What's Not Seen
Part 6
Nix shook her head to try and clear the headache. She sat up and took in her surroundings. She noticed her head set, broken, and scattered on the floor. She looked around for Heero but he wasn't there. She got up and quickly searched the bridge and when she was satisfied that it was empty she left the area and headed for the engine room to secure the smuggled goods.
The rest of the crew, minus Trowa who was still missing, crept down the hall toward the bridge. It had been Leikela's idea that they head for some place where they wouldn't be found. At first the crew was to go to the cargo hold but after hearing noises down below them they figured their chances of getting to the cargo hold, or anywhere below the main decks, were grim. They decided on the kitchen. They could hear footfalls in the hallways below them near the crew cabins.
"They're probably finding out right about now that we aren't there." Allen said as he took out the master set of cards that could get him into anywhere on the ship. He slid one of the credit card resembling cards in the slot by the door to the bridge and the heavy metal door slid open. The group of 9 walked into the bridge and Heero jogged over to where he had left Nix.
"She's gone." He stated.
"Well there's nothing we can do about it now, we have to get to the kitchen. They'll check here next." Christi pointed out.
"Yeah but I still shouldn't have left her. I should have tied her up or something."
"Can we not lock all the doors from here? I mean shouldn't we be able to do that?" Allen asked.
"No, not on an old ship like this." Kari said.
"Well Trowa told me that this ship seemed more advanced than we thought it was so could we try it?" Christi asked.
Heero nodded and headed over to the computer. He typed a few commands on the computer and nothing happened. He tried a few more different commands and still nothing happened.
"I bet they have disabled the ship, it's what I would do if I was invading a ship." Heero said.
"Makes sense!" Bria agreed.
"Well we don't have time to waste we have to get to the kitchen and make some plans. Come on." Christi said, heading out the other door
The rest of the crew followed.
"Nix?"
Nix stopped walking only long enough to look at her watch and find the talk button.
"Yeah?" she answered.
"We've searched all the cabins and the crew seems to be missing."
"Well keep looking! They have to be somewhere on this ship, there is no way they can get off without us knowing."
"We'll check the bridge next."
"Good. Tell Dan to meet me in the engine room."
"Roger."
"So what now?" Bria asked.
"We find a way off this ship." Christi replied as she guided the boys in blocking the door so that no one could get in.
"There's a map of the ship in the drawer on the far left side of the counter on the back wall." Wufei said as the boys looked around for a welder.
When Allen found it Heero used it to weld the weld door shut.
"That should hold them!" He said when he was done.
"You just locked us in this room!" Kari said.
"No, we can use the air ducts to get out." Allen explained.
Kari nodded.
Bria walked over to the large island in the center of the kitchen and laid out the map she had found.
Wufei moved to stand beside her and as he looked at her he noticed the cut above her left eye.
"What are you staring at?" Bria asked, annoyed.
"How did you get that cut?"
"I fell when the ship moved."
"Has anyone looked at it?"
"Not really."
Wufei squinted his eyes in thought and walked over to a drawer. He pulled out a first aid kit and brought it over to the island.
Just then the lights went out completely.
Instinctively Wufei reached out for Bria and Kari grabbed Duo's arm. Quatre took a step closer to Christi when he heard her sharp intake of breath.
"It's okay guys, I have a few flashlights." Allen said. He reached into the pockets on his uniform and pulled out 3 mini flashlights. He gave one to Christi and one to Wufei and then he kept one for himself.
"Duo I think there's another flashlight in one of the drawers." Wufei said as he turned on his flashlight and took out a Band Aid and some Neosporin.
Duo took Allen's flashlight and rummaged around in the drawers until he found one.
Bria took a step back as Wufei reached up to put Neosporin on her wound.
"What are you doing?" Wufei asked.
"I just don't want it to hurt." Bria answered hesitantly.
"I'm not going to her hurt you, onna, just hold still."
Bria took another step back so that she was barley visible in the dim light.
