DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.
Chapter Ten
He frowned. He watched the lovers as they tried to interfere with each other getting dressed. Each of them wanting to get their clothes back on while trying to keep the other's clothes off. They used to be such perfect soldiers. He scowled. Human emotions breed weakness, she had told him once after he'd failed a mission. She had to come and finish the assassination, for he had softened when the target begged for its life. Sentiments cause humans to be submissive, she often stated, and blessed are the meek for they make easy targets. She gave her only grin – a very evil one that chilled him to the bone – after saying that favorite quotation. Blessed are the meek for they make easy targets. It was her motto, he often thought.
Since that day, he had never faltered. And until he saw her at this moment, he could never have believed her to succumb to such weakness: laughing as she playfully struggled to get her shirt on with pilot 01 trying to get it back off of her again. It was disgusting to him. His stomach heaved as he witnessed their human happiness. How shameful for such incredibly brutal soldiers to act like naïve school children. They were better trained than this.
He slowly edged the door a little wider, thankful that their blissful ignorance dulled their highly tuned senses. Just wide enough for the muzzle of a gun, he calculated. He brought his gun up, aiming at his ex-commanding officer. The Plague would be the first to die, he decided. Her traitorous sins needed atonement. Revolting, he thought. She leaned up to give a victory kiss to pilot 01, having successfully put a t-shirt and jeans on despite his objections and interference.
The gun was not enough of a punishment, he decided, lowering it and putting it back into the leg pocket of his OZ-issued flight suit. He pulled a different piece of equipment from his check pocket, running his thumb lightly over the red button on the top. Unzipping the top of the flight suit, he again eyed the explosives strapped to his chest, delicately caressing the wires and cylinders of volatile powder. He took a deep breath, his finger over the trigger of the detonator. This moment would immortalize him.
He felt no pain as the crudely-made bomb ripped his body apart.
* * * * * * * *
Duo paused to wipe the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. The pieces he needed for rebuilding a Deathscythe sickle littered the ground in front and under him. He grinned, thinking of how Heero knew to salvage the necessary parts for all of them to customize their new mobile suits. Of course, these suits weren't going to be nearly as good as the old Gundams, but in the situation, they would have to take what they could get. Noin was at this moment conferring with the Executive Counsel and planning an offensive on the OZ base. Quatre was with them, representing the Gundam pilots. Quatre didn't need to customize his suit much: he'd saved the sitar blades from Sandrock and they were being transported to Relena's palace at this very moment.
Too bad Duo hadn't saved Deathscythe's sickle. He'd have a lot less trouble right now if he had, he thought, looking down at his dirty and scraped hands. Making this from scratch was harder than anything he'd done in the last five years. Now he knew what the Sisters always complained about when they made him cookies from scratch. Then again, making cookies is small in comparison to making a thermal weapon like the sickle.
He tossed some wires to the side, on top of his jacket. He'd have to work on the electronics later when he was clean and inside. It could wait until tonight.
Looking over the littered gardens, Duo tried to see how everyone else's progress was coming. Trowa looked like he was doing fairly well, given the circumstances. He had it hardest, trying to fashion a new Heavyarms-like gun. Trowa was working on a barrel for the gun right now.
Wufei was busy wrestling with creating his own thermal weapon.
Duo looked over at the two suits setting aside for Heero and Jinx. What kind of specialized weapon would Jinx like, he wondered? Perhaps he should start designing something for her…She and Heero were in the West wing of the palace.
Duo glanced up to the west wing of the palace, just in time to watch it burst in an explosion.
* * * * * * * *
The sound was deafening. Relena stopped speaking in the middle of her speech, cut off by the loud boom that rattled the palace walls. Soon after the initial blast, a multitude of smaller, but equally sickening and devastating, eruptions of sounds reverberated through the palace, evidence of the collapsing roof and walls of the west wing.
* * * * * * * *
The ground shook slightly as the fireball from the bomb explosion turned to smoke, staining the light blue sky above the west wing of the palace. Soon after, the strong stone walls crumbled down and the intricately tiled roof disintegrated and fell on what used to be their bedrooms. Duo, Wufei, and Trowa all stared, unable to move after witnessing the demise of the palace and knowing that Heero and Jinx were still inside.
* * * * * * * *
Sally screamed out over the noise of the falling rubble. Catherine had been too close to the impact, and she was caught in the collapse. Sally called out to her again, straining to hear Cathy's answering yell over the intense noise of the falling debris. She got dangerously close to a pile that had recently added itself to the mess on the floor, looking for a sign of Catherine. She searched. Her ears ached from her straining to hear Cathy's call despite the overwhelming noise of the collapsing building and fires burning farther down in the wing of the palace.
Finally, she heard something other than the falling rock and rush of oxygen being consumed by flames. She heard a small voice, calling from off to her left. Sally stumbled over debris to get closer, heedless of her own safety. Yes, it was Cathy calling.
"Cathy!" Sally yelled louder, trying to pinpoint the area from which she was hearing Catherine's voice. "Cathy, keep yelling so I can find where you are!"
"I'm here, Sally, I'm here," she heard Catherine call back to her. "I can't feel my legs, Sally. I'm scared. And it's hot. I can feel heat from somewhere. Is there a fire, Sally? Help, Sally!"
Sally was busily trying to remove enough fallen rock to get to Catherine. She prayed in the back of her mind, hoping for Cathy to be healthy and relatively uninjured. But Cathy's mentioning of heat worried her. Perhaps the fires from down the used-to-be hallway were getting closer than she first thought. Maybe Cathy was feeling a fire from above them, in a part of the palace that hadn't collapsed yet. Yet.
