The Preventer's Cruiser landed back at their ship safely. A couple of technicians were waiting to unload the remains of Wing Zero. Quatre wearily stepped out expecting one of his friends to be waiting there but no one was around. That fact alone made his heart sink more. The Preventer's ship was similar to Peace Million in its design. From what Quatre had been told, when it was being built, the Preventer's had Howard design it so that pretty much explained the similarity. He headed for the bridge where Sally Po was. He handed her his report and didn't really say anything, which she found kind of odd. He wasn't sure if she knew his reason for leaving earlier that day. He really hadn't talked to her about it.
"Where is everyone else?" He asked her as she began reading his report. "Heero and Hilde are in the medical section. I think Trowa's okay from what I've been told by your sister. I appreciate her coming in by the way. But everyone else, I'm..not..sure.." She stopped talking once she got to the end of his report. She looked over at him, with a surprised look on her face. She only then realized the sad look in his eyes.
"The pilot has still not been located?" She quoted the ending of his report. All he could do was nod. Sally let the report fall on her desk and covered her mouth with her hand.
"Do the others know yet?" She asked him not looking in his direction. He shook his head."I really have to leave." Was all he said. She nodded her response showing that she understood. He quickly left the bridge and headed for the medical center.
Iria Winner came out of one of the rooms in ICU and headed for the waiting room where Heero and Hilde were. In her hands, she carried Trowa's medical chart. They were both standing. She smiled happily at them and took a seat as did they. She opened up the file and looked over it before speaking to them.
"He's going to alright. It wasn't too serious." She said. Hilde looked relieved while Heero didn't seem overly concerned in the first place but it was still good to know that Trowa wasn't hurt badly. Afterall he had taken care of him when he was injured once. So deep down he was relieved but you wouldn't know it by looking at him.
"Can he have any visitors?" Heero asked in his monotoned way. Dr. Winner sat and thought about it for a while.
"Maybe in a couple of hours. He was awake at one point. I had to let him know what had happened but that was a while ago. Now he's sleeping." She explained and went back to writing some notes in the folder. Heero stood up and turned to Hilde.
"We should go contact Quatre and see how things are at his end." He mentioned, knowing that Hilde was probably wondering about that. She nodded and stood up as well. They were on their way to the bridge when they saw Quatre walking towards them. They stopped and waited for him to reach where they were standing in the hallway. He looked up, surprised to see them.
"Oh, I was just coming over to see you." He admitted. "So how's Trowa?" He asked, trying to buy himself some time to think.
"Your sister says he's going to be fine but he's sleeping now so no visitors till later." Hilde explained. He could tell she was trying to hold back but her voice showed how anxious she was.
"That's good to hear...Um I think that we should go sit down somewhere." He answered still unsure of how he was going to break this to them. Hilde gave him a questionable look and Heero arched an eyebrow.
"What for? And where's Duo?" Hilde finally asked him. Quatre was now out of time.
"I'm kinda tired and that seems like a good idea right now." He remarked trying not to look at either one of them too long. He didn't want the look in his eyes to give anything away. He knew he wasn't very good at hiding his feelings like Heero and Trowa. A look of fear crossed Hilde's face. Heero was beginning to understand what Quatre was trying to tell them.
"Maybe we should go to one of the break rooms." Heero agreed. Hilde was silent as they walked to the closest one. Once they were inside, they sat down on the two couches. Hilde was the first to speak.
"Duo's...not with you, is he?" She slowly asked but it came out more like a statement.
"No he's..not here." He swallowed after his sentence.
"Did you find Zero yet?" Heero replied. Quatre really didn't want
to be here now but he forced himself to look at Heero when he answered.
"We found most of Wing Zero." He said, looking Heero right in the eye. He couldn't tell how Heero was going to react. But from the look he was giving him, he knew Heero had figured it out. Hilde cut back into the conversation.
"What do you mean you only found most of it? Where's Duo?" She almost sounded demanding.
"We...we don't know where he is." Quatre finally said, his bangs covered his eyes at that point. Hilde was silent. Actually they were all silent. The silence was deafening to Quatre though. He didn't know what either of them were thinking. Hilde snapped out of the daze she was in.
"Well can't we go look for him? Check the area around the place you found that suit." She was having a hard time saying those words. Quatre didn't have an answer for her.