"No! I knew it! You don't really care that I'm hurt! And to think that for a moment I thought you were actually being nice!"
"What? I said I wasn't going to hurt you." Wufei said, not knowing what he had done to deserve the girl's anger. He took a step in her direction now making him barley visible as well, except for the small arc of light on the ground that came from the small flashlight in his hand.
"The fact that you called me onna just means that you think I'm just another woman who gets hurt and wines about it! Well I've not news for you, I wasn't wining, but you probably weren't paying attention to me anyway! All men are the same!" Bria yelled.
The other 7 people turned to watch the battle unfold.
"Well now you're implying that all men never listen and don't acknowledge women at all!" Wufei yelled back.
"Well don't you? If I asked you to marry me right now you would just say yes to make me shut up when you really had no clue what I had asked you in the first place then forget what you said and blame it on me!"
"Well what if I proved it to you?" Wufei asked.
"How would you prove it to me?" Bria challenged.
"How about I ask you to marry me?"
"Well if you think you can pull it off?"
"Fine, so what do you say?"
"As soon as we can get to a church!"
"Alright, it's a deal!"
"Good!"
"Great!"
An awkward silence fell over the group.
Bria and Wufei both turned red as they realized what had taken place.
"Um, so did you really mean it?" Bria asked.
"Well I'm not really ready to marry you yet but I would like to get to know you better and then, who knows?"
"Oh…okay."
Wufei cleared his throat and held up the Neosporin to Bria's face.
As Wufei took care of Bria Christi and the rest of the crew went back to finding a way out.
"Look here." Quatre said as he pointed to the map.
"There seems to be a small ship in the launch bay. I bet we could use it to get out of here."
"Mmmmm, nice try but it's not gonna work."
"Why not?" Quatre asked.
"I've looked at that ship and it's not ready to pilot."
"Well then, you will have to get it ready to pilot!" Christi said.
"What do you mean?" Duo asked.
"She means she wants you and probably Leikela to go check it out and fix what needs to be fixed and have it ready to go so that when we get there we can blast right out!" Kari explained.
"Right, but I want you to go with Duo and Leikela." Christi said.
Kari smiled.
"Allen will also be with you." Christi informed.
"Okay so how do we get out?" Duo asked.
"The duct you'll need to use is in the walk in freezer." Quatre said looking at the map.
"Gotcha! Come on girls, we have work to do!"
Duo, Kari, and Leikela walked toward the freezer and opened the door. A minute later Kari screamed and buried her face in Duo's shirt.
Christi, Quatre, Heero, and Allen ran to the freezer. Wufei and Bria got up from where they were talking and came to the freezer.
Christi looked in the freezer and took a deep breath and turned toward Quatre. He put an arm around her as he too surveyed the scene.
Leikela took a step back into Heero who put his hands on her shoulders and looked at the body of a girl.
"Um…I guess we should explain." Bria said.
"You knew about this?" Christi said taking a step toward Bria.
Quatre pulled Christi back, afraid that she would kill her fellow crewmember.
"It was an accident!" Wufei said, stepping between Christi and Bria.
"It is just as much my fault as it was hers."
"Well please tell me what happened!" Christi asked.
"Wufei and I were in the middle of one of our fights and I threw a knife at him and he ducked and it hit her instead."
"This better not be who I think it is!" Christi said.
Bria and Wufei both looked at each other.
"Oh no! You did not kill Relena Peacecraft!"
"She was the one who had the papers that I showed you with her. I just found them right before the ship was breeched. I brought them right to you."
"I was wondering where you had gotten information like that. She must have been the Preventer that wanted to see me. Only, she's not a Preventer, she's the Vice Foreign Minister. Well there's nothing we can do about it now. I'll think up some excuse to tell the Brass when we get out."
After a moment of silence Duo, Allen and the two girls made there way along the air duct.
Christi walked back to the map.
"Let's see, Bria, you, Wufei, Quatre, and Heero head for the bridge and see if you can fix the weapons system so that we can detonate it from the escape ship, God willing it works."
