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Children of War
By,
Luna Dragon

~*^*^*~

The lights flickered on and off, red to black, as footsteps from the outside reached his ears. Curiously, the Perfect Soldier raised his head slowly from his place up against the wall, sitting on the ground. He had no clue what was happening, but he thought that it had to have been something big to cause a ruckus like this. With a stifled groan from the beating he received after the guards realized who he was, he pushed himself off of the ground and into a standing position. With no windows and just one closed door, Heero had no way of knowing what was going on outside.

He didn't even have his detonator to set off the bomb to blow up the door to his cell. But he didn't have to worry about that as the cell door opened and he saw the person he least expected to see. 'Hotaru . . .'

Six guards surrounded Hotaru Tomoe as she smirked at Heero. "Well, Mr. Yuy, glad to see you haven't escaped yet." She mocked.

Heero didn't reply, his face expressionless, but his eyes full of confusion and anger. "So this was your true intention, Tomoe?" He asked coldly, and he could have sworn he saw Hotaru cringe.

"Well," She began, looking at the guards who were ready to spring on Heero if he made any sudden moves. "Actually, no. My true intention was this!"

She crouched down and swiped her leg under two unsuspecting guards who tripped and fell, hitting their heads' on the cell walls and knocking themselves unconscious. Instantly, Heero was by Hotaru's side, wrestling two guns from two soldiers' hands. Getting control over the weapons, he kneed one in the stomach and elbowed the other soldier in the face. Both fell unconscious to the floor. Hotaru finished the fifth one off by flipping onto her hands and kicking the guard in the stomach hard enough that he fell backwards against the wall, slumping to the floor. When she turned around, Heero had the last guard on the floor, the hand cuffs off his wrists.

He threw a key to the floor and turned to the scientist's daughter, a gun aimed at her. "Was that really your true intention? I'm not really sure who to trust anymore."

"Well you'll need to trust me. One, Trowa and Kaiya are here with me, they're getting information. Two, you're hurt." Hotaru, ignoring Heero's gun, walked over to him and ripped off a piece of her coat, tying it around a deep gash on the Perfect Soldier's arm. She smiled sheepishly at her work and crouched down, examining Heero for other injuries. "If you don't get medical attention soon, most of your cuts will get serious infections. And I think you're ankle is sprained."

Heero just stared at the girl, his gun still pointed at an invisible spot where she once stood. "Hn." Was his reply as he lowered his gun.

"Well, Heero, lets leave. I'm in no mood to be captured and imprisoned in a cell. By the looks of it, they don't treat their guests very well." The violet eyed girl reminded.

Heero nodded, and the two teens took off running, avoiding as much guards as they could (which wasn't many), and shooting the rest. But, they made their attacks nonfatal; both having promised long ago not to kill anyone ever again. But, the Perfect Soldier found, much to his dislike, that he was lagging behind. Hotaru had been right, his ankle was pretty bruised and battered, and he had no time to pop the bone back in place if it was indeed broken. Rounding a corner, Hotaru suddenly stopped, cursing loudly.

"What is it?" Heero questioned, slightly panting.

Hotaru shook her head and pointed down the hall. More than fifty guards were running every which way, taking every precaution necessary to stop Heero and now Hotaru from escaping through that corridor. "That option is out of the question." Hotaru mumbled. She looked back at Heero, and finally noticed his composure. "You need to get to a medic, and quickly before you injure your leg more. My car's parked about a block from this place, yours is most likely totaled."

Heero nodded and turned to go, but grimaced, almost losing his balance when a wave of agonizing pain shot up and down his leg. He tried to ignore it, after all, he was a former Gundam pilot and a trained soldier, he was used to this kind of things. But before he could get used to it, Hotaru had knelt down to help him. He shrugged her off, mumbling that he was fine. Hotaru nodded, she knew he was a loner since he was trained that way.

"Let's go; if guards catch us, the outcome wont be amusing." Heero said, his monotone voice in place, his face void of emotion.

Hotaru nodded, and once again they took off running, surprisingly not finding too many guards. That soon changed, however, when the two stopped before the sub basement. In front of them stood the notorious Kaori Night, a gun in her hand, and a small chip in her other. "Well, I was wondering how long it would take Yuy to show up. Though I didn't know he'd bring Tomoe's daughter along for the ride." The red-head laughed.

Hotaru growled, Heero remained emotionless, his senses alert and ready; trained on the woman known as Kaori in front of him. He knew who she was, having been questioned by her earlier. Of course he had remained silent and given up absolutely no information, which earned him a rather hard beating.