"I want to see Zero." Heero came back in. Quatre couldn't help but think that that was somewhat insensitive on his part. But he stood up and they followed him out. Hilde trailed behind the two of them.
"I don't think that she should be coming." Quatre mentioned to Heero.
"She's going to need some kind of proof. If what I think happened did, then I think both of us need to go. And no one is forcing her anyway." He answered. Quatre didn't say anything after that. They turned a corner and Sally and Relena came into view. Relena usually wasn't there, infact Heero wasn't sure why she was. He was glad to see her and all but this was an inconvenient time.
"Heero, I didn't think I'd see you." She said but not as cheerfully as usual.
"Does she know?" He asked Sally. Sally nodded back. Relena walked with them as they made their way to the docking area. She stayed behind Quatre and Heero, knowing that Hilde would be needing a friend right now. And one that wasn't a pilot too. Once they arrived in the docking area, the first thing that came into view was the top half of Wing Zero. Technicians were still getting pieces out of the shuttle.
"Well it doesn't look like it was self-detonated considering all that is left." Heero observed. 'He wouldn't have self-detonated now.' Hilde thought after Heero's remark. She looked up at Zero and backed away from the entrance. She began feeling very sick all of the sudden. Heero pulled Quatre away from the doorway so that she couldn't hear him.
"Did you find anything out there that..resem.." He stopped mid-sentence. He wasn't even sure how to put it into words. Quatre knew what he meant though. He went over to the shuttle and retrieved the Preventer's jacket he had found. He handed it to Heero.
"That's it. There was no other sign of him out there." He explained. The jacket wasn't in the best condition. It was torn on one of the sleeves and ripped along the back. Heero looked back at Hilde in the doorway. Relena had her arm around her and she was leaning on Relena's shoulder. Her face was turned away from him so he couldn't tell if she was crying yet. He wasn't really close to her but he knew what she was going through anyway. He walked over to them with the jacket in his hand. She looked up as he came to the entrance. She saw the jacket in his hand and looked away.
"Hilde..." Heero started but was interrupted.
"I know what that is." She said in a small voice. She couldn't look at it or Heero. Relena stood back next to Heero. Hilde wouldn't look at either of them and crossed her arms infront of her. Everything was sinking in and she refused to accept it. She finally turned to face them.
"I'm going home." She declared holding back tears. They both looked at her sadly, even Heero looked sad. She shook her head and looked down.
"He might have gone there." She added quietly and headed to one of the other docking areas away from that one. Relena slipped her hand into Heero's as they watched her leave. He looked down at her.
"I don't think she should make this trip alone." She told him. He nodded back at her and quickly let go of her hand. He followed Hilde down the hallway. Relena headed back to the bridge to find Sally. Quatre decided he was going to the medical area to see his sister and find out how Trowa was doing.
***
The room wasn't very big, and it also seemed dark. The bed was kind of hard too now that he thought about it, when he had finally woken up. He looked over to see a side table with his gun and helmet on it. There was a slight pain under his left eye. He reached up to feel a cut on his cheek. It hurt to the touch. He sat up slowly and looked around the room. Where was he again? There was a smell of medical equipment in the room. The bed, he realized was one of those metal ones that were never comfortable. Whoever had brought him here hadn't even bothered to see if he was injured. He slid off the bed and forced himself to stand up. His legs barely supported him. He made his way over to the table where his stuff was. He felt kind of dizzy on the way. Once he made it there, he steadied himself before picking up his gun. He knew that he wasn't where he was suppose to be since Quatre wasn't there. He knew Quatre wouldn't have just left him in a room like this, alone. Especially in his condition. He went to the door only to find it was locked. That wasn't a problem, he could find a way to open it. He found the control panel on the wall. It was hard to concentrate on it, however he was almost finished. All of the sudden the door opened but he wasn't responsible. A lady walked in, that he had never seen before. He backed away from the door and pointed his gun at her. She was startled to even see him standing. She quickly put her hands up.
"Oh, your awake. You don't have to wave that thing around yah know." She informed him.
"I do if I don't know where I am or who you are lady." He answered back quickly, trying to hold the gun steady. Someone else followed her into the room. This guy was much bigger then him and he knew he wasn't leaving without explaining himself. The bigger guy didn't put his hands up like the lady had.
