Chapter Three: A Pilot's Demise
Heero awoke quickly, knowing exactly where he was. Years of training had left him waking completely alert and ready to fight… and the only one up, as he surveyed his still-sleeping companions. Noiselessly he sat up and placed his feet on the floor, stretching silently – something he never would have done in front of the others.
Then he froze, as he caught the silvery glint of Meike's gray eyes. She lay quietly watching him, eyes half-open but nonetheless awake, and Heero cursed himself. Not the first one up after all… he thought, then lowered his arms.
"Wake up," he called disinterestedly as he turned and gathered up the small blanket he had found the night before… Night? He asked himself, glancing at the afternoon sunlight spilling through the huge glass windows of the spaceport. It had been early morning when they had gone to sleep. He shook his head, then crossed the small expanse of tiled floor to lay the blanket beside the medkit.
"Unnnhh," Duo said intelligently, raising a hand to block the bright light. "Sleeeep…" Quatre rose a few chairs away and tried to smooth out his wrinkled clothes.
"I am not a morning person," he muttered half-heartedly as his pink shirt stubbornly refused to lay flat. His hair looked similarly messy.
"Somebody help me." Meike's calm voice shook Duo out of his sleepy half-awareness as the German teenager tried to stand and failed.
"Whassamatta?" he asked groggily. She threw him a withering glance.
"I just felt like not walking today. Sometimes I get like that." She told him, rolling her eyes, and then wincing as her head spun. "Dammit…"
"Oh, okay, I get it now." Duo blinked rapidly and chased the sleepy fog from his eyes, realizing her concussion still made her dizzy with movement. "Don't do anything yet, we need to give you more painkillers." He fetched the medkit from by Heero's deposited blanket and fished around. "Lessee, yesterday they were in a blue wrapper… here." He took the small package of pills from the kit and handed them to her, along with a bottle of mineral water they had found left in the cabinet. She gulped the pills quickly and handed it back.
"Thanks," she told him quietly, and Duo could barely catch her words.
"Where do we go from here?" Wufei asked, coming to stand by her side. Meike glanced up at him.
"The Vampires have assumed temporary headquarters at the Government building in New Berlin, my home city," she told him. "I can take you there, but I can't walk." Her gray eyes were serious.
"We'll get Trowa to bring the Gundams back, and take those." Heero told her, and Duo stifled a grin when he saw the brief flash of pure joy cross the Arabian pilot's face for an instant. Meike's face remained still, but her mind was puzzled. What's a Gundam? She wondered. Who's Trowa?
"Good, that's cool." Quatre struggled to maintain a diffident air. "Are we leaving now?"
Wufei gave him a look. "Of course not," he said. "Only one will go back and get him. The others will stay here with Meike and wait."
"Oh, okay then." Quatre said eagerly. "Can I go?" Duo rolled his eyes. He was about to open his mouth and say something that would turn Quatre bright red, but Meike spoke before him.
"Can I be outside, at least?" she asked, pointing out the windows to the parking lot and a small expanse of rich grass. "I haven't been outside in so long." Her gray eyes were sad and troubled.
"Yeah, sure, whatever you want." Duo grinned easily and offered her his hand. "I'll take you out. As a matter of fact, why don't we all go outside? Just for a bit. Get some fresh air. Then we can send someone back for Trowa." He snickered at Quatre's crestfallen face.
"Fine." Heero said indifferently. Meike and Wufei nodded as well, and the former grabbed his hand. Duo pulled her up to his side, wrapping an arm around her small waist, and was surprised to see her blush. He cocked his head and frowned, but she avoided his gaze, and he shrugged.
~*~
Outside the air was warm and a slight breeze drifted through the air. Unseen birds twittered from the distanced trees across the parking lot. Meike breathed the air in deep and let out a small sigh. I haven't been outside in so long, she thought happily, and you couldn't really call that truck chase relaxing. She sighed again and leaned heavily against Duo's shoulder.
"I can't believe this is the same colony," she said softly, looking out at the waving grass. "God, a week ago… three months ago… it was all so different…" Wufei looked at her solemnly.
"The Vampires have caused that much damage?" he asked her, and his dark eyes became troubled.