"Are you going to surrender, Yuy? Tomoe?" Kaori asked with sarcasm in her voice. She loved to play around with her 'victims' by pretending she was a completely unreliable and careless person, laughing constantly and getting carried away when she won. But she knew when to be serious and when to fool around; and now she chose to do a little bit of both.

"Not a chance." Hotaru answered evenly. Heero nodded.

"I knew you'd decline the first offer. That is why I brought this," Kaori held up the small chip, no larger than the size of a coin, and smirked. "You see this?" She gestured her hand so that they had a better view of the chip, and Heero realized that it had a red lever on the other side. "I push this switch, and the cells holding Kaiya and Trowa will be turned into an Independence Day firework bash. Now surrender, or the switch gets pulled without hesitation."

Heero's eyes widened. 'So they have Trowa and Kaiya now as well,' he thought darkly with a curse. That changed things around. If Trowa and Kaiya were indeed captured, and Kaori wasn't bluffing, that would lessen their chances of wining. 'Are missions your only purpose?' His mind asked him harshly.

"Now," Kaori continued, breaking Heero from his thoughts and the silence, "what's your answer, Yuy? Tomoe? Surrender now or your comrades go boom." She laughed softly, her eyes locking with Heero's, her mind thinking that he was the only obstacle, that nothing else could get in her way.

Her theory proved wrong.

Hotaru, knowing that Kaori was worried about the Perfect Soldier and not about her, quietly and quickly made her way over to the red head. In one swift movement, she was holding Kaori's wrist in the air, which was fired in surprise. Kaori growled and threw the girl back, only to have Heero wrestle her to the ground, a gun pointed at her head. He stood up, the gun trained on her, and clicked the safety off. But she had expected that, and was grasping the small chip tightly. "You shoot me, before I die, I'll take Kaiya and Barton along with me. You're a fool if you think I wont."

Hotaru rubbed her neck from her place against the wall and walked over to the two, grabbing the chip from Kaori's hand forcefully. "You have no threats to use against us now." Heero said simply, clutching the trigger.

Kaori growled, but stopped short, letting down her guard and reflexes completely. "Alright, Yuy. You win. Put me out of my misery," she commanded, her eyes on the gun. Heero stiffened, he hadn't expected something like that at all. By Hotaru's wide eyes, he guessed she hadn't either. "Well? What are you waiting for? Kill me, complete your damn mission!"

'Killing her wont end all this.' Hotaru thought to herself. She turned to Heero, then back to Kaori. "Would you leave this place and go back to living a normal life if we let you live?" She asked softly.

'What?' Heero's mind screamed as he looked to Hotaru in surprise. 'What is she doing? Letting the enemy live . . . it could be a trap . . . I promised I would never kill again . . .' He reminded himself.

Kaori looked at the violet eyed girl with a smile of complete gratitude. 'You have no idea, kid.' She thought. Kaori looked then to Heero, who was in his own world, contemplating what Hotaru was doing. And all thanks to the teenage girl, Kaori now had a second chance . . .

. . . a second chance for revenge, that is.

Kaori flipped to her feet, taking out a gun and pointing it at the Perfect Soldier in front of her before anyone could as much as breathe a word. Heero turned his attention to Kaori with wide eyes, finally realizing what was happening. He had let his attention slip, for the second time that day, and now he was going to pay for it. He had only one weapon at his disposal, which was too late to use, and Kaori was too close for him to attack any other way. Death had finally caught up to him. Vaguely he heard someone yell his name, but it didn't matter anymore. Nothing would matter in a few moments. He closed his eyes, and smiled slightly. He had always awaited for Death to come, he had nothing to live for. His life was his mission, and nothing more now that peace was here. Soon this war would end, and he would go back to being a soulless wanderer.

But his long awaited death never came. He heard the gunshot as it sounded. Loud, and sharp, but the bullet never reached him. He felt himself being pushed back, not by the bullet, but by some other form. He hit the ground, and opened his eyes. He found Hotaru, lying on him, facedown, unmoving. A small hole was torn in the back of her shirt, and the blue material was stained dark with the red blood. Heero couldn't believe his eyes. This girl, this small, young, teenage girl who he hardly knew, had just given her life to save his!

'Why?' he thought, as a wave of emotion, which he hadn't felt in a long time, hit him: Sorrow. 'Why her? She doesn't deserve this. This wasn't her war. It was mine. Not her mission. Mine. . . Why does she have to die? Why did she do this?'