"Okay who are you people and where am I?" He demanded.
"Take it easy Duo, we're not your enemy." The man said. That also ticked him off.
"And how do you know my name?" He added.
"We're part of the Sweeper Group but we're from the L3 area." The lady explained. Duo lowered his gun some, a bit confused. He suddenly realized that he did know them, kind of, but it was from a couple years ago. Before Operation Meteor.
"Where are we going now?" He asked, noticing that they were moving and obviously on a shuttle. It was better then being in that cramped cockpit though.
"We're on our way to the L3 area now. You're probably going to need some kind of medical attention." The lady remarked. Duo started feeling dizzy again and lowered his gun completely. Now the man was saying something but Duo didn't hear most of it. Something about Wing Zero.
"I really need to get back." Duo interrupted looking at nothing now.
"Are you feeling okay?" He heard the lady ask. He felt his legs give from underneath. He felt someone stop him from falling too hard. They got him back onto the table. Duo looked up wearily. He still wasn't sure what was happening. The lady put her hand on his forehead.
"He's burning up. Go check our ETA." She ordered the man. He quickly disappeared from view. Duo tried to sit up but she pushed him back down gently.
"I have to get back...they don't know where I.." He started slowly.
"We'll contact them as soon as we get there." She said, not too sure who exactly he was talking about. Something quickly caught her attention. There was a dark spot on his space suit that hadn't been there before. She leaned over to get a better look. It was now clear to her that his side was seriously injured. She called for the other guy to come back into the room. He helped her get Duo's suit off. The side of his shirt was soaked. This was the first time he realized he didn't have his jacket. The lady undid his tie and untucked his shirt to get a better look at his injury. She was trying to determine how deep the wound was. The more she examined his side, the more it hurt. Duo wanted to get up but was too dizzy to even attempt it. The other guy got some gauze and they turned him on the table in order to place it on his side. Everything started to get blurry. The lady looked over at him as he started to glaze over.
"Now come on, you need to stay awake till we get there. Please." She told him in a concerned voice. All he could do was shake his head in response. His side was really beginning to hurt even more as they applied pressure on the gauze. He remembered getting shot but he never bothered to see how badly he was hurt. Now that he thought about it Trowa had been shot as well. Too much thinking.
"Get more gauze, he's loosing too much blood." The lady instructed. It was the last thing he heard before passing out again.
"Where is everyone else?" He asked her as she began reading his report. "Heero and Hilde are in the medical section. I think Trowa's okay from what I've been told by your sister. I appreciate her coming in by the way. But everyone else, I'm..not..sure.." She stopped talking once she got to the end of his report. She looked over at him, with a surprised look on her face. She only then realized the sad look in his eyes.
"The pilot has still not been located?" She quoted the ending of his report. All he could do was nod. Sally let the report fall on her desk and covered her mouth with her hand.
"Do the others know yet?" She asked him not looking in his direction. He shook his head."I really have to leave." Was all he said. She nodded her response showing that she understood. He quickly left the bridge and headed for the medical center.
Iria Winner came out of one of the rooms in ICU and headed for the waiting room where Heero and Hilde were. In her hands, she carried Trowa's medical chart. They were both standing. She smiled happily at them and took a seat as did they. She opened up the file and looked over it before speaking to them.
"He's going to alright. It wasn't too serious." She said. Hilde looked relieved while Heero didn't seem overly concerned in the first place but it was still good to know that Trowa wasn't hurt badly. Afterall he had taken care of him when he was injured once. So deep down he was relieved but you wouldn't know it by looking at him.
"Can he have any visitors?" Heero asked in his monotoned way. Dr. Winner sat and thought about it for a while.
"Maybe in a couple of hours. He was awake at one point. I had to let him know what had happened but that was a while ago. Now he's sleeping." She explained and went back to writing some notes in the folder. Heero stood up and turned to Hilde.
"We should go contact Quatre and see how things are at his end." He mentioned, knowing that Hilde was probably wondering about that. She nodded and stood up as well. They were on their way to the bridge when they saw Quatre walking towards them. They stopped and waited for him to reach where they were standing in the hallway. He looked up, surprised to see them.