"Well, I haven't been outside in nearly three months, but last I heard, the Vampires had taken control of the government facilities. They now control artificial weather, gravity, light, life support, etc. Whatever they've done in the past three months might not be obvious right now, but it will be soon." She told him frankly.
"Damn! Why haven't you been outside in three months?" Duo exclaimed. Meike grimaced.
"It's not important," she told him. "All I have to do is get you guys to what the Vampires have been using as an official headquarters, of sorts, and then you can get back to whatever it is you normally do."
"But three months!" Duo exclaimed again. Heero gave him a warning look, and Duo wilted. "All right, no harassment… but I intend to find… what's wrong?" Duo's charming face frowned in concern as Meike shrank back against his shoulder.
"Something's coming," she whispered, eyes wide with fear. "I can hear it."
"Huh?" Quatre asked, then looked up as the almost inaudible humming became louder.
It filled the air and seemed to throb against Meike's eardrums and unwillingly, memories of her fight… her near death… came flitting through her memory. The noise had escalated into a load roar and Meike bent her head, fighting tears, as the pulse that seemed more felt than heard matched the one at the back of her head and she felt herself collide with the wall again and again.
"Jesus! Meike!" dimly she heard Duo's voice, but it was slipping from her, his violet eyes shining through the invading blackness, fading from sight, and the roar was filling her ears and her head and her heart…
~*~
"Come on, Marzie, use your wrists." Her father's crystal blue eyes were smiling as Meike held the sword, heavy and weighted in her hands.
"Yeah, yeah, my wrists." She rolled her eyes at him and twirled the blade and positioned it neatly just above her shoulder, gripping the handle with practiced ease.
"Now try again." Her father instructed. The sword lifted from the space beside her ear and she let herself fly.
~*~
"Why isn't she waking up?" Quatre's voice was filled with concern for Meike. Duo shrugged.
"Why did she pass out in the first place?" he asked a bit sharply. He looked toward the five Gundams a short distance away. Trowa stood on the open hatch, watching the four pilots and the teenage girl, but not climbing down. "Oi! Trowa, man! Come on down!" Duo waved cheerfully but the Latin boy simply stared back at him.
"Mein kopf…" mumbled Meike from the ground. "Ach, mir ist so kalt…" her body curled up and uncontrollable shivers suffused her body, and Duo shook her in growing panic while tremors of alarm escalated through his mind.
"Hey! Meike! Wake up!" he yelled, rocking her back and forth roughly. "Now is not the time to have a breakdown!" The girl let out an barely audible of protest, but it went unheard by the American pilot.
"Shut up already, Duo." Duo glanced up into dark eyes as the Chinese teenager grabbed his wrists. Wufei looked back at him calmly. "She's awake."
"Though whether for better or for worse I could not tell you." Meike muttered as she struggled to sit up. Duo sat back and flushed. Rubbing her temples, she slowly opened her eyes to the unwelcome sunlight.
And promptly screamed as the huge Gundams loomed in her view. Tales of boogeymonsters and things that go bump in the night flitted across the front of her brain.
Calm, her mind insisted. Be calm. Her body stubbornly ignored her logic and she scuttled backwards even as she realized the massive structures in front of her were machines. Breathing heavily, she forced herself to stop and glared at the thin, lanky boy posed atop one of the machines.
"Just give me a heart attack, why don't you?" she yelled at him, then gripped the gravel beneath her fingers as pain swirled through her mind. The boy looked down at her in contempt she recognized but could not put a finger on.
"Trowa! Hey, Trowa!" Quatre's voice sang through the air, and he waved exuberantly at the tall pilot. "Come on down!"
Heero glanced at the silent pilot. Something didn't feel right. He was a warrior, bred to ruthless efficiency and taught to trust his instincts, and right now his instinct were screaming that something was deadly wrong.
"I don't have a good feeling about this." Wufei announced, mirroring Heero's own thoughts. Beside him, Meike was struggling to sit up.
"That's not right," she whispered. "I know that. I know him. I know the way he's looking at us." Duo frowned at her.
"It's probably your head still," he said. "Or the medication."
"No!" Meike yelled. "Let me up!" she forced herself to her feet, ignoring the beating pain in her head, and stared up at the still silent Trowa, who had just begun to disembark his Gundam. "It's wrong! It's all wrong!"
