Author's Note: I don't own Gundam Wing, if you happened to miss all my other disclaimers.

~ Skeletons in the Closet ~

Part 8

By Zero's Wings

First Signs of the Storm

Heero Yuy, Lucrezia Noin, and Lady Une all rushed down halls and stepped into a service elevator. They rode down to the basement hangar in silence. The air was filled with their tension and grim anticipation. Noin knew something was wrong the second Zech's voice began to waver on his personal transmission. A few moments later, Noin tracked the signal to the middle of the Northeastern forests of Sanc, from which numerous jamming signals radiated. And now, here they were. Heero left Relena with quick kiss on the cheek, and she let him go with a weary, worried look. It was exactly that kind of look that could get him killed, and he knew it. On the battlefield, distractions meant death, no matter how brief they were. Don't think, just react. Come back alive. That was Heero's code.

Halfway down to the basement, the elevator stopped abruptly. The large, armored doors of the service elevator slid back with the airy hiss of hydraulics. Standing to greet Heero Noin and Une were Sally Po and Wufei Chang. Heero hadn't seen the Chinese pilot in months, not since Duo got shot at Howard's place.

"You have no idea how much you owe me for this," Wufei said with a low growl. "Imagine: the highlands of China, hot springs, tropical climate, on the cool nights curling up by the fire with your lover…"

"You can have my next vacation," Heero said abruptly. "Right now, I could use your piloting skills."

A battle! Wufei thought. Well, that almost makes up for it. At least I don't have to listen to that Relena Peacecraft whine on about how I should 'give peace a chance.' To Heero and the others, Wufei contained his excitement and only snorted tempestuously.

Heero called Quatre, Trowa, and Duo over as well. With the three of them staying in a hotel on the same block, Heero could afford to wait for them. Besides, he just felt better getting into a mobile suit with the whole team there as support.

Trowa and Quatre arrived, acting unusually pleasant and jovial. Duo followed them in, looking just as haggard as when Heero had last seen him.

"Sure you're up for this?" Heero asked the restless pilot. "Looks like you didn't get any sleep."

"How could I," Duo protested while gesturing at Quatre and Trowa, "with those two lovebirds playing 'twister' all night in the room above me?" His expression changed to something between humor and disgust. "Anyway, it's no big deal. I went for weeks without sleep during the Eve Wars."

"That's not all, though, is it?" Heero asked quietly. Duo shook his head and bit down on his lip.  His violet eyes whirled with sorrow like blood mixing with water.

"I'll tell you later," Duo said, his voice quivering. "I'll tell you over a drink, my treat." Duo put his hand on Heero's shoulder. It was both a show of friendship and a desperate need for the support of another human being. On the contrary, it made Heero extremely uncomfortable. With the exception of Relena, Heero still could not stand human contact. There was something poisonous about touch, some contamination of his perfect form. This was a feeling deep inside Heero, one that would never leave him. To his great relief, Duo removed the hand after a few seconds and rushed to the nearest available suit.

*****

Within moments, Noin's squadron of eight white Tauruses had lifted off and was heading for the site of Zechs' last transmission. The sun had just gone down, and the sparkling white torches of stars gave the countryside an unearthly, night time glow.

Heero wrapped his sweaty palms around his suit's ignition handles and jetted forward. Why am I so nervous? He thought, unable to rid himself of the uneasy feeling in his gut. Heero knew that the jamming signal from Zech's suit could mean anything, from simple interference from a radar tower to an invading army. Heero didn't know why, but for some reason he was sure it was the latter.

A few short moments later, the beeps of the proximity meter became so dense that they sounded like a single, annoying chirp, held for minutes on end. Heero reached up and twisted a knob on an overhead control panel. The main viewer switched from a computer construct wire frame to regular night vision. Heero pulled a lever at his ankle, and the Taurus automatically dumped an ammo clip into its rifle.

There wasn't much to see at first. Heero's night vision was obscured by Wufei's exhaust trail. Heero gritted his teeth in annoyance. He specifically told Wufei not to fly ahead of the group. He was about to express his anger over his comm. unit, but Wufei beat him to it.

"Thanks for bringing up the rear," Wufei said, dead serious. "There's something you need to see."

