Standard Disclaimer: I figured you guys would've gotten it by now. Don't own… yadda yadda.
Warnings: mild violence, shonen ai-ish, language, demolition
A/N: Sorry I'm taking so long. A lot came up in my life recently, and I've been trying to put all of that behind me. I hope you enjoy the new chapters that I'm posting.
Renaissance
By skyprincess
Chapter 17:
recap:
Just as the realization set in, Duo felt two strong arms reach around and clamp his mouth and heard a sharp "shh" in his ear. The person dragged him backwards to the empty room, and once inside freed Duo of their grasp. The pilot whirled around in defense and stood in shock at the person before him.
************************************************************************
Quatre sat at his window, still holding the violin, receded to the melancholy of the room. He leapt to his feet as the somber calm of the room was shattered, and he heard his front door crash in on itself. He moved to see the cause, but was abruptly halted only a few steps from the window. Before him, three figures stood in Neo Oz uniforms, their guns trained on him. The center figure stepped forward unveiling its face from the shadows. Oceanic eyes widened in shock and betrayal as he stared at his dear friend, Sissa. "Well hello Quatrina… or should I say Quatre Reberba Winner, heir to the Winner fortune, member of the renown group of Gundam pilots. Is this why you never let anyone into your room? Oh well, you do make quite a good girl… even Colonel Catalonia admits that. But, she also told me you had a lot of… how did she put it… 'personal problems.'" Her voice was cold as a wicked grin crept across her face, seeming to reveal feral fangs.
"Leave me alone Sissa," Quatre hissed through clenched teeth. He had taken stock of the situation as she spoke, and knew he was outnumbered, unarmed, and had no routes of escape in sight.
"Oh! But I can't. I have a mission… you understand, don't you? My mission is to kill you. So I figured, what the hell, really, I'm just putting you out of your misery." She lowered the gun till it aimed at the blonde head and cocked the trigger. But her blissful domineering silence was broken by a husky voice from behind, "Sorry sweetcheeks. Not on my watch."
Before Sissa had time to react, a braided boy slid between her legs, hopped to his feet, and deftly kicked the gun from her hands. It rattled in the distance as it his the wood floor, forgotten in the wake of Duo's entrance.
Duo tossed Quatre the back pack, "Look behind the left curtain and in the front pocket, you'll know what to do." The blonde found roped fastened behind the curtain and a figure eight as well as a karabiner in the bag, and quickly set to work attaching the climbing gear.
Capitalizing on the element of surprise, Duo turned slightly and punched the soldier to his left, connecting with his jaw using a solid right hook. Quatre winced at the sickening crack of the jawbone and watched in horror and relief as a stream of blood ran from the corner of the soldier's mouth and he collapsed with a gurgling thud. Before Duo could even look at the other guard, the man was out the door, and heading towards the "hidden" base for backup. The deathscythe pilot mentally shook his head. //Tsk… tsk… not such a good idea.//
He turned to help Quatre, and his smile immediately faded to panic. Sissa had retrieved her gun and was aiming at a busily unaware Quatre. With all of the speed Duo could muster, he took off across the room for his beloved friend.
As Quatre hurried to finish looking the rope, he heard a gunshot, and before he had time to think or react, he was forcefully shoved to the ground. Pain shot through his left arm as he landed, but he was keenly aware of a low grunt from behind him.
As Duo pushed Quatre out of the way, he fell to his own knee in pain. Hot metal ripped through the flesh of his left quadricep. With one sweeping motion, Duo pushed to his feet, ignoring the shooting pains, extracted his gun form the back of his pants, and fired two shots: one knocking the gun from Sissa's hands, the other connecting directly with her right shoulder. She cried out in pain and shock as she fell to the floor clutching the open wound. The braided boy replaced the gun and pulled some rags from the bag to tie around his leg. Quatre, still in shock, scrambled to his feet and opened the window to throw the rope down. Duo turned to the fallen officer once more, "You're a bad shot. Can't kill anyone by shooting them in the leg. And remember, no one hurts my Quatre." He then clipped the biner to his belt and turned to his friend, "Climb on my back, wrap your arms around my neck, and hang on."
Quatre did as he was told. He'd never seen Duo quite so calm or serious and it was quite stunning. The words "my Quatre" kept replaying in his head. The funny part was that it didn't seem to bother him. After hearing Duo shout a brief, "Hang on!" Quatre felt himself flying backwards out the window. He sucked in his breath as adrenaline rushed through his blood in the exhilaration of freefall, but he quickly found himself in a rhythm of swing down, push off, swing down, push off.
Supporting Quatre in their descent was no big deal. The Deathscythe pilot had carried backpacks as heavy as his friend, but pushing off of the wall with his left leg became increasingly difficult. Without fail, pain scorched through every nerve in his leg each time he pushed off of the wall. His breath came in short hisses of pain as he tried to maintain balance without putting much weight on the leg. He felt himself wobble slightly and quickly dug both feet into the brick face to steady himself. //If I slip, we'll fall sideways, and Q will have a close encounter of the nasty kind with this wall. Can't have that happening.// With new resolution and a grunt, Duo gritted his teeth and concentrated on smooth descent, blocking out the pain as much as possible.
