DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.
Chapter 11
Trowa suppressed the urge to throw up and add more bodily fluids to the ruins under his feet. The smell of blood, burning flesh, and other unspeakable odors was too much to bear. It made him wish they'd taken the time to grab some gas masks, or even particle masks, something to keep this horrible smell from overcoming him. To minimize the scent, he took a deep breath with his open mouth, tasting the human stench instead of smelling it.
He bent down and heaved the bloodstained pieces of wall to the side, revealing more burned and unidentifiable body parts on the ground. Trowa closed his eyes for a moment, collecting his nerve. Then he climbed down closer to the remains of the body, searching for a clue as to who it was. And luckily, he found something rather quickly, without having to rummage through the gross organs to find it.
Holding the strip of fabric delicately between too fingers, Trowa inspected the insignia halfway covered by blood and other things he couldn't begin to explain. He sighed in relief. The body parts he'd uncovered belonged to someone wearing an OZ flight suit – not Heero or Jinx. He decided to keep the scrap of material, to show the other pilots later. It might be useful in determining who broke into the palace and who was responsible for the bombing.
Trowa continued searching the ruins.
* * * * * * * *
"Quatre, wait!" Catherine's delicate voice called to him, stopping him from leaving the palace and going outside. He heard desperation in her voice.
Slowing to a stop at the doorway leading to the gardens, Quatre turned around, seeing that Catherine had followed him to the receiving room. Her sprite-like frame was leaning against the arm of a large couch. He couldn't help but smile at her.
"What is it, Cathy?" he asked, crossing the room to stand closer to her.
"Its just that I…" she looked down at her feet, suddenly ashamed of the way Quatre was staring intently into her eyes. "I just wanted to say thank you, before you ran off to help them."
"Thank you? For what?"
"For helping me." She shifted her position against the couch, trying to be comfortable in a completely nerve-racing situation. "For caring."
Quatre walked closer to her, gathering her in his strong arms. "Of course I'll help you, Cathy," he explained, brushing some of the curly auburn hair from her face. She looked up at him, her ice blue eyes full of hope. "I don't need any thanks from you. Always, I will help you because I care about you."
Catherine's eyes returned to gazing at the floor as a slight blush formed on her cheeks. "I care about you, too, Quatre," she said, not looking up.
She felt his fingertips graze her jawline and lift her chin so that she could look at him again. His turquoise eyes held a sparkle that she hadn't noticed before. Maybe because she hadn't noticed how much she wanted him before. Her head swam as he leaned down, giving her a mere polite kiss on the lips.
He remained the perfect gentleman, no matter how much he wanted to ravage her mouth with his own. And no matter how strongly he felt from her that she wanted him to kiss her passionately, with all feeling they'd developed for each other since that day he'd come to see Trowa. Since that first day they'd met each other, Quatre had dreamed of this moment.
* * * * * * * *
Duo rummaged through the wreckage of the palace, stopping to hold a piece of a picture or an article of clothing. The smoke burned in his lungs and made it difficult to breathe, as if knowing that his friends were buried under this rubble didn't already make it too difficult for him to function properly.
He wasn't doing any good out here. Climbing to a higher point of the rubble, he looked out over the wreckage to find Wufei and Trowa. Trowa was bending down over something, holding a hand over his nose and mouth as if something smelled too foul for him to handle. Duo did not want to go over there and see the dead bodies of his friends, if that was what Trowa had found. Trowa might be strong enough to act rationally about all this, but Duo wasn't.
Far to his right, Wufei was bending down over something as well, and seemed to be brushing debris off of something. Wufei was smiling. Why was he smiling through all of this? Suddenly, the Chinese man's head popped up and looked around, searching for something. Duo couldn't hear him call, but he saw Wufei cup one hand around his mouth, and he saw the mouth open and close. He was definitely trying to get Duo's attention, so Duo obliged and made his way over to where Wufei was crouched on the ground.
* * * * * * * *
Wufei had thought it was hopeless, when he and the other two pilots began their search to find Heero and Jinx. There was no way they could have survived though an explosion like that.