"Stop it, Meike!" Duo said. "You're only making yourself worse!" Trowa was now on the ground and pacing forward towards the pilots, and Meike's sense of dread grew. To her left, Heero's eyes were narrowed.
"That's not Trowa." He uttered. Duo threw him a shocked look.
"Whaddya mean?" he asked. "How could that not be Trowa?" Heero ignored him and shouldered past the American pilot, followed by Wufei and a staggering Meike.
"Quatre, don't go near him!" Heero shouted as Quatre dashed forward, unable to contain his happiness at seeing his lover again. Quatre paused and looked back. "Get back here!"
"Quatre." Trowa startled the blonde teenager as he placed a hand on the shorter boy's shoulder. Quatre involuntarily shivered.
"Trowa, you're so cold," he whispered, turning and enveloping the Latin boy's hands with his own. "You're freezing!" His aqua blue eyes were shocked, uncomprehending.
"Quatre!" Meike shouted. "Get away from him!" Her mind screamed at her as Quatre ignored her and looked, innocently, into Trowa's green eyes and stiffened.
"You're eyes!" he yelled in panic. "Trowa, your eyes! They're… they're black! What has happened to you?" He raised trembling fingers to Trowa's solemn face, and jerked them away when Trowa smiled, suddenly and viciously.
"More than you could ever understand." His voice was deep and rumbling, nothing like his soft-spoken norm, and with a disgusted brush of his hand, he shoved Quatre away and onto the ground. The small blonde lay frozen with shock on the pavement.
"I don't think so," Wufei called as Trowa advanced on the other four teenagers, drawing a silver sword from the sheath at his side. "The undead have claimed another."
"Claimed could hardly describe it," Trowa laughed. "Sure, I resisted at first, but when it was all over, it was beautiful." His hard, dark eyes scanned the pilots in contempt. "You'll understand eventually."
With a sharp hiss the other four Gundam hatches hissed open to reveal four more Vampires, stepping out and watching with burning black eyes.
"Dammit." Meike said, plunging a hand into her jeans and wrapping fingers around the cold hard metal of her own gun. She pulled it out and fished in the other pocket, retrieving a small black box of ammunition.
"Whoah," Duo said, eyeing the gun, but Meike ignored him and focused on one of the Vampires. A silent command sent the other four jumping to earth and racing towards the group of teenagers, ignoring Quatre lying frozen on the cement, and Wufei leapt forward with his blade.
The following five minutes were chaotic as Meike hastily tried to line up for a shot to the heart, but the Vampires were moving too quickly, and Wufei was getting in the way. Trowa and his companions had produced sword similar to Wufei's and were fighting back ferociously, with the added advantage of inhuman strength. Wufei had already disposed of one, and as she tried to perfect her aim, Heero killed another, but that left three.
Her shot rang through the air and the gun jumped in her hands as she let off a hit, but the bullet only buried itself in one of the Vampire's arms, doing little harm. It snarled and shook off the temporary pain, and behind it, Wufei decapitated one more Vampire. It was only Trowa and one more companion left.
Then it was only Trowa, surrounded and outnumbered by four angry teenagers, sword held high. And Wufei hesitated to attack.
"What are you waiting for?" she yelled at him as he stepped forward apprehensively, and Trowa grinned.
"I'm more skilled than he is," the Heavyarms pilot gloated. "And he knows it."
"Skill counts for nothing when I've got a gun!" Meike shouted in response and pulled the trigger. And pulled it again, and again, and filled Trowa's chest with as many bullets as she had in the sleek black barrel. His astonished face looked straight at her for one instant, then flickered and dissolved away into dust. Duo looked shocked.
"How did he… just evaporate?" he asked, shifting so the dust wouldn't coat his black boots. Meike tossed him the black ammunition box and leaned against the wall with fatigue.
"Wooden bullets." She told him, sliding down the wall and resting at the bottom. "I made them in the beginning, when we stood a chance." She closed her eyes. "Get Quatre."
Duo turned sick eyes to his friend on the ground. "God, how is he going to take this?" he asked softly, but the wind that blew across the parking lot and scattered the remains of what was once his friend had no answer.