DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.
Chapter Six
For the fifth time in the last thirty minutes, Duo beat the control panel while screaming insulting remarks about the shuttle's mother. After this fit of rage passed, he slid into the pilot seat, giving up.
"Well, man," he said to Heero, "looks like we're stuck here."
The mission had been a success. The base was destroyed. The threat of missiles aimed at the homes of the executive counsel members' homes was neutralized. Heero and Duo had made it back to Jinx alive. All three of them found their way back to the shuttle. Complete success. Except the shuttle's ignition system had been damaged either by the entry into the Earth's atmosphere or the extreme cold of the Siberian continent.
Freezing to death here was not an enticing option.
"Maybe we should look for shelter," Duo suggested.
"It's better if we stay here," Heero objected. "Relena will report us missing. Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre will come looking for us in the morning. We need to be near the shuttle because that is what is easiest for them to find out here in the middle of nowhere." He involuntarily shivered.
Jinx hugged herself for warmth. "We just need to stay alive till then," she said through chattering teeth.
Duo forgot about his anger at the shuttle long enough to worry about her. She looked awfully pale, he thought. And she still wasn't fully recovered from the electric shock. Of all of them, Jinx was the one in the most danger of hypothermia.
He got up and walked over to her, giving her a quick hug. Duo tried to warm her by rubbing her arms briskly. Hopefully, friction would do the trick.
Heero tried not to be jealous. He remained in the copilot chair and glanced at the chronometer. Only 16:14. They had another two hours before Relena would notice they hadn't arrived. Another two hours after that, they'd be considered officially missing. And it probably wouldn't be until tomorrow morning that any of the other pilots would be able to rescue them. He shook his head. It wasn't even dark outside. The temperature would drop to thirty below freezing once the sun went down. It looked hopeless.
Warm comfort flooded his mind, startling him. He looked over at Jinx. Her crimson eyes were glowing as she tried to keep her eyes from watering, due to the chilly temperatures. She must have felt his despair, and now she was trying to comfort him.
He smiled at her. Not very reassuring, but it was all he could come up with. Heero couldn't help but be a little pleased. Even though she was in Duo's arms, Jinx was genuinely worried about him.
* * * * * * * *
Relena looked out the window, expecting Heero to arrive any minute. She'd practiced what she'd say to him when he got off his shuttle. She'd practiced what she'd say to him during dinner. She'd practiced the words of her apology a thousand times. She was making herself sick with anticipation. Relena sighed. She was looking forward to spending a night alone with Heero.
She looked down at the clock on the table. 20:29. He was two and a half hours late. Perhaps she should contact someone at the Preventors.
"Pagan," she called out.
"Yes, Miss Relena?" the trusty butler answered immediately.
"Please call Sally Po. I need to speak to her."
* * * * * * * *
20:36. Heero shivered more violently. It was only 20:36. The sun had gone down over two hours ago, and the temperature had dropped tremendously. They were in the shelter of the shuttle, protected from the harsh winds and deadly temperature outside. But even a shuttle can't keep all the cold out. Especially a shuttle with no power.
Duo and Jinx were huddled sitting next to each other on the floor.
None of them were going to last too much longer. And Jinx was looking worse by the minute. Heero's heart ached. Her lips held an unhealthy faint tint of blue. It made Heero want to kiss her to warm them up.
Duo tightened his grip around Jinx. She was beginning to feel cold in his arms, which meant hypothermia was now a definite problem. He had to think of something quick in order to keep her warm.
Body heat.
"Jinx," he whispered. His voice sounded crackly in the cold air.
"Hm?"
"I have an idea." Duo's stiff body protested as he began moving. He slowly peeled off his spacesuit, then took a pocketknife and cut it open. It resembled a rough blanket when he was done. Duo then helped Jinx out of her suit and cut it open like his.
Jinx couldn't understand what Duo was doing. But then again, she was painfully aware that the cold environment was affecting her ability to think and reason. "What are you doing?" she asked Duo.