Heero gently landed in a large clearing. As he slid down on a retracting cable, he recognized the scents of gunpowder, grease, and fluid from a spent power cell of some type of beam weaponry. Wufei was in the middle of the clearing gesturing up to a hulking mass obscured by shadows from the treetops. As Noin's suit landed a few meters behind Heero, its shoulder-mounted spotlight revealed a wrecked mobile suit in the gloom. It was the Tallgeese III.

*****

Zechs limped out of the cockpit, shivering from the cold night air.

Heero heard the whir of another cable extending to the ground behind him. Noin rushed past him with a look of joy and relief spreading over her pale face. Zechs came down on a cable out of his own cockpit on a cable and the two embraced passionately. She began laughing and crying at the same time, the soldier's composure gone in Zechs' arms. "Zechs, don't you ever do something like this again," she whispered to him.

"Lucrezia…" he said softly, pushing her matted bangs away from her eyes.

"I mean it, Zechs," she said with mock-seriousness, "you go off on another hopeless warrior's crusade, and I'll make sure you lose more than just a mobile suit in the process." Zechs chuckled nervously, and they kissed.

Heero heard more Tauruses landing and more cables being extended to the ground. Sally, Une and the other pilots rushed toward them. Heero and Wufei saw the reunited couple begin kissing and hugging in a frenzy passion, they turned back and called to the others.

"Looks like they could use some time alone," Wufei muttered. Heero nodded warily.

"Everything's all right," Heero yelled while waving his arms. "Zechs is fine, we can all head back now."

"Hold on!" Zechs called back, managing to pull himself out of Noin's embrace for a few scant seconds. "There's something that all of you need to see." The pilots and Preventer girls followed Zechs past the wrecked Tallgeese and found a veritable wasteland carved out of the forest, with steaming piles of metal lying about, with whips and coils splayed out amongst them like intestine.

"Wh-what are they?" Duo asked in shock.

"I have no idea, they're unlike any mobile suits I've ever seen." Zechs said. "They're almost organic in nature." The Gundam pilots bent over various heaps of wreckage to examine the foreign machines. "I think this was only the first wave," Zechs continued, "if they had kept attacking, I wouldn't be talking to you now."

Heero ran his finger over the shiny black cover of one suit's headpiece. He removed it and found it was coated in an odd substance. It looked like ash but was slippery, not gritty to the touch. He resolved that it must be some type of lubricant.

"It seems these suits were launched from a carrier," Heero declared. "They're covered with a lubricant for a loading mechanism. Did you see how they were dropped off, Zechs?"

Zechs shook his head. "No, they just came up on me suddenly. I have no idea where they came from." Zechs turned to the other pilots.

"Have any of you ever seen something like this?" he said, gesturing to the suits. Quatre, who had lagged behind and nearly been forgotten in the confusion, stepped forward to speak.

"I have," he said. There was a terrified look in the young pilot's eyes. "I've seen this before."

Heero noticed a light drizzle of rain was upon them. A moment later, thunder struck.

*****

Relena gently shut the door of her office and locked it with an electronic keycard. She marched down the hall, rode the elevator to the lobby, and gave the keycard to a receptionist at the front desk. It was begin to rain softly outside, and looming clouds told her more was on the way. She got into a limo that was waiting on the semi-circle of pavement. "Just home," she told her driver.

Relena took a bottle of Sanc Chardonnay and poured herself a glass. It had been a trying day, and she sipped the wine self-consciously, knowing it was just too easy an escape. She rolled her eyes as she swallowed the first drop of wine. Centuries later, the country still can't make a decent bottle of wine. She saw the exit for her apartment coming up, and told the driver. The man nodded and turned on his windshield wipers.

There was some tension in the falling raindrops. As they increased in size and frequency, Relena felt like they were some sort of harbinger, a sign of impending doom. She laughed quietly at the thought.

"Something funny, miss?" the driver said, finally turning his head so Relena could get a good look at him. She nearly jumped in her seat. Her driver was Heero.

"When did you get back?" she exclaimed. He gave an odd chuckle.

"Just a little while ago," he said, turning back to the road. At that moment, Relena realized they had missed her turn.

"Oh, are we going to spend the night at your place?" Relena said with a mischievous grin.

"Not exactly. I'm taking you to see my father."

End part 8