his khakis.
"Unnhh..." he groaned, and shut his eyes tight. His breathing was shallow and pained. "Kinjiro..."
"Oh my god," Hikaru gasped. "Oh… oh...Quatre, don't move...please, just don't move..."
"I..." Quatre coughed, and then clenched his teeth.
"Don't say anything, don't speak, Quatre," Hikaru put her hand on his cheek, which was flushed and hot. "Shhh… It's gonna be okay...Just hold on a little longer, Q..."
Duo scrambled up and launched himself into the cockpit. His whole body froze as he spotted the helpless, agonized Quatre, lying in Hikaru's arms. Hikaru lifted her hand from his neck and it was covered in blood.
Wufei poked his head in, looking unusually concerned. "You guys alrigh - Quatre!" He gasped, and joined Duo in the cockpit. His eyes were wide and his face was pale.
"This can't be happening!" Hikaru moaned, her whole body frozen and her mind in a frenzied state of denial.
Quatre looked at Wufei and smiled through his pain. He raised one trembling hand and wiped away the tears that stained his cheeks. "I think..." he wheezed, "I think my ribs are broken..." He opened his mouth to say more, but it ended up as a snarling yell of agony as Duo bent down and picked the blonde boy up.
"Duo, what are you doing?" Hikaru yelled. "Don't move him, stupid!"
Duo fixed her with his cat-eyed stare, and placed Quatre on one hip like a baby. Then he proceeded to climb out of the cockpit into the platform of the harbor, still carrying Quatre. The carrier had come to a complete stop, and several aides were rushing in. Two spotted Duo carrying the bloody Quatre, and yelled for EMCs.
Duo deposited the still-crying Quatre on the proffered stretcher and walked back to Hellraiser where the pale-faced Wufei and frantic Hikaru were waiting anxiously. "So?" Hikaru urged as Duo came back. "What's wrong?"
"Quatre can't be in this mission," Duo said gravely. "Kinjiro, it looks like it's gonna be just you in the base."
Hikaru couldn't hold back a scream of fear, frustration, worry and denial. "No way!" she shrieked. "Not gonna happen!"
Duo put his hands on her shoulders in a reassuring gesture, but she shoved him away. "No, Duo! It can't just be me… You don't understand!"
"I'll go," Wufei said, and made his way back to the abandoned Nataku. It sat waiting for him, and he got inside. The Gundam roared to life, and he piloted it outside into the landing flat. "Come on!" he shouted, his voice muffled through the microphone.
Hikaru rubbed her throat, thinking. She didn't know Wufei's battle tactics, or if he could sneak well, but it was better than just her alone.
Duo climbed into Deathscythe Hell, and Heero awoke from his trance long enough to start up WZ.
"Tseng's coming by afterwards," Duo told Hikaru, as if to calm her. "You don't have to worry about anything."
"Alright," Hikaru said, and steeled herself. The image of Quatre's pained face and the blood - his blood - on her fingers sent shivers through her body and blurred her vision with hot tears. "Come on, we'd better hurry. Dr I told me that they were putting a time limit on this mission."
"Probably to test you and how good your skills are," Heero told her deadpan. He didn't seem to mind that one of his teammates was lying inept in an ambulance, bleeding and wounded.
"Probably." Hikaru shook hair out of her face and looked down at the console. She knew how to pilot Hellraiser; she had since the first minute she had sat in the pilot's seat, and the hulking destroyer seemed to have a spirit and mind of its own.
Duo snorted. "Well, whatever they tryin' to do, let's one-up them, shall we? Show 'em that Kinjiro is not to be messed with."
Hikaru laughed happily, and waved her crossbow in the air to show her appreciation to Duo. He saluted her with the huge hand of his Deathscythe Hell.
The three of them piloted their Gundams outside to where Wufei was waiting, his left hand in the shape of a dragonhead, already poised.
"So," Wufei began, sighing. "Our mission has a time limit?"
"Apparently so," Heero said.
"When does the time limit start?"
Hikaru shrugged. "I don't know," she told him. "But Dr I said that it would start when the real mission began, so I guess we've got to move it when we enter the base."
Wufei made a small affirmative noise, like "Hn," and gunned his busters. Nataku shot up in the air, straight up at an incredible speed. Hikaru followed him up and wondered briefly if he really knew what he was doing.
Duo joined them after a few minutes. The bat-like wings of his Gundam flapped and contracted as it moved. He reached into a small attachment that looked like a giant steel pillbox that was attached to the leg of Deathscythe and pulled out six ten-foot-long orange batons. They had a glowing wick on one end. Duo tossed them into the air, and then a few more over a range of a few hundred feet. As they settled in the air, the wick burst into a bright flame. Those were the blazers.
Hikaru couldn't help but feel enthusiastic. This was routine for Duo and Wufei but Hikaru had never done this before. It was her first official test, and she *had* to pass. Her whole life depended on it. She began to tremble in anticipation, and bit her lip hard to steady herself.
"Calm, calm," she whispered to herself like a mantra. She could *not* screw up.
"You okay over there, Kinjiro?" asked Duo.
