Disclaimer: Same as Chapter One!
Chapter Nine
"The Mission"
By Magic and the Little Fairy From Nam
Persian blue eyes scanned the screen underneath thick, dark brown eyebrows. The eyebrows came together as the eyes started to read the information on the page; the orbs of blue narrowed slightly as they finished reading. Soon the light that was reflected in them dimmed, and Heero Yuy closed his black laptop with a small click. His eyes scanned the room as he looked to make sure all four of the other pilots where present in Duo and Trowa's dormitory. After affirming that each of them was there, he slowly rose from the couch as he placed his computer to the side and straightened his thin form.
"We have a mission," he told the guys with a slight annoyed edge in his voice. He was surprised that this had happened, but after his surprise had faded, all he felt was a deep hatred for whoever had gotten that information he was given.
"What now? Are the toilets plugged in your bathroom again?" Duo remarked jokingly from where he sat reading the comics on his pile of clothing (a.k.a., his bed). For his comment he received the Heero death glare. He went back to attempting to read his comics without glancing at Heero again for he valued his life greatly.
"No." Heero wasn't in the mood for Duo's side remarks and joking. This was very serious if he had read the information right, and they needed to do something about it right away. "I thought after the war had ended that all the data on the zero system had been erased completely, but for some reason there is one base here that still uses the system for something."
"Big deal. We have the system as well. They can't even hope to touch us with that after we've all broken it," Duo quacked confidently from the side of the room, his blue eyes not even bothering to glance up from the book.
Heero let out an exasperated sigh. Duo was too much for him to handle today; where was his gun when he needed it. (Maybe he left it in his pantyhose from the ball night?) "It's not the regular zero system." He walked purposefully over to Duo's bed and ripped the book out of his hands. "They've mutated it," he growled as he gazed down at Duo, "changed it. Even I don't know what it does or what they use it for now, but I think we need to get our hands on it."
Duo had receded into the covers and dirty laundry of his bed as far as he could to get away from Heero; whatever he had found out about the thing had caused Heero to become very worried. Pilot 02 glanced up as his fellow man with slight curiosity. Was that maybe even some fear that Duo read in Heero's eyes?
He never got to find out as Heero turned around to look at the others. "Unfortunately, I can't seem to hack into the base's layout plans or anything. They're too heavily guarded. Whatever that system is, they're keeping it under very tight lock and key."
"Why don't we ask the girls?" Duo took his chances with another snide remark as he tried to lighten up the situation.
Heero's face contorted into a slight smirk. "That was exactly what I was thinking."
"What?!" Duo and Wufei almost fell off of what they were sitting on in their surprise. Wufei was still nursing the bruises that he had received from Hannah that morning; there was no way that he was going to take her on a mission, especially if it was something this important.
Trowa's eyebrow raised slightly above his eye as he looked out the window. "Why do you think they will know anything about it, Heero?" Quatre nodded in agreement to the question as he turned quizzingly towards the brunette.
"I logged into the visitor files of who stayed there recently. I'll give you two guesses who spends a lot of time there."
It wasn't like Heero to make them play guessing games as he briefed them for a mission. There was a short, stunned silence as the others wondered whether or not he actually wanted an answer, but Heero didn't seem like he was going to go on with the facts until they did.
Wufei glanced up from the seat he was sitting on in the kitchen of the dorm room. "Trinity Renada."
"Exactly. Her step-brother is stationed there. Her and her step-father would visit him from time to time. She's the only one out of us that has ever been in that base." Heero sat down next to his laptop on the couch once again and put his hands behind his head as he seemed to get lost in thought.
Duo's mind finally took in the information. "Her step-brother..." He leapt off of the bed and onto his feet. "You mean Nadir?!" His voice cracked slightly on the name as his eyes glided over to Heero for the answer.
Heero's thought was shattered and he looked over at the pilot in black. "Our mission has nothing to do with him at the moment. We're going to be lucky to get in and out with the data without going around shooting the leader of the base. You will not touch Nadir Renada on this mission, so don't even think about going off on your own to get your revenge."