"Body heat is the only way we can keep warm. But if we're wearing suits, we're not sharing each other's body heat as well as if we were closer, so I'm making the suits into blankets. We'll get between the two of them and stay warm together," he explained.
Jinx nodded. She still didn't understand why Duo was doing this. The cold was really affecting her mind. It hurt.
Duo put one blanket on the floor of the shuttle. He sat down on it and pulled Jinx to him. Then he covered them both with the other makeshift blanket. Holding her close, he was able to finally feel some exchange of warmth.
Resting against Duo, Jinx began to get tired. She knew that people froze to death when they went to sleep, but she couldn't help it. Her eyelids got heavier and heavier each time she blinked. Duo noticed.
"Are you sleepy?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Here, let's lay down." Duo shifted a little, easing Jinx down onto the blanket. She immediately curled into a fetal position, her knees close to touching her forehead. Lying beside her, Duo uncurled her a little and cupped his whole body around her back, trying to keep as much contact with her as possible to keep warm.
Barely the tops of their heads emerged from under the blanket. Heero's jealousy was keeping him warm as he glared at them from the copilot chair.
Unexpectedly, a thought entered his mind. Come here, Jinx said to him.
Why? I don't want to disturb you and Duo, he snapped back at her.
Come here, she pleaded again.
Heero was about to make another angry comment, but stopped himself. She was worried about him. She was worried about all of them. And he knew that if he laid down there with them, they might just have a chance to survive. With Jinx in the middle, he and Duo might be able to save her.
Picking up Duo's discarded pocketknife, he cut his own suit after slowly getting out of it. Gently, he placed his own blanket on top of the other one. Heero hesitated.
Please, Heero. I'm not going to be awake for much longer.
That was the deciding factor. Heero lifted up the edge of the blankets and slid in between them to lie next to Jinx. He did not want to get too close. He didn't want to disturb her.
Come here, she said more forcefully, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him with a surprising spurt of strength toward her.
Heero tried not to think too much about the body of the girl pressed up close against his own. He tried not to dwell on the entire front of her body against the back of his: her forehead resting on the back of his neck, her breath warm on his shoulder, her chest and stomach pressed to his back, the front of her legs against the back of his. It was hard not to think about it. Especially when her hand roamed to his waistline, slipped up under his shirt, and came to rest on his chest. Heero shivered again, but this time, it wasn't because he was cold.
He felt Jinx smile, though he couldn't see her. But her feelings were faint because she was loosing consciousness. Before she drifted off to sleep, she and Heero exchanged nothing but emotions of contentment and happiness with each other. Heero held her hand firmly against his heart.
* * * * * * * *
Wufei rubbed his neck as he walked through the doorway to Quatre's mansion. It had been a long afternoon. Sally kept him more than busy because she knew he was leaving that night in order to fulfill a special mission for Relena the next day. He was surprised to find the house empty. He'd halfway expected Duo to run up and greet him, and he wondered where that strange girl was.
He found Trowa in the kitchen, thoughtfully chewing some weird-looking vegetable.
"What's going on?" he asked, reaching into the refrigerator for something to eat.
"There's a slight problem," Trowa informed him. Just like Trowa to use the least amount of words possible when he talks.
"Problem with what?" Wufei asked, turning to face him.
Trowa pulled out a communicator and switched on the screen. He pressed play, showing a message that he'd received after arriving at Quatre's earlier that evening.
Sally's face appeared, and she addressed the Gundam pilots. "This message is sent for Trowa Barton, Wufei Chang, Duo Maxwell, and Quatre Reberba Winner. It is now 20:32. I have just received word from Relena Peacecraft that Heero Yuy has not arrived at her estate. He was to report directly to President Peacecraft immediately following his orders to destroy an artillery base in the Siberian continent at 18:00. This makes him approximately two and a half hours late. We have received satellite confirmation that the base was indeed destroyed. Heero Yuy's whereabouts are completely unknown…" On the recording, Sally closed her eyes for a moment to gain composure. Her voice softened a little from her military tone to the tone of a friend. "I know this comes as bad news, and this late in the day means that you will have to postpone a rescue mission. I only hope that you will be able to find our dear friend first thing in the morning. Feel free to include Jinx in your search. She is a fine soldier. Please report to me post-mission, tomorrow." Sally nodded her head and the recording clicked off.