"I'm fine," she reassured him, sounding braver and calmer than she actually felt. Then she swerved Hellraiser around to face Wufei. "Tell me again why this base is important to the UESA?" she asked him.
"Well, the Cinq Kingdom owns not only earth but parts of space as well," Wufei explained. "This base is half on, half off of one of the sections of space that belongs to the Kingdom. So we can't fully destroy it, just infiltrate and evict all OZ occupants and return the base to its rightful owner."
Hikaru nodded. "I get it. When will we be there?"
"We should be arriving about -- now."
Suddenly, the floating colony that served as a base for OZ came into view over a hunk of suspended flotsam that once must have been a mobile suit.
Hikaru gasped softly. "It's so big..." she breathed, not caring if she sounded stupid. The base was immense, with the custom steel-paneled outer layers and small yellow dots serving as lit windows all about the circular structure.
"What, ya never seen a colony before, dude?" Duo asked in amusement.
Hikaru stared in amazement at the hulking creation before her. It wasn't that intimidating, really, but Hikaru couldn't help but feel afraid of it. It emanated a certain sense of foreboding. Hikaru could see the nodules that were the tell-tale signs of hidden beam cannons underneath the steel paneling, waiting to attack and annihilate any intruder who may have been obscure enough to trespass onto the surrounding area. She piloted Hellraiser nearer to the colony, desperate to get a closer look.
Duo swerved DH around so it was blocking Hikaru's path. "Don't go any closer!" he warned frantically. "See those little rises on the surface of the structure?"
Hikaru laughed. "Duo! Of course I know. Those are beam cannons, that would have vaporized Hellraiser in about three to five seconds had I ventured any closer - or had you not stopped me, you brave man."
Duo snorted. "Just don't forget."
Hikaru shook her head, all of a sudden serious. "Come on, you guys, let's go. I just want this mission to be over."
"What? What's this? I thought you were totally psyched for this mission, Kinjiro! What the hell happened?" asked Duo, concerned.
"Well, I was totally psyched. Then Quatre's...um, accident, sort of screwed up the joyful mood." Hikaru sighed again, and stared at her hands, closed tightly around the joystick of the controls. There was dark crimson blood staining the cuticles of her fingernails and it was smeared in a reddish-brown stain over the backs and palms of her hands. Hikaru shuddered.
"I hear ya, man, I hear ya," Duo said gravely.
"This one's for Quatre," Hikaru announced suddenly, her voice trembling. "This mission is for Quatre's sake. We can't fail."
"We can't let Blondie down," Duo yelled with bravado. "Not after what he went through. Comrades, to arms!"
Wufei and Hikaru both gunned their engines and charged forward, dragon and crossbow at the ready. "Die!" yelled Wufei as he began advancing upon the colony.
"No, no, Chang, none of that," said a firm and reprimanding voice. Hikaru, Duo and Wufei all stopped their charge quickly.
"Tseng?" Wufei asked quietly.
"Yeah, it's me," Tseng said, laughing. Hikaru felt her insides drop. Tseng had ultimately been a bad-luck charm for Hikaru; around Tseng, Hikaru's "I'm a guy" practice went to waste. Hikaru felt completely at ease with herself around Tseng, and when that happened, she let her guard down. When her guard was down, she was more prone to a) screw up, or b) screw up.
Hikaru flew Hellraiser away from Dragonlair and closer to the colony.
"You got here pretty quickly," Wufei said suspiciously. From what Hikaru had heard, Wufei and Tseng were on pretty thin ice with each other - they weren't very fond of the other's personality. Tseng could be a real pain in the ass to Wufei sometimes, because Tseng was clever and tactful whereas Wufei was just angry and antisocial.
"Yeah, so I tailed you for a few hundred miles. I got some pretty negative vibes from the doctors, and wanted to take a look for myself without having to wait. So what happened?"
Hikaru also knew that Tseng and Quatre were incredibly close. They did everything together. Basically, they were best friends, and were inseparable. Hikaru thought that they were pretty sweet together, and if one had been a girl, she was sure they would make Cutest Couple of the Century.
"Are you sure you want to hear this, Tseng?" asked Hikaru shakily.
Hikaru could almost feel Tseng's apprehensive curiosity. "Yes," he said slowly. "Tell me."
"It's about Quatre," Hikaru said. There was a brief strained silence, and then Tseng shouted, "Tell me, goddammit!"
"Quatre had a little...accident," Duo said darkly. "The carrier landed badly and threw us all off, and Quatre broke his ribs and generally got the shit knocked out of him when he was… thrown against the floor." Hikaru noted with surprise how Duo said Quatre hit the floor, not the control panel of Hellraiser.
"Oh, shit!" Wufei suddenly yelled. "They've spotted us. We've lingered too long!"
- T B C -
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Aren't you proud of meee? :B Bweeheheheh. Review review! n.n And as a side note, a big apology for any typos or things that didn't make sense in the earlier parts. I'm working on changing that for the next few parts, and focusing more on her relationship with the other pilots. It becomes a *lot* like a soap opera, actually... @_@; But you find out more about Tseng. And Hikaru, of course, is plagued by horrid screw ups all the way through. XD But it'll be up soon, I hope. ^^ Til then, keep reviewing.