He couldn't answer these questions of his, so his sorrow brought forth another, more familiar emotion: Rage. Exactly like the rage he felt towards OZ, like the rage he felt towards the people who had murdered the people he cared about. The rage he felt toward himself for killing all those he did during the war. Heero looked up at Kaori, eyes almost glowing red with anger. "You bastard. . ." He whispered. "I'll make you pay for this."

Kaori took a step back, her gun wavering. Why would Hotaru do that? She wasn't supposed to get in the way, Heero was supposed to be lying dead on the floor, not her. She laughed forcefully, trying to calm herself despite her apprehension. "Well, looks like Tomoe had some feelings toward you. It was her own fault. But I'll tell you what, I'll let you join her in hell!" She clicked the safety off her gun and shot it blindly, missing Heero completely. Her nervousness caused her to drop the gun, and she took another step back.

In one sweeping motion, Heero picked up the gun, aimed it at Kaori's head, and fired.

The bullet slid in between the her eyes, leaving a small, round hole in its wake. The sound of more gunfire snapped Heero out of his bloodthirsty trance. He spun around, picked up Hotaru's limp body, and ran. He was barely aware of dodging soldiers, gunfire, and other mobile suits in his race to the sub basement and as he ran for his car. His only thought was to get out of here while he still could. 'For the sake of my mission,' He thought. 'For the sake of Hotaru's life,' Said a little voice in the back of his head, but he pushed the idea aside. He didn't need his emotions affecting him now.

Heero didn't even know that he was out of the corporation until he came to a stop in front of a car. He opened the door and climbed inside, setting the teenage girl as gently as possible inside, and starting the car.

Heero watched as the building grew smaller and smaller as he drove away, and then looked down at Hotaru's serene face. He felt the side of her neck for a pulse. There was one, but it was very faint. 'So, she is alive . . . that's good. Perhaps she has a chance, yet.' He thought. 'I hope she does.' He didn't bother to push away this thought. It didn't matter what he thought now. His mission was over. 'I'll return for Trowa and Kaiya later . . . Hotaru needs help first.' He promised silently, speeding off into the morning.

~*^*^*~

Rei paced around her large office frantically, constantly throwing her arms in the air. Whether it was in frustration, anxiety, or confusion, Setsuna wasn't too sure. The raven-haired teenager was constantly uttering obscenities under her breath and sighing loudly; until finally Setsuna silenced her friend by the clearing of her throat. Rei stopped in mid-step and looked up, as if just realizing that she wasn't alone and that the green-haired double agent was with her.

"As much as you are angry, it wont help by pacing around in circles." Setsuna spoke calmly. Rei nodded, slightly relaxing her tensed muscles. In her opinion (though she knew Setsuna was indeed correct) Rei thought she had every right to stubbornly contemplate the matter. They had just came from a meeting with Professor Tomoe and found out this: Akiko was in an emergency care unit, a special team of doctors removing two bullets from her abdomen, and Duo had been thrown in a prison cell, Professor Tomoe having the final resolution on how to kill him. After Trowa and Kaiya had foolishly undertaken a duet mission, it had failed and they ended up at the mercy of Dr. Tanaka, throwing themselves in separate cells. Heero had been captured also, throwing him in a solitude cell and had been question, reliving absolute no information. "Rei, you go and inform the Preventers on what's going on, since they aren't up to date with this information yet. But maybe, hopefully, they have some kind of leads."

"Preventers?" Rei questioned, evidently surprised. "And when did we get involved with them?"

"Wufei works for them, as well as Heero. We've been involved with them since the beginning."

Rei nodded, but argued, "Things need to be taken care of here first."

"Which is what I'll be doing here."

The raven-haired agent sighed in defeat, but brought up one final topic in hopes to convince her friend not to make her go. "What about Pacifist Princess Relena? Chang's protecting her at the moment."

"They have the infamous Sally Po and more than fifty highly qualified experts. Chang was just a precaution, who, in all truth, was not truly needed. More ever, his allies and friends are to be executed at the command of Tomoe and Tanaka. He has every right to know."

"Fine, fine. So what am I supposed to do?"

"Just inform Wufei of the situation. I'll deal with things down here, and then with things at Tanaka's. I'll also give Ami a call, she should be with Quatre and Hotaru."

With a small grunt, Rei walked gruffly to the door. With her hand on the knob, she called over her shoulder, "I'm warning you know, Chang and myself don't get along too well." With that said, she opened the door, walked out, and slammed it shut behind her.