Wufei stared at the blank screen. His face darkened with rage. "That stupid woman," he muttered through clenched teeth.
Trowa looked at him with a cocked eyebrow.
"Not Sally," Wufei answered. "Relena. If that woman had told us the moment Heero was overdue, then we could have left to find him. Its too late now, the colonies won't allow any liftoffs until tomorrow at 06:00." Wufei threw himself into a chair. They'd have to just wait then.
* * * * * * * *
Quatre came home soon after. Trowa showed him the recording too.
"Oh no," the quiet boy uttered. "That means that…"
"Means what?" Wufei asked, searching for more information.
"It means that Duo and Jinx are missing too. They went with him." Quatre spoke quietly, already mourning his friends.
"What!?" Wufei exploded. "You mean that Heero isn't the only one that's missing!"
Quatre nodded. "They decided to all go at the last minute. No one else knew."
Trowa handed him a warm drink, and settled in for the long wait until tomorrow.
* * * * * * * *
Wufei and Quatre scanned the sheets of ice below them, searching for the signs of Heero's shuttle as Trowa maneuvered their own shuttle against the harsh winds. Trowa had headphones on, listening to the beeping of different radio frequencies as he flew. He'd have to come across something similar to Duo soon enough. Ah-ha good boy, Duo, he thought as he locked in on a certain frequency. Giving the shuttle the same frequency we'd used for the Gundams was a stroke of genius.
Trowa slowly adjusted the pitch of his craft, heading in the direction of Deathscythe's frequency.
They all saw the shuttle at the same time. It was mostly covered in ice and snow due to the strong winds and storm last night. No footprints were seen around the vehicle. Wufei scanned the heat sensor monitor. There wasn't anything promising on it. It wasn't picking up any heat sources inside the shuttle.
Quatre feared the worst. But maybe, he thought, they'd sought shelter elsewhere. There had to be a clue as to which way they headed inside the shuttle.
All the pilots came to that same conclusion.
Trowa landed expertly and very closely to the abandoned shuttle. They braced themselves against the cold and headed through the hatch.
Wufei brought a crowbar with him. Good thing, he thought, since the door of the other shuttle was frozen shut. He wedged the end between the door and the side and pushed. Slowly, the hatch opened.
Quatre rushed inside first, eager to find his friends. What he found was a heap of torn spacesuits. "Where'd they go?" he asked Trowa.
Wufei was busy by the instrument panel, looking for clues.
"Nowhere," Trowa answered.
"What? You haven't said more that four words this whole time and now you open your mouth to say something weird like 'nowhere'?" Quatre chided.
Trowa walked closer to the pile of mangled suits. He pulled the edge of one back, exposing someone's feet. Quatre gasped, calling Wufei's attention. They both watched as Trowa delicately removed the suits.
Duo was holding Jinx close to him, without a molecule of air between his stomach and her back. Jinx was holding Heero close to her, melded completely with his shape. Trowa leaned down closer to them, holding a hand over each mouth for a moment and then checking the next person. Each one was breathing, barely.
"Get on the radio and see where the nearest medical station able to take three severe cases of hypothermia is. We need to warm them up fast," Trowa ordered to Wufei, who took off running to their shuttle. "Help me, Quatre," Trowa said to his friend.
Trowa smiled to himself as he removed Jinx's hand from the inside of Heero's shirt. No wonder Heero hadn't minded a girl tagging along, he thought. Carefully, he lifted Heero in his arms and made his way to the other shuttle.
Wufei had found a suitable medical center. It was primitive and not much more than an outpost, but out here in the arctic, the only real medical facilities anyone needed were hydroheaters. It didn't have anything else but a large-scale hydroheater, and that is what Trowa had asked for, specifically.
Quatre carried Jinx into the shuttle, and Wufei ran to retrieve Duo.
Soon, they were all on their way to the medical outpost.