Quatre clung to his savior's back. //I'm not Heero and that fall looks painful.// He glanced down at this comrades hands. //No gloves?!// The rope ran hot through the calloused palms leaving raw flesh in its wake. But Duo didn't seem to acknowledge the burning. The petit blonde looked over his friend's shoulder and noticed the look of grim determination on Duo's face that slightly contorted with low grunts every time they hit the wall. For a few moments, confusion took over the Sandrock pilot, but he quickly remembered the gunshots. He hastily whipped his eyes in the direction of the wounded leg. The American had tied a pretty descent tourniquet, to slow blood flow, but his quick continued loss of blood was painfully obvious, even through the black fabric. //What has gotten into you today, Duo?// As Quatre searched for an answer to his unasked question, a promise floated into his recollection… a promise from several months ago: "Don't worry, pal, I'll protect you… No one will hurt you ever again… I promise." Duo's words rang in his head, a beacon of salvation and truth, and Quatre thought back to all of his own actions and assumptions of the past few months and came to one conclusion. //I am an asshole.//
Duo nearly panted. //Only a few more stories to go. Man, I wish that this little ray of sunshine didn't live over 100 ft in the air. At least my jeep is waiting at the bottom.//
As they neared the third story, the Arabian finally heard quite a bit of commotion from the ground. He looked down to the schoolyard and the aqua eyes widened in shock at the sight before him. Dozens of Hummers and jeeps carrying students were heading towards the front gate. The vehicles were driven and directed by people wearing what appeared to be uniforms. As he got a closer look, he realized that they were not only uniforms, they were uniforms of the Dark Thorn, the underground rebel group that works to foil Neo Oz's plans and especially to protect civilians from the casualties of war.
Several feet above the ground, Quatre finally saw a boy standing next to Duo's jeep. The pins and badges on his uniform denoted him as commander of this brigade. //He looks so familiar…//
The repelling pair finally dropped to the ground, and Duo unclipped the rope from his belt. Quatre turned around to study the stranger, but his jaw dropped as he realized it wasn't a stranger at all. Duo's husky voice cut through his surprise, "What's up Tommy?" and he watched his friend walk forward to shake his former roommate's hand.
It had been such a shock and relief when Duo had found out it was Tommy who dragged him into the room, and that they were not only both fighting, but fighting on the same side.
Quatre stood in dumbfounded silence, listening to their conversation.
"How'd the escape go?" Tommy inquired.
"Well, no major injuries," Duo replied with a small gesture.
"Jesus Duo! Your leg!"
"It's no big deal. I've had worse."
"I'm sure, but you could still use medical attention. Can I send one of my field medics with you?"
The braided boy gave a slight nod. "Now, how's the evacuation?"
Quatre thought back to what seemed like chaos only moments before. //Evacuation? That must be why all of the students were being herded into vehicles.//
"Right on schedule," Tommy replied with a mischievious smile.
Quatre looked back and forth between the two. //Why are they evacuating the school?//Before he could ask the question, a black jeep pulled up behind Tommy. He gestured to the driver, a rather large man with a crew cut and glasses, "This is Dr. Murphy. Call him Murph. The two of us are gonna follow you to make sure you get the medical aid that you need."
Before Duo could refuse, Quatre nudged him towards his jeep saying, "Thank you so much for your generosity. Of course you can follow us. But we should all be on our way." Murph nodded once and drove off towards the school exit.
Duo turned around, whining, "Quatre, I don't need help. Why'd you tell them to follow us?"
"Duo, you are bleeding at an extremely fast pace and I'm no doctor, so I don't know if you should even drive."
"I got shot in the left leg, not the right. I can drive."
"But you lost a lot of blood."
"Just trust me."
Quatre sighed but he climbed into the passenger seat. Duo jumped behind the wheel and sped off for the gate. Just as Quatre began to adjust to the speed at which they were traveling, they came to a screeching halt just outside the iron fencing. Duo turned around so he was backwards in his seat. As he gazes at the school, he extracted a small black joystick with a red button from his pocket and held it in front of his body.
Quatre gasped, "Duo!? That looks like a detonation device!"
A small smile played at the corners of the brunette's mouth, "It does, doesn't it?" And he slowly pressed down the button.
Quatre whirled around just in time to see the entire school blow itself apart. Flames leapt from the remainders as chunks of brick and sheet rock flew in all directions. A dark cloud of smoke swirled over their heads.
Duo looked at the detonator in mock disgust, "And here I thought this was the switch for the electric gate." Quatre blinked in shock for a second and then covered his mouth to suppress laughter.
Duo sank back into his seat and slid on his sunglasses, while Quatre reached out and clicked on the radio. As the jeep eased forward, familiar lyrics flowed through the air, "School's out for the summer…" Duo chuckled to himself, glancing back at the remnants of Ridgemont High. //Probably a lot longer than that.// And with those thoughts, the teal jeep raced towards the safehouse, its black counterpart in tow.
To be continued…