"Okay, but what will you do?"
"I am going to look for Trowa."
"But what if he's one of them?" Quatre asked.
"Then I'll take my chances but I can't just leave him here incase he's not."
"I guess you're right, but I don't want anything to happen to you. If it's that's important than I'll go instead. You go with the rest of the guys."
Christi looked at Quatre, surprised by his statement. Here she barely knew him and he was already more caring and sweeter than all of her other boyfriends. If they made it out alive she'd have to remember that.
"Well, thank you for your concern but I am the pilot and feel that this is my responsibility."
"Then at least let me come with you." Quatre offered.
Christi smiled.
"Okay."
Nix kicked the piece of mettle in rage.
"P.M.S.!" Dan said from behind the outraged Nix.
"Oh would you just shut up, Daniel!" Nix yelled.
"The pieces are gone!" Nix informed her colleague.
"What?" He asked, his hansom face turning red with anger.
"There gone! I was promised that they would be here! I've looked all over and there's no trace of them!"
"Well didn't you check to make sure they were here as soon as you got on the ship?"
"I was busy. I was promised that they would be here and that I wouldn't have to worry about it. I should have known I couldn't have trusted that organization."
"Well we have to have those pieces! We can't continue construction on the new mobile suit without them."
"Well what do you propose we do?"
"I think we need to talk to the pilot!"
"Well in case you've forgotten, we don't know where she is!"
Dan's Walkie Talkie beeped. That reminded him of Nix's and he threw hers to her as he answered his own.
"Yeah?" He answered.
"We've found the crew. They've been hiding out in the kitchen." The voice on the other end said.
"Well get them out!"
"They've welded the door shut and we can't get it open."
"So blow it open I don't care! Just open it! Then bring them down to the lowest deck and meet us in the room at the end of the hall."
"Roger. Over and out."
Nix and Dan headed for the meeting place.
"Give me the hammer." Wufei said from under the counter. He was trying to get to the air duct under the cabinet that would take them to the hallway so that they could get to the bridge.
Bria handed the hammer to Wufei as Christi shushed everyone.
"I hear something." She whispered.
Quatre walked over to door.
"They're outside!" he said.
Wufei announced that he had gotten through. He ducked into the cabinet and Bria started to follow when there was a loud explosion. Quatre was knocked to the ground as the door exploded. Heero quickly shoved Bria in and then he himself climbed in and just before the room was filled with soldiers he closed the cabinet and followed his to companions through the air duct. He listened carefully to what was said and only caught a small part of the conversation before he dropped out into another hallway.
"Quatre!" Christi yelled as she ran over to the unconscious boy.
A soldier grabbed Christi around the waist and she dug her fingers into his arm. He let go in pain as another soldier hit Christi across the face.
She held up a hand to her face and closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts. As she did so a group of soldiers held her down and tied her hands together. They did the same to Quatre as he was waking up. The two were carried to one of the freight elevators and brought to the lowest level. As they neared the bottom the sounds of the engine got louder. Christi's headache got worse. They were taken to a room at the very end of the ship and Christi was thrown in a chair and tied there, Quatre was knocked out again and dropped on the floor. Nix stood over Christi.
"Where are the pieces?"
"What pieces?" Christi asked, fighting a wave of nausea.
"The pieces!!!" Nix yelled, slapping Christi across the face.
Christi scowled.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
This earned her another slap.
Nix turned away and then back at the dizzy pilot.
"There were other pieces in the engine room. Most of them were small, a few slightly large ones but mostly small, extra pieces. Where are they?"
"I had them taken off the ship."
"What?"
"I told one of my crew to take them off the ship."
"Do not lie to me!!!" Nix yelled, punching Christi in the stomach.
"I'm not lying!" Christi said in pain.
"I wasn't told to bring cargo so I wasn't bringing any cargo."
"**** you! **** you!"
A man stepped out of the shadows as Quatre once again regained consciousness.
"Dear Christi, do tell us what really happened to the things we need."
"Daniel…" Christi whispered.