"Oh, I was just coming over to see you." He admitted. "So how's Trowa?" He asked, trying to buy himself some time to think.
"Your sister says he's going to be fine but he's sleeping now so no visitors till later." Hilde explained. He could tell she was trying to hold back but her voice showed how anxious she was.
"That's good to hear...Um I think that we should go sit down somewhere." He answered still unsure of how he was going to break this to them. Hilde gave him a questionable look and Heero arched an eyebrow.
"What for? And where's Duo?" Hilde finally asked him. Quatre was now out of time.
"I'm kinda tired and that seems like a good idea right now." He remarked trying not to look at either one of them too long. He didn't want the look in his eyes to give anything away. He knew he wasn't very good at hiding his feelings like Heero and Trowa. A look of fear crossed Hilde's face. Heero was beginning to understand what Quatre was trying to tell them.
"Maybe we should go to one of the break rooms." Heero agreed. Hilde was silent as they walked to the closest one. Once they were inside, they sat down on the two couches. Hilde was the first to speak.
"Duo's...not with you, is he?" She slowly asked but it came out more like a statement.
"No he's..not here." He swallowed after his sentence.
"Did you find Zero yet?" Heero replied. Quatre really didn't want
to be here now but he forced himself to look at Heero when he answered.
"We found most of Wing Zero." He said, looking Heero right in the eye. He couldn't tell how Heero was going to react. But from the look he was giving him, he knew Heero had figured it out. Hilde cut back into the conversation.
"What do you mean you only found most of it? Where's Duo?" She almost sounded demanding.
"We...we don't know where he is." Quatre finally said, his bangs covered his eyes at that point. Hilde was silent. Actually they were all silent. The silence was deafening to Quatre though. He didn't know what either of them were thinking. Hilde snapped out of the daze she was in.
"Well can't we go look for him? Check the area around the place you found that suit." She was having a hard time saying those words. Quatre didn't have an answer for her.
"I want to see Zero." Heero came back in. Quatre couldn't help but think that that was somewhat insensitive on his part. But he stood up and they followed him out. Hilde trailed behind the two of them.
"I don't think that she should be coming." Quatre mentioned to Heero.
"She's going to need some kind of proof. If what I think happened did, then I think both of us need to go. And no one is forcing her anyway." He answered. Quatre didn't say anything after that. They turned a corner and Sally and Relena came into view. Relena usually wasn't there, infact Heero wasn't sure why she was. He was glad to see her and all but this was an inconvenient time.
"Heero, I didn't think I'd see you." She said but not as cheerfully as usual.
"Does she know?" He asked Sally. Sally nodded back. Relena walked with them as they made their way to the docking area. She stayed behind Quatre and Heero, knowing that Hilde would be needing a friend right now. And one that wasn't a pilot too. Once they arrived in the docking area, the first thing that came into view was the top half of Wing Zero. Technicians were still getting pieces out of the shuttle.
"Well it doesn't look like it was self-detonated considering all that is left." Heero observed. 'He wouldn't have self-detonated now.' Hilde thought after Heero's remark. She looked up at Zero and backed away from the entrance. She began feeling very sick all of the sudden. Heero pulled Quatre away from the doorway so that she couldn't hear him.
"Did you find anything out there that..resem.." He stopped mid-sentence. He wasn't even sure how to put it into words. Quatre knew what he meant though. He went over to the shuttle and retrieved the Preventer's jacket he had found. He handed it to Heero.
"That's it. There was no other sign of him out there." He explained. The jacket wasn't in the best condition. It was torn on one of the sleeves and ripped along the back. Heero looked back at Hilde in the doorway. Relena had her arm around her and she was leaning on Relena's shoulder. Her face was turned away from him so he couldn't tell if she was crying yet. He wasn't really close to her but he knew what she was going through anyway. He walked over to them with the jacket in his hand. She looked up as he came to the entrance. She saw the jacket in his hand and looked away.
"Hilde..." Heero started but was interrupted.
"I know what that is." She said in a small voice. She couldn't look at it or Heero. Relena stood back next to Heero. Hilde wouldn't look at either of them and crossed her arms infront of her. Everything was sinking in and she refused to accept it. She finally turned to face them.
"I'm going home." She declared holding back tears. They both looked at her sadly, even Heero looked sad. She shook her head and looked down.