Setsuna sighed heavily as she walked over to the phone while contemplating her friend's actions. She had known Rei for a long period of time; especially long enough to know that Rei took things very seriously. Particularly things concerning her tough pride.

She proceeded to dial Ami's phone number, getting ready to hear the blue haired teenager's kind voice before spilling all of today's events.

~*^*^*~

With a loud yawn, Ami shut down her computer and sat back on the comfortable couch. She had left the living room earlier that night and wandered into a study. It had walls littered with giant book cases, which were filled with bookshelves, which were clustered with books of all kinds. There were three couches, one large one and two small ones, which surrounded a coffee table.

Ami had downloaded all the information she could gather from Professor Tomoe's database, and needless to say, it wasn't pretty. But now, all Ami wanted was to get some sleep.

The door to the study opened and Ami's eyes opened slowly. "Have you been hacking into Professor Tomoe's computer database all night?" Asked the familiar voice of the blonde Arabian.

"Is it morning already?" Ami asked absentmindedly with a stretch. "Now it's no mystery why I'm so exhausted."

Quatre smiled and chuckled softly, handing Ami a steaming cup of coffee. The blue haired demi-genius accepted it gratefully, and with a thank you. "Have you found any useful information yet?" He asked.

Taking a sip of the soothing drink, Ami nodded. "A lot of things, actually. Most of the information is pretty bad news though."

Quatre also nodded and took a seat next to the blue haired girl. He knew they were in a bad situation, and he had a feeling it was and would get worse. They usually always did when it came to something due to fighting. He was always hoping that true peace would come, he even fought for it willingly. But Quatre also knew it was humanly impossible. Too many people were uncaring, or unforgiving. They would seek revenge, which would cause fighting, which would call for military, which would lead into wars. With a soft sigh, Quatre asked, "What did you manage to find?"

"Professor Tomoe isn't our only worry. There's someone he works for, Dr. Tanaka. I knew about him before, and that he would pose a very big problem in the future, but it never accord to me that Tomoe worked for him. I always thought it was the other way around." Ami answered thoughtfully.

"So someone else, much stronger, also wants to get rid of us." The blonde said gloomily.

Ami once again nodded. "That's not the worst part. Professor Tomoe, Dr. Tanaka, and Kaori Night, along with another group of extremely talented scientists have finished rebuilding a team of mobile dolls and suits. Five of which are . . ." she let out an exasperated sigh, ". . . completely newly modeled Gundams."

Quatre's eyes went abnormally wide as his breath caught in his throat. Five new Gundams, no doubt extremely powerful, were finished. How were they supposed to go up against them without their own Gundams? After the Mariemaia Khushrenada incident, the Gundam's had been completely destroyed, as well as the blue prints on how to make them. No one could have gotten a hold of the blue prints, and the scientists that had made the Gundams themselves had long since been demised. There was no way people like them had gotten a hold of things with such power! There was absolute no logical reason behind any of it, besides the fact that they actually had them. "How?" The Arabian asked softly.

Ami sighed. There was a small possibility that she and her friends had something to do with that. With Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna secretly working on the five boys' Gundams, there could have been a small information leak. But the blue haired agent kept her mouth shut; she couldn't tell any of the pilots about their 'presents' just yet, it would ruin the whole plan.

A small ringing filled their ears before Ami had a chance to answer. They both looked up at the same time; Quatre with a confused expression. Ami picked up her mini-computer and opened it up, the screen immediately filling up with numbers and digits. Ami hacked passed her high-tech security system, and Setsuna's face appeared, greeting Ami and Quatre on the portable vid-phone.

"What's wrong Setsuna?" Ami asked instantaneously. Rarely did the green-haired double agent contact her privately, and when she did, something was definitely wrong.

"I don't have much time, so I'll cut to the chase. Akiko, Duo, Kaiya, Trowa, and Heero, even possibly Hotaru, are all captured. What's worse is that Trowa, Kaiya, Heero, and Hotaru (if she's caught) are at Dr. Tanaka's place."

Ami cursed softly. "Should we go get them out?" She asked.

"Rei's gone to tell Wufei, and then she's going to take him to Haruka. I'm going to get Duo and Akiko out of here, then go for Yuy and the others. I'll tell them all where to go afterwards, they're gonna need help with this. Big help." Setsuna replied hurriedly. "Tell Quatre everything, right now, I have to go."