Dan smiled.
Christi spit on the front of his uniform.
"I'm not telling you a **** thing."
This time he slapped her, hard.
She licked the blood off her lips.
"I already told you, I told my mechanic to take the pieces off the ship before we left the docking port, this morning."
"Lock them up with the other one." Dan said as he put his arm around Nix and walked out of the room.
The soldiers once again lifted the two pilots and took them to a holding room a few rooms down.
Christi and Quatre were thrown on the floor and the door was closed leaving the room pitch black.
"Are you okay?" Quatre asked once the sounds of boots faded away.
"Yeah…" Christi said as she sat up.
"I found Trowa." Quatre said.
Christi squinted in the dark to see if she could see what Quatre was doing. It was in vain.
"He's unconscious." Quatre informed.
Christi struggled with her bonds and scooted over to where she though Quatre and Trowa were.
"Here, you lean against me and we'll work on each others bonds." Christi suggested.
"Okay." Quatre answered.
After a few minutes of working Quatre was able to get loose and he quickly untied Christi.
Christi immediately checked Trowa for a pulse.
"He's alive." She announced.
"Can you wake him up?"
"No, he seems to be out cold. I do feel some blood though. He needs to see a doctor as soon as possible."
"I'll bet you do too."
Christi sat in silence.
"We need to find a way out." She said at last.
"I'll bet you anything the door is locked so help me feel around the walls and see if we can find an air duct or something." Quatre said.
Christi stood up and did as she was told. As she worked she asked,
"Even if we found a way out, how would we get Trowa out? I think it's safe to assume that he's not working with Them."
"We'll find a way."
After a moment of silence he continued.
"Christi, did you know that man in there?"
"Yes, he was just a bad mistake I made earlier this year."
"May I ask what that means?"
"He was the guy I got into a fight with at the bar."
"Your boyfriend?"
Christi paused.
"Yeah."
Nothing more was spoken as the two continued to look for a way out.
"Hmm. Looks like we have some major work to do!" Duo said as the group of four stood looking at the ship that was much smaller than the Z-83 and placed on the bigger ships launch bay.
"Will we even all fit?" Allen asked.
"Yeah, but it will be tight."
"Well enough dilly dally, let's get to work. Duo and I will work on the engine. Leikela, you get the piloting controls ready and Allen, you make sure no one is coming." Kari said.
Allen walked over to the large, airtight hatch and pulled it shut. Leikela climbed into the ship as Duo rolled up his sleeves and followed Kari to the underbelly of the ship.
"You left them in there!" Bria yelled at Heero once they had dropped into the hallway.
He clamped a hand over her mouth and drug her towards the bridge.
Wufei punched in the code and the door slid open.
"It's deserted." Wufei said.
Heero let go of Bria.
She was near tears now.
"You just left Quatre and Christi in there! We could have helped them! You are heartless, aren't you?"
Heero pushed Bria over to chair.
"Let me explain." He said calmly.
Bria stopped protesting and stared daggers at Heero.
"If we had tried to help them then we would have been caught too."
Bria opened her mouth to speak but Heero held a finger to his lips and continued.
"There were too many soldiers, because I pushed you out we weren't found and now we can get a plan together to get them out."
"We don't even know where they went though!"
"We'll find them."
This quieted Bria and she and Heero went to work designing a program to explode the ship as Wufei kept watch.
"Ugh! I can't get this **** thing to work!" Duo said in frustration.
Kari walked over to him.
"Let me take a look."
Kari messed around with what Duo had been working on. After a few minutes she gave up.
"I can't get it either. Do we really have to have this part working for the ship to run though?"
Duo took a step back and pulled out his gun. He aimed and shot at the offending piece of machinery.
"You broke it!!!" Kari exclaimed.
"I didn't brake it, it was already broken. I just helped it along a little."
Kari sighed and looked at her companion. She noticed how cute he looked with grease smeared all over his face.
"Wipe your face. You look like crap."