Quatre's blonde head nodded in agreement. "It's not the right time, Duo. Please, understand. If you go off now, you'll be endangering the girls' lives as well, as I'm sure Hannah will be attending if we're going to be taking Trinity along."
"Plus, we're not even sure he's there at all these days. We haven't been able to trace his movements for half a year now," Trowa pointed out.
Wufei shifted his weight in his chair. "That's the whole reason we took in the brat isn't it? To find Nadir? We don't know if he's at the base or not. He's almost like a shadow."
Duo shoved his hands in his black pockets, completely disappointed at his friends' reactions and orders for him to behave. "Sure. I understand."
"Glad to hear that for once," Heero chided from the side as he replaced his hands behind the back of his head. He loved it when he got the last laugh in, though he would never let anyone know that.
***
His dark blue eyes scanned the immediate area as his tall frame entered the hallway. Several soldiers at the farther end saluted him and quickly got out of his way. He stuffed his hand in on of his pant pockets and walked on, his long blue jacket trailing behind him, yellow tassels dancing ever so slightly on his shoulders.
Perfect entrance, he quirked to himself as he watched some soldiers gaze at him keenly through the windows, their expressions a mix of awe and fear.
Nadir Renada ran his hand through his light blonde hair and tried to move his annoying bangs away from his eyes. The headache had finally subsided after he had gotten out of the spacecraft, but he still had an ever so slight feeling of uneasiness that washed over him.
"Sir!" Suddenly on of his lackeys jumped out from the doorway right to his left. Nadir felt himself jump at least three feet into the air as his shot nerves gave out. The soldiers arm went straight into a salute and awaited for Nadir to calm himself. "Sorry to interrupt you, sir, but you have an urgent call."
Nadir's right hand reached over and covered his chest as he made sure that he was still alive. He propped himself up against the wall with his other hand and just leaned against it for awhile, slowing his rapidly beating heart. "What. Are. You. Trying to DO?!" Nadir's blonde hair fell into his eyes once again. "Remind me to send an order out to have your testicles removed with a cheese grater!"
He realized that everyone in the hall was starring at him through opened doors and small windows on the sides of the walls. As he reached up purposefully and pushed back his hair from his face once again, he shoved his way passed the soldier and through the door, sending his coat with a flick of his hand behind him for one last whasp as he attempted to regain his poise he had just held moments before.
It would have worked if he hadn't of gotten it caught in the door during his 'dramatic' exit. All of the doors in the hall slammed shut as no one wanted their commander to hear them laughing at his expense.
***
"I can't believe we're actually going to do this," Duo grumbled as he and Wufei shuffled through the halls next to each other behind the other three. Hands stuffed into his pockets, Mr. Maxwell hadn't stopped whining from their dorm room to the girls'. The group stopped on the door in front of them.
Even the amiable Quatre was running out of patience with his braided friend. "Duo. There isn't any other way to get around the base in the short amount of time that we are given. Try to understand that taking Trinity isn't something that we WANT to do. It's more of a must. That said, could you at least attempt to get along with her for a day? Untwist your panties now."
Trowa needed something to keep him from laughing at Quatre's comment, so he amused himself with knocking on the girls' door in the rhythm of "The Phantom of the Opera". A shuffling could be heard from inside the living room adjacent to the doorway, and shortly the door swung open to reveille Hannah standing there clothed completely in pet me.
"There isn't a food in the world that could make me get back into those mobile suits so don't even attempt," she started closing the door in attempt to make them go away, when Wufei stuck his foot inside the door.
The blonde one took a glance at his foot then looked up to face Wufei. A sadistic smirk flew across her face, and Wufei barely had time to remove his foot from the door before Hannah swung it shapely closed in an attempt to remove his toes.
Wufei growled at the now shut door as the other pilots blinked in confusion, trying to register what had just gone on.
"Well...I guess this means that we can leave now, yes? I thought so." Duo spun on his heels and started walking down the hallway, only to be brought to an abrupt halt as the back of his head pulled sharply behind him. He slowly turned around to see Heero holding on to the other end of his braid. "You could attempt to think of a more original way of stopping me you know," the braided on chided his fellow pilot.