"He might have gone there." She added quietly and headed to one of the other docking areas away from that one. Relena slipped her hand into Heero's as they watched her leave. He looked down at her.
"I don't think she should make this trip alone." She told him. He nodded back at her and quickly let go of her hand. He followed Hilde down the hallway. Relena headed back to the bridge to find Sally. Quatre decided he was going to the medical area to see his sister and find out how Trowa was doing.
***
The room wasn't very big, and it also seemed dark. The bed was kind of hard too now that he thought about it, when he had finally woken up. He looked over to see a side table with his gun and helmet on it. There was a slight pain under his left eye. He reached up to feel a cut on his cheek. It hurt to the touch. He sat up slowly and looked around the room. Where was he again? There was a smell of medical equipment in the room. The bed, he realized was one of those metal ones that were never comfortable. Whoever had brought him here hadn't even bothered to see if he was injured. He slid off the bed and forced himself to stand up. His legs barely supported him. He made his way over to the table where his stuff was. He felt kind of dizzy on the way. Once he made it there, he steadied himself before picking up his gun. He knew that he wasn't where he was suppose to be since Quatre wasn't there. He knew Quatre wouldn't have just left him in a room like this, alone. Especially in his condition. He went to the door only to find it was locked. That wasn't a problem, he could find a way to open it. He found the control panel on the wall. It was hard to concentrate on it, however he was almost finished. All of the sudden the door opened but he wasn't responsible. A lady walked in, that he had never seen before. He backed away from the door and pointed his gun at her. She was startled to even see him standing. She quickly put her hands up.
"Oh, your awake. You don't have to wave that thing around yah know." She informed him.
"I do if I don't know where I am or who you are lady." He answered back quickly, trying to hold the gun steady. Someone else followed her into the room. This guy was much bigger then him and he knew he wasn't leaving without explaining himself. The bigger guy didn't put his hands up like the lady had.
"Okay who are you people and where am I?" He demanded.
"Take it easy Duo, we're not your enemy." The man said. That also ticked him off.
"And how do you know my name?" He added.
"We're part of the Sweeper Group but we're from the L3 area." The lady explained. Duo lowered his gun some, a bit confused. He suddenly realized that he did know them, kind of, but it was from a couple years ago. Before Operation Meteor.
"Where are we going now?" He asked, noticing that they were moving and obviously on a shuttle. It was better then being in that cramped cockpit though.
"We're on our way to the L3 area now. You're probably going to need some kind of medical attention." The lady remarked. Duo started feeling dizzy again and lowered his gun completely. Now the man was saying something but Duo didn't hear most of it. Something about Wing Zero.
"I really need to get back." Duo interrupted looking at nothing now.
"Are you feeling okay?" He heard the lady ask. He felt his legs give from underneath. He felt someone stop him from falling too hard. They got him back onto the table. Duo looked up wearily. He still wasn't sure what was happening. The lady put her hand on his forehead.
"He's burning up. Go check our ETA." She ordered the man. He quickly disappeared from view. Duo tried to sit up but she pushed him back down gently.
"I have to get back...they don't know where I.." He started slowly.
"We'll contact them as soon as we get there." She said, not too sure who exactly he was talking about. Something quickly caught her attention. There was a dark spot on his space suit that hadn't been there before. She leaned over to get a better look. It was now clear to her that his side was seriously injured. She called for the other guy to come back into the room. He helped her get Duo's suit off. The side of his shirt was soaked. This was the first time he realized he didn't have his jacket. The lady undid his tie and untucked his shirt to get a better look at his injury. She was trying to determine how deep the wound was. The more she examined his side, the more it hurt. Duo wanted to get up but was too dizzy to even attempt it. The other guy got some gauze and they turned him on the table in order to place it on his side. Everything started to get blurry. The lady looked over at him as he started to glaze over.
"Now come on, you need to stay awake till we get there. Please." She told him in a concerned voice. All he could do was shake his head in response. His side was really beginning to hurt even more as they applied pressure on the gauze. He remembered getting shot but he never bothered to see how badly he was hurt. Now that he thought about it Trowa had been shot as well. Too much thinking.
"Get more gauze, he's loosing too much blood." The lady instructed. It was the last thing he heard before passing out again.