"Look who's talking?" Duo said as he pointed to Kari's face and while doing so smearing grease on her face too.
"What? I don't have grease on my face!"
"You do now!" Duo said.
"Nani???"
Kari looked in a shiny piece of mettle and noticed the grease Duo had put on her face.
"I can't believe you did that!!!"
"Well what if I did it again?" Duo said as he smeared more grease on Kari's face.
"Oh you asked for it, buddy!"
Kari threw a giant glob if grease on Duo.
Duo was about to return the favor when Kari kicked one of his crutches out from underneath him.
Duo fell as Allen came running over with Bria, Wufei, and Heero. Heero had a laptop under one arm.
"Hey! So you guys got out alright?" Duo asked, getting up.
"Where are Christi and Quatre?" Kari asked.
"Well they were going to try and find Trowa but just as we were leaving the room was attacked and they were captured and we have no clue where they are now." Bria explained.
"What about the door? I thought we had welded it shut." Leikela said appearing from the open hatch on the side of the ship.
"No use! They blew it open/" Heero said.
"Well we've got to get them out!" Kari said.
"Well as soon as this ship is ready we can put the plan in motion." Heero said.
"Well I just finished up everything on the inside but I'm not sure how much Kari and Duo got done. I head them playing a minute ago." Leikela answered Heero.
"We only have a little bit more to do. I'll get right on it." Kari said turning and picking up a few tools and disappearing underneath the ship.
"What's with the laptop?" Duo asked.
"This is what we're going to use to blow up the Z-83 as we are escaping."
"Whoa! Bringing out the big explosives!"
"If I can find a way into the ship Leikela can show me what she's done and I'll be able to set this up." Heero said.
Duo laughed and pointed to a latter near the ship.
"You'll have to use that." He said.
Heero raised an eyebrow but handed the laptop to Bria and got the ladder nonetheless.
"Everything's up and working. There's the main computer over there. I know it's not as advanced as the one you're used to but this should do." Leikela explained once Heero had climbed aboard the ship.
"As long as I can hook a laptop into it it'll be fine."
"All I have to do is hook up the autopilot and we'll be all set to go."
"Don't bother." Heero said, typing away on his laptop.
"Pardon?"
"Don't hook up the autopilot." Heero said, finishing typing. He closed the laptop and looked at Leikela.
"Christi and Quatre can take care of the piloting on this ship. It's not too hard and they're both great pilots." Heero continued.
"We'll they're not going to be great pilots if we can't get them out."
"We'll get them out."
"I sure hope Heero's plan works!" Duo said as he and Kari went down the last hallway.
"I sure hope he was right about the room."
"He said he hacked into the ships computer and got a heat sensing camera shot of the whole ship and said they're were three places where groups of people were. He said he'd take care of the soldiers standing guard and we just have to follow the decoy plan."
"Well I hope his plan works."
"You and me both! If it doesn't I'm dead!"
"Okay, we're here. I'll stand here and keep watch incase anything goes wrong."
"Gotcha! Well here goes nothing!"
Duo walked into the room where Christi and Quatre had been taken for questioning.
"Oh crap!" Duo said as he found himself in the middle of a group of soldiers.
"Look I was just leaving!" Duo said.
"Grab him."
The order came so quickly that Duo barely had time to scream before his mouth was taped shut.
Nix walked up to her captured guest.
"We'll, just the person I wanted to talk to. Where are the pieces of scrap that Christi told you to take off the ship this morning?"
Duo mumbled something ineligible.
Nix ripped the piece of tape off of his mouth.
Duo screamed in pain.
"Ow that hurt!!! Why'd you do that? Huh? You could have just asked me nicely and I'd be happy to tell you what I know but no! You just had to rip it off like I'm some unfeeling person. We'll I've got news for you! I've got feelings too you know!" Duo started to sniffle. "No one cares about me! They just like to hurt me and peel tape off of my mouth without a warning! You could have at least given me a warning! In fact it was mean of you to put it on in the first place anyway!"
Duo continued as Kari listened outside the door.