Heero's hand reached into his tank top and pulled out a gun quickly. It's black nozzle pointed straight at Duo's forehead right between his two eyes. "This original enough for you?"
"Nicely done," Duo remarked, a small bead of sweat dripping down the side of his face even though he was smiling like a clown.
"We don't have time for these games," Wufei growled at the two after he had made sure he still had ten toes. Quatre and Trowa nodded in their agreement just as the door opened once again.
Hannah again stood in the doorway; she seemed to be slightly concerned as to why they were still standing outside her and Trinity's dorm. "Are we all taking up a new profession as stalkers?" Her light blue eyes landed on the gun in Heero's hand that was still aimed at Duo's head and both of her eye brows raised. He finally drove someone off the deep end. Like I thought. It was only a matter of time.
Heero removed the gun and stuck it once again into it's hiding place. "We're in a hurry." He, followed closely by the others, pushed their way through the door, past Hannah, and into the living room. Trinity, who had been sitting on the couch wrapped in her blankets reading, glanced up from the paperback and starred at the visitors quizzingly. Her eyes darted over to Hannah who was still standing in the doorway. Her blonde friend shrugged showing she was just as out of the loop as Trinity was.
"What's going on?" Trinity inquired as she looked around the room at all of the grim faces.
Heero wasn't one to beat around the bush with things of importance. "Has either of you ever been to Diana base?" He made it sound like he directed it towards the both of the girls, but his eyes were almost boring holes into Trinity.
Hannah walked over towards Trinity; Trinity glanced over towards her friend Hannah. The blondes face radiated complete stupification, while her friends shown with a genuine curiosity. Trinity lay her book down onto the couch besides her and pretended to be straightening her blanket out over her lap. Why would they ask such a thing? Had they figured out who she was?
"Why in the world would we have any clue about this base?" Hannah didn't understand where the five boys were coming from with their question, or, for that matter, where they were going. "Did I blast you all too hard with the missiles yesterday?" She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned up against the door.
"Actually," Trinity said after a long moment of contemplating,"I do know my way around." She figured that if they had found out about her identity, she would have already been killed the moment the guys entered the room. Plus, she really didn't have anything to lose. "Why do you care?" Hannah's arms slowly uncrossed from where she was sitting as she regarded her friend oddly.
"Mission," Heero put in before Duo could give it away. He was still staring at Trinity and taking in all of her actions and reactions to the topic at hand. He wasn't sure he actually wanted to bring her along, but there wasn't any other way around it. It was the mission that he was going to have to worry about at the moment, not the girl's well being.
"What mission?" Trinity's eyes widened slightly. She knew that she was being overly paranoid, but what if they were going to the base in an attempt to see her brother. It wasn't going to be a pretty sight to say the least if Nadir found her or the guys figured out her identity.
"A little nosey aren't you? Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?" Duo quirked from the sidelines. He hadn't listened to Quatre and untwisted his panties before he had gotten into the room. It wasn't the fact that Trinity was going along that bothered him as much as the fact that his fellow pilots wouldn't let him at Nadir while they possibly had a chance to take him out.
Trinity's face went white at the mention of her mother but luckily for her, she could open her book in front of her face to hide her expression. "I think I have a right to know what's going on if it has to do with me."
"We need to retrieve something," Heero shot in before the two had a chance to get any farther into their arguments which could last for long spans of hours, only ending when both of the two lost their voices or was hit over the head with something very hard and blunt. He was sure that Hannah had just that very 'something' on hand at all times, but he had one nerve left and he didn't want it to snap. Nothing good ever came of that.
"What do you want to get back?" The brunette was so interested now that she was almost falling off the couch as she leaned forward with anticipation. Her book had been put aside the moment that she felt her heart rate return to normal; all of her senses were pointed at the guys and their information.
Heero's eyes became slightly cold and his expression took on that of a mother not wanting to argue with the child anymore. "End of discussion."
"We were hoping that you could accompany us," Quatre explained as patiently and kindly as he could possibly muster up under the circumstances. "Help us get in and out of the building faster and show us to an area that we can't find on our own. Simple as that."