She shoved large piece of wall aside, revealing a small, crushed hand. "Cathy!" she yelled, taking a hold of the dirty fingers.
"Sally!" Cathy answered, wiggling her fingers in Sally's grip despite the shooting pain that flooded up her arm.
"Sally!"
She turned around, seeing Quatre run though the doorway and over the rubble.
"Quatre, HELP!" Sally called out to him, still holding Cathy's broken fingers.
He stripped off his jacket and pulled off his tie as he unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt. He needed to loosen his shirt in order to move efficiently to save Cathy. "I heard you yelling from the conference room. I came as soon as I could." Quatre heaved another block of stone away from the pile around Cathy.
One large sheet of wall held Catherine to the floor. Sally still held on to Cathy's hand, trying to comfort her as Quatre wedged his shoulder under the last large piece of rubble. With all his strength, Quatre lifted the wall as Sally pulled on Cathy's hand, slowly sliding her out from under the wreckage.
* * * * * * * *
Wufei recovered from his shock before Trowa and Duo. He left his mobile suit behind and went running toward the rubble of the palace. Slipping on the unsteady rock, Wufei scrambled up the nearest pile of ruin. Trowa joined him shortly, placing a hand on his shoulder. Wufei wasn't sure if Trowa put that hand there to comfort him or to comfort himself. He heard more scrambling sounds. Duo was standing on the other side of him.
"Oh my God," Duo whispered, not believing the scene of wreckage lying before them. Parts of the building foundation reached up into the air, like dying men reaching out as they take their last breath. Roof tiles littered the gardens, the radius of broken tile extending a hundred yards from the original boundaries of the palace walls. Duo had never seen such destruction.
Wufei had. Unexpectedly, he remembered the scene of his wife's death. The stench of fires and the dust of fallen buildings reminded him of his walk through what used to be their home. He remembered searching for her through the rubble of their kitchen, where she used to smile as she cooked his breakfast in the mornings, and in their bedroom, where he heard her laugh before they slept at night. The memories flooded over him, reminding him of everything he'd lost before deciding to become a Gundam pilot. And now he was in danger of losing everything he'd gained since becoming a Gundam pilot. He was in danger of losing a good friend.
Trowa's grip on his shoulder tightened, drawing Wufei out of his memories and back to the present. He hadn't been aware of shedding any tears, until the wind blew across the tracks of wetness on his cheek, chilling where his tears had fallen. Wufei reached up to wipe them away, trying to keep his composure in front of his friends. He looked down at his hand, streaked with the wetness of his tears and the dust from the collapse of the building.
Keeping composure was futile, he decided. Giving in to his own fears and uncertainties, he reached out for comfort, laying his hand on Duo's shoulder. Wufei was sure they looked ridiculous: a chain of three ex-Gundam pilots – Trowa holding onto Wufei's shoulder and Wufei holding onto Duo's. But right now, he didn't care. If something had happened to Heero, or to Quatre, their camaraderie would be the only insurance of their own survival.
He squeezed Duo's shoulder a little to give a signal that they should stop standing around and start searching for the bodies. Wufei was caught off guard as Duo rushed into him, his friend burying his head in Wufei's shoulder and holding him tight. Wufei returned the embrace, feeling the moisture of Duo's own tears through his light shirt.
"Come on, Duo," he spoke softly. "We might be able to help them."
"Yea," Duo answered, his voice muffled from being buried in Wufei. Duo sniffed loudly and pulled away from Wufei, keeping his head down to hide his tears. He turned away and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"We'll find them," Wufei spoke to Duo's back. "Think of how many times Heero's died before…he's sure to survive this too." Wufei gave a feeble smile.
It worked. Duo turned back around, smiling despite the gloomy situation. "Yea," he agreed. "Heero's one hard sucker to kill."
Trowa nodded at his friends, then started picking his way toward the left and down into the center of the blast. Wufei walked straight ahead, and Duo began looking to the right.
They would find Heero.
* * * * * * * *
Quatre held Catherine in his arms as Sally looked her over. Surprisingly, Cathy was relatively unscathed. She had a few cuts and bruises, but no major injuries, save for that one broken hand. Sally turned the hand over tenderly, trying not to induce any further injuries or pain for Cathy. Cathy wouldn't be able to throw knives for a while, Sally thought. She'd broken a bone in her wrist, two carpals, and one finger.
Not bad for having a wall fall on you, Sally thought as she wrapped Cathy's hand in some stiff gauze. "I can't reset these bones here, Cathy," she said. "We'll have to go to a lab where we can give you some anesthetics and set them properly with a cast."
Cathy just nodded, her eyes shut tight as she tried to control the pain.
Quatre felt it. He tried to take the pain from her, to feel it himself so that she could feel more at ease, but it was hard work and there was only so much he could handle. He wrapped his arms tighter around the girl sitting in his lap, trying to give her all the support and comfort he could spare.
Relena was close by, as was Noin and Hilde. They had all been in the conference room at the other end of the palace, in the east wing. The members of the Executive Counsel had all dispersed after the bombing and gone home to safer quarters.
"Quatre," Sally got his attention. "We need to take her to a hospital."
"I know," he said, standing up and setting Catherine on her feet. "Go ahead and take her. I'll go and check on the guys. They should be alri…" Quatre broke off in mid-sentence. His head snapped up and he looked Sally directly in the eyes. "Heero and Jinx were in the building!" he screamed, finally realizing why none of the pilots had come inside to check on them.
He didn't wait for any reactions from Relena or the other girls. Quatre raced through the hallways of the palace, heading toward the first door leading to the gardens.
* * * * * * * *
Trowa covered his mouth with one hand, not wanting to believe what he saw. Blood covered the rocks at his feet, revealing human body parts nearby.