She laughed inwardly.
"He's playing the part perfectly!"
Duo now started yelling and wining more than before and Kari wondered if maybe he was over doing it a little when she saw Heero and Leikela running down the hall toward her. They stopped a few rooms down and used some type of laser tool to cut a hole in the door.
"Quatre?"
"Yeah."
"Someone's burning through the door."
"It's gotta be one of the crew! If it was one of the soldiers they'd just open the door."
"Unless they lost the keys." Trowa said waking up.
Christi knelt beside him.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just have a killer headache."
"Believe it or not, that's a good sign."
Suddenly a muffled voice said, "Stand aside." And the piece that had been cut out fell inward.
Heero ducked in, dressed in a soldier uniform.
Christi stared in horror but when she realized who it was hugged him.
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" Christi said.
"Hurry up and get out. Bria and Wufei can only hold off a few guards if they're found out."
"Where are we gonna go?" Christi asked.
"The ship in the cargo hold. Duo, Kari, and Leikela got it working."
"Great, lets go."
Once Christi, Quatre, and Trowa were out Heero told them to go on a head and make sure everything was ready, he had to get Duo out of the mess Heero had gotten him into.
Heero opened the door and pulled his hat down low over his face.
"I'll be able to get the information we need out of the prisoner." He said in a deep voice.
"Yeah, I'd like to see you try!" Duo said.
"I will do it." Heero said.
Nix stared at this soldier. There was something familiar about him.
"Okay, lets' see you do it!" Nix said after a pause.
"I'd prefer it if everyone could leave the room and leave me alone with the prisoner." Heero said taking out his gun and turning off the safety lock.
"I suppose we can do that." Nix said, deep in thought. "Clear the room." She yelled to the soldiers. "We'll wait outside." She said to the soldier that was really Heero in disguise.
Duo looked at this new addition to his tormenters.
"Man, I'd really like it if Heero would show up right now!" Duo though.
Once the door had closed Heero took off his hat and revealed to Duo who he was.
"Oh thank God!" Duo said as he breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought you were gonna kill me!"
"Shut up or I might."
"Right, shutting up!"
"Hurry, we have to get out of this room before they think something is wrong."
Heero took the laser tool and went to work cutting a large hole in one of the walls. A minute later he was done and the duo went through the hole into another room. Here, Heero did the same thing. Finally after about four holes they reached a deserted hallway where Bria and Wufei stood waiting.
"Well it's about time." Wufei snorted.
"Come on. We have to hurry."
Allen waved for Heero, Duo, Wufei, and Bria to hurry up and he held the ladder steady. Once the three of them were up and in the ship Allen pulled the large door shut and he also climbed up, pushing the ladder away from behind him.
"We're a go." Leikela said.
"Okay, everyone sit down." Christi said.
Her and Quatre sat in the cockpit and took hold of the controls.
"We're going out!"
Christi flipped a few switches and the ship, which Allen had christened; "Savior" came to life.
Quatre activated the exit sequence and the large door at the other end of the launching bay slowly opened. Earth could be seen out of the large door.
Christi put the ship in full and blasted out of the Z-83.
The crew looked back once more and Heero activated the destruct sequence and the ship blew up beginning in the bridge and it worked its way back. After one, last, loud explosion Christi set a course to space HQ. It would take a few hours to get there but Christi was grateful because she'd have some time to think up a really good story for blowing up her ship.
To Be Continued…
Authors note: Well this is the end and the next chapter will be the epilogue and all the other finishing stuff. However, if you want me to post the last chapter you're going to have to give me a name for this fic! I refuse to finish something without a name! And no, Z-83 will not work! I've already gotten tons of requests for that but it just doesn't quite fit! Anyway, review or email, whichever you choose! But remember, I won't email you back unless you tell me you want me to and I might not get the review for a while so if you want to read the next chapter any time soon you'll have to come up with a name and email it to me. Thankies and I hope you come back for more! Well, I'm off to chase bishonens!
~Bishonen Chaser~