Brown eyes widened as she shifted uncomfortably on the couch; she suddenly felt as if she was trapped into this mission. Had she known that she was going to actually have to accompany the guys to the base, she may have answered differently to whether she had ever been to the base or not. As of now though, there wasn't anything she could do to change what she had told them; if she backed out now she would be helping Nadir and whoever he was working for. That was one thing that she could not do."Sure," Trinity said.
Suddenly butterflies flew through her stomach at mach speed as her memory decided to remind her of a 'small' fact seconds too late: that was the base her brother was stationed at. Please don't let him be there...just for once...let him be away from the base! She pleaded to herself as she gazed forward, her eyes slightly glazed over.
"Aurora?" Hannah waved her hand in front of her friend's face several times before the brunette noticed her friend was there. Trinity's eyes focused and she snapped out of her daydream.
Heero had seen the reaction; he had weighted the costs of brining the girl with them. The mission had to be completed as soon as possible. He had been given no other choice, but something still gnawed at his being. "We leave now," he declared, his voice sounding a little more stressed than he had planned. They had to leave before he changed his mind.
"You are not leaving me here! All I need is my Silence Glaive and my change sock," Hannah announced defiantly as her blonde head whirled around to face the men who where starting towards the door. "You can't steal Aurora away without bringing me along."
Trowa found himself sighing before he knew what he was even doing; this had been the one thing that he had hoped to avoid. He didn't want Hannah to go along at all because it was a good chance that one if not both of the girls would get harmed. He had hoped, but even then he had known it wasn't going to do any good. "Are you sure? It's going to be real war out there? Have you ever seen a battlefield?"
"I don't care what's out there. I'm not gonna get stuck with Relena and Ex-Double Brow, unless you want them dead." Hannah had spoken; it had been decreed. She was going along. Her chin stuck out as she crossed her arms and dared anyone to tell her otherwise.
"Do as you will," Trowa replied without a smile as he turned towards the doorway.
***
"One star. Two star. Lottsa Star." Trinity held her head in her hands as she gazed out the shuttle window at space which seemed much like the screen of a blank television.
Hannah turned around and gave Trinity The Eyebrow. "Yes, dear. There are many stars out there. It being space and all." She reached out her hand to give Trinity two quick pats on her head before turning back around in her seat and staring straight forward and muttering, "Thank you, Captain Obvious. What the hell am I doing here? I don't even like space travel. You slipped something into my drink didn't you!"
Since the remark wasn't aimed at anyone in the ship, no one took much heed to the blonde's ranting, especially since it was her decision to go along in the first place. It wasn't long until the ship docked with the base, and everyone around them began standing up. They had decided to take a civilian visitor ship to the base, while Quatre stayed out in mid space, ready to pick them up if anything went wrong (which Heero was almost positive was going to happen; Trowa had told him the odds weren't in their favor earlier that day, and the banged pilot was rarely wrong in those matters).
"Is everyone ready to go through with this?" Quatre's voice sounded next to their eardrums through the little earpieces they had been given earlier.
Heero grumbled as he adjusted the earpiece (Quatre's female like voice was really shrill at times),"It's too late to turn back now."
"It's never too late to turn back!" The two girls declared as they slunk around the guys, towards the space craft in front of them; generally, their nerves had snapped on the long ride over without even a bagel to munch on.
"Weak women," Wufei muttered under his breath; he wasn't in the mood for a change sock in the forehead, though who is?
"Shut up now," Trinity shouted as Hannah yelled," Male chauvinist pig!" They both stopped in their tracks though and returned to the guys' sides, arms crossed and red faced.
Trowa's green eye glanced over at the two girls as he inquired,"Have your weapons?" He whispered under his breath as he stood directly behind the two and motioned ever so slightly with his bangs at the two backpacks filled with clothing.
A small smirk slide over Hannah's face as she nodded. "Whatever you gave me has got a kick. Ba-boom!" Her sound effects were slightly over done and the crowds around her turned slightly her way. "Ba-boom...went the little green frog one day....ba-boom...went the little green frog?" Trinity went along with her coverup and did the hand motions to the song.