Yet, here he was, standing over a live, breathing person. Duo was on his way over from where he had been trying to collect his thoughts. Duo didn't seem too stable during all of this, he noted, and witnessing this would help out tremendously.
"Wufei…" the strained voice called from below him.
"Hush, Heero," Wufei said as he moved back down close to his friend. "You need to keep your strength up. You have to heal after all this." He put his hand on Heero's forehead. Wufei had never really been sure what medical purpose putting a hand on someone's forehead accomplished, but he assumed it was more useful as a measure of comfort than medicine.
"Jinx…"
"We haven't found her, Heero."
Heero's closed eyes shut even tighter, trying to block out the visions he saw of Jinx's dead body. He was trying to block out everything.
"You're the first person we've found, Heero." Wufei saw the pain that echoed in his own heart. He was too familiar with the pain of loosing a loved one. "Give it time, we have to keep searching."
"Everyone else?" Heero's raspy voice asked.
"I don't know," Wufei admitted, trying as much as he could to give emotional comfort to Heero. Telling him of the devastation wasn't the best to do in his condition, but Heero deserved to know the truth. "Trowa, Duo, and I were outside, working on the suits when it went off. We don't know where anyone else is, but we assume they're ok. Quatre, Relena, and everyone else should have been in the east wing, conferencing on what to do about the OZ base. Planning an offensive."
"I hope they're alright." Heero could feel his conscious fading. This time, he didn't fight it.
Duo arrived shortly after, knocking Wufei over with the hug he'd wanted to give to Heero. Too bad Heero was passed out, or he could suffer the choking hold of the Shinigami himself, Wufei thought.
"It's alright, Duo," he said into Duo's hair, trying to pry the overzealous pilot off of him. "Heero needs help. We have to get him inside to Sally."
Duo sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. This time, Wufei was pleased to note, these were tears of joy instead of tears of sorrow.
Carefully, the boys lifted their friend and carried him into the palace.
* * * * * * * *
Quatre closed the car door and waved, sending Catherine and Hilde off to the hospital. Since they were going to a medical station, Sally saw little point in her accompanying them, especially since there still may be a need for her in the palace. She was better as a field operative, she had told him.
He stood, watching the car holding beautiful Cathy as it disappeared over the ridge, heading toward town. Not until he was certain it was out of sight did he turn and head back into the palace. He had to check and see what was going on with the other pilots, and he feared the worst for Heero and Jinx.
Walking back into the palace, he heard Relena's high-pitched whining from the entryway. It was going to be a long day, he sighed, feeling her desperation and anger mixed with Wufei's sorrow, Duo's relief, and someone else's physical pain. At times, being an empath was more than he wanted. Now was one of those times.
"What the hell did you idiots do?" Relena screamed, not expecting or wanting an answer to that question. "Aren't you supposed to protect each other, be there for each other, and protect me!? WHY IN THE HELL DID SOMEONE BREAK INTO THE PALACE AND BLOW IT UP!!?"
As Quatre rounded the corner to the main receiving room and the closest room to the back gardens of the palace, he saw Relena as she screamed standing face to chest with Wufei.
Wufei was not one to take your anger out on, Quatre thought, watching the expression of the usually stoic Chinese face start to distort as he lost his reservation. He'll hit her if she doesn't watch it.
"What kind of friends are you? Why did you let this happen? Aren't you ashamed of yourself for allowing one of your best friends to be come injured and possibly killed because of your incompetence? How dishonorable…"
"You had better not finish that sentence," Quatre warned her from behind. Wufei's hand was raised, ready to strike her for insulting not only the Gundam pilots but his competence and honor as well. Slowly, the hand returned to Wufei's side. "Of all people, Relena," Quatre continued, "you are the last to be speaking of honor."
Relena turned to glare at Quatre. "And you!" she screamed, pointing at him and fiercely poking him in the chest. "How dare you scold me! If it weren't for you and your friends bringing that girl here to my home, none of this would have happened. I always knew your kindness was your weakness, Quatre, and now it's proven. You should have let that girl die in Duo's place."