Ami nodded and closed her computer, turning to Quatre who had a frown of confusion on his face. "What did she mean by tell me everything? And who's Haruka?"

The teenager sighed. "Quatre, there's a lot you don't know about me . . ." She began, then told him everything. All down to the Gundams.

~*^*^*~

~~~Duo's Dream~~~

Duo surrendered himself to the nightmare creeping into his mind, almost welcoming it.

Anything seemed better than having to think for himself, lying awake. After all, why would the God of Death dream sweetly? He almost smiled at that.

But as the previous battle, just like moments before, spread across his blank mind, the overwhelming pain throbbing throughout his body increased its intensity. The nightmare was so vivid he could smell and taste the iron of blood.

He remembered . . . remembered Akiko . . . saving Akiko . . . Remembered her laying in her own blood puddle.

The picture swirled black, something new forming. Akiko drowning in a deep pool of blood?

~~~End of Duo's Dream~~~

Duo woke up panting. He looked around, expecting to see Akiko drowning in a crimson liquid, but found nothing but his prison cell. He sighed loudly, putting his now un-cuffed hands behind his back. They hadn't known he was an expert when it came to picking his way out of them, which showed just how stupid they were.

Someone knocked on his cell door and Duo smiled. "Sir, or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; but the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, and so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, that I scarce was sure I heard you rapping at my chamber door." He quoted. "Is it just the wind and nothing more?"

The door opened and a woman with long green hair, half of it pulled into a bun, walked in. Her garnet eyes glinted with amusement, as she decided to play along, "Sorry dear Lenore, only Setsuna who comes to help a certain braided pilot escape. Tis only this and nothing more."

"Really?" Duo suddenly asked, flipping his legs over the hard metal bunk he was sleeping on. "You're Setsuna?"

"Yes, I am." Setsuna answered. "Now come with me, if you want to get out of here. Akiko's alright, we just have to get her out of a different cell."

Duo nodded. He was about to ask that question, since he didn't plan on leaving without the 'babe' by his side. "Okay, where is she?"

"Just follow me," Setsuna directed, walking out of the cells with Duo right behind her. "Listen, when you two get out of here, I want you to go to this address. You'll find some old friend's of yours there, and they'll assist you greatly in the coming battle, got it?" She handed him a piece of paper and the braided boy read it over.

"This place is in the middle of nowhere! How are people supposed to help me there?"

"Just trust me Duo," Setsuna replied. Duo sighed, but nodded.

~*^*^*~

Rei finally walked out of the complex that Professor Tomoe worked at. It was hard enough getting passed guards which were ordered by Professor Tomoe not to let anyone leave, no matter how much authority they had. Rei just had to knock some sense into them so they could let her pass . . . literally.

It was growing brighter out with the coming sun, which warmed and lighted the day up. That meant Rei would have some complications if she needed to hide out in the open. It was better when darkness enveloped you in its clutches so you could hide, unlike how the sun practically screamed to your enemy that you were there.

Rei continued walking when various motorcycles came gliding toward her. 'Great, now the Professor wants them after me, huh? Well to bad, I'm not going anywhere but to Wufei.' She thought with a frown, stopping in her tracks and preparing to severely punish those who stood in her way.

Suddenly, a motorbike stopped right in front of her and handed Rei and yellow band. "Put it on and hop in," The familiar voice quickly ordered.

"Yuuchiro?" Rei exclaimed as she complied to his orders and jumped onto the motorcycle. "What are you doing here? More importantly, how'd you know about this place?"

Under the helmet and his long hair, Yuuchiro grinned. "Hey, just because I used to work at the shrine with you doesn't mean I haven't known your secrets for a while. And what I'm doing here, well, I thought you could use the help."

Three motorcycles were behind them, but Yuuchiro sped up the bike, and soon they were gaining speed and leaving the pissed off guards behind. The former priestess smiled slightly. "Arigato, Yuuchiro, arigato."

"Ahh, don't mention it." He answered with a small blush.

And the two teens sped off once more, both unaware of how cruel fate was going to be in just mere moments . . .

*****End of Chapter*****

LunaDragon: *sniff* My friend died March 16, so I'm sorry if this took so long. The 22 of March was her funeral, and I did this the days after it, so sorry if it seems a little sad. Don't worry, Rei's with Wufei, not with Yuuchiro. I just need something to happen so the two hot heads will gain respect for each other.

As for the rest, you'll have to find out in the next chapter of Children of War. The ending is coming, and keep reading, because I promise you with all my heart, that it will be something you will not expect.