"Relena," Duo's voice was harsh as he stopped her current onslaught of verbal assault. "If you ever speak that way of her again, I'll kill you myself. And her name is Jinx, not 'that girl'."
Quatre's attention was finally drawn to that side of the room, where Heero was laid out on the coffee table. Duo was next to him, on his knees and holding one of Heero's hands. Sally was on the opposite side of the table from Duo, leaning over Heero and trying to stop multiple wounds from bleeding at the same time. She was overwhelmed. He pushed Relena aside and made his way to Heero.
"She is a jinx to all of us," Relena snarled.
Wufei had had enough. He grabbed Relena's wrist firmly in one hand, making her cry out in pain and surprise. She screamed at him beating his arm and chest as he dragged her across the room and tossed her into a coat closet. Wufei slammed the door on her and placed a chair under the knob, effectively locking Relena in the closet.
Kneeling at the head of the coffee table, Quatre placed a hand on either side of Heero's face, trying to comfort him in a way only an empath can. He tried to take some of his pain.
Heero wouldn't let him. Even in his unconsciousness, Heero was as unable to reach as he was in real life. That gave Quatre some hope. It meant Heero was feeling rather well, despite the pitiful condition his body was in.
Sally worked hard on Heero, wrapping gauze around many wounds and trying to soothe the burns on his neck, shoulder and back. Unfortunately, Heero hadn't had a shirt on during the blast, and the explosion instantly burned much of his exposed torso. But on the good side, Sally found, the wounds were rather shallow and only a few areas of his shoulder contained more than superficial burns. Knowing Heero, he'd heal easily from this.
Quatre joined in her efforts to bandage Heero.
* * * * * * * *
Trowa continued to search the rubble, hoping against all logic and reason that he would find Jinx. He had watched as Duo and Wufei worked together to carry Heero off. And Duo seemed in too good of a mood for Heero to be dead, so that left some hope that Jinx had survived as well. Then again, he had to keep Heero's track record in mind. Heero's died five or six times by now, if you count his recent freezing to death. The fact that Heero was alive made no guarantee that Jinx was too.
But then again, she was the female version of the perfect soldier, Trowa reminded himself, allowing his mind to roam as his body roamed over the ruins of the west wing. She had survived the Siberian night as well. And she was well known to have cheated death among the OZ soldiers, who talked about the deeds of the Plague even though none of them had ever seen or met her. Trowa had picked up on some of the rumors about her when he was working for OZ during his infiltration years ago on the lunar base.
She was supposed to be invincible. Tales told of how she could pop bones into place with her bare hands, after surviving a bombing assassination of this world leader or that world leader. Jinx liked explosives, he recalled. She developed most of her bombs personally, which made them impossible to detect or duplicate.
But Jinx was also supposed to be an excellent mind reader and mimic, which gave her the ability to live in complete stealth. No one ever knew when they ran across the Plague, some of the OZ soldiers said, unless she told them before she killed them.
Trowa shook his head as he searched. She was so much like Heero, it was scary. One perfect soldier was bad enough, but having two? He wasn't sure if he liked the idea. But Duo seemed to like her, just as he liked Heero despite his cold qualities. And if Duo liked someone, they were usually a good person to know. After all, Duo liked all the Gundam pilots. And over the years, regardless of the occasional stretches of time during which they didn't keep in touch, they had become family. The greatest family Trowa had ever known, other than Cathy. The battalions he was a part of before, and even the circus, couldn't compete to the camaraderie the pilots shared.
If Heero and Duo wanted Jinx to be a part of their life as a family, then Trowa was more than willing to forget her past and accept her. He just had to find her first.
Luckily, Trowa caught a glimpse of black hair. Making his way over to that area, Jinx's whole body came into view.
Trowa looked up into the sky of the fading afternoon and thanked whatever gods he could come up with for her body being in one piece.
Without stopping to check for a pulse or her breathing, because he figured that it didn't really matter whether she was alive or not, he held her gently in his arms and climbed over the wreckage toward the undamaged area in the middle of the palace.