Duo grabbed the back of the girls' shirts as they continued with their song and dance number (all were afraid of the approaching kick line) and pulled them out of the public eye. "There will be no causing a scene today. It's called being DISCRETE." (Says the God of Death...)
"Duo knows a big word! Like onomatopoeia, only Aurora can probably spell this one," Hannah remarked smartly as they were hurried down the hallways, farther and farther from the safety of the ship. The boring, lifeformlessness of the hallways droned on in its grey splendor; Trinity had somehow magically ended up at the head of the parade and was leading them towards the room Heero had told her about earlier. It wasn't too hard to find as she had been there many times in the past few years; all one had to do was keep track of the room numbers.
Trinity finally stopped the group in front of a very boring and normal door; one that no one would have found anything particularly interesting or out of the ordinary. She leaned forward and placed her hand on the button pad that lay before her and slowly typed in her ten number entrance code.
"There. It's done." The grey door swung to the side, and room filled with green and red flashing computer lights was revealed to them all. "Now what are we doing?" Trinity had only been blindly following orders the whole time and still didn't understand what they were doing there in the least.
***
Random soldier number thirty-six sat at his desk, sipping slowly on his mocha café when something not entirely random happened before his very eyes. Looking forward onto the screen, his first reaction was to sniff the café that he had been drinking and make sure it was tainted in some unusual way. Convinced that it was not the caffeine that was giving him the name upon the screen, he turned to his commander. "Ah, sir?"
"What is it this time, Fitzgerald?" Nadir inquired, his tone restless and just with a 'slight' hint of exasperation. He flung his paper clip at the young soldier's head as he spun around in his chair.
The soldier blinked very slowly as if he still wasn't sure if this was a dream or not. "You may want to come and take a gander at this. Someone just entered the specialized computer room with a clearance code that matches...well, you had just better look over at this."
Nadir reluctantly flung himself out of his cushy chair and sauntered over to the other side to glance down at the screen. "What is the big de-" His mind registered the name very slowly as his mouth formed the letters slowly, making no sound. After a few more seconds of staring, he straightened up and turned towards the door.
"What are you going to do about this, Sir?" Soldier Thirty-Six had just recently thrown his café over his shoulder.
Nadir didn't even glance over his shoulder to answer as the door slammed shut behind him. The soldier made a mental note to put in his resignation that very day and take up something less dangerous like mid-space construction.
***
"I'll do this," Wufei growled as he shoved past the brunette who stood in front of the doorway. "This isn't a job for the weak."
"Do you have a death wish?!" Hannah yelled into Wufei's face as she grabbed the back of his shirt and spun him around on his heels, mid step. Blue eyes bore into black ones as the two prepared for a stare down.
Heero flicked a disk at Wufei's head in his exasperation; it hit the Chinese pilot square between the eyes and left a wonderful corner imprint on his forehead. Wufei blinked and caught the disk in his hands, his eyes narrowing at his fellow pilot.
"We aren't supposed to make a scene, remember Wufei?" Heero called over his back as he strolled into the computer room and sat down at one of the keyboards, his fingers naturally beginning a session of keys.
Wufei fumed silently as he passed into the room, followed closely by the other two pilots that remained in the hall; the girls were the last to enter, Hannah at the tail because her temper was still on seek and destroy.
The black haired pilot sulked for a bit more, but managed to recover. "Trowa, take guard. Women, don't do anything. Duo, don't TOUCH ANYTHING!" He took a seat next to Heero and inserted the disk into its corresponding compartment.
"What about this button?" Duo asked as he pointed over towards the green button right in front of Heero.
"No."
"What about this one?" he questioned, pointing at the large blue button to the left of the first.
"No."
"Oh, come on, Wufei!" The braided pilot exclaimed; it wasn't even worth coming if there were no buttons to be pressed. It was bad enough having to bring Trinity along, but now there wasn't even anything shiny to press.
"NO." The rest of the manly crew joined in that time; they had thought that Trinity and Hannah had been acting without thought earlier. Now one of their own wanted to press random buttons. Where was it going to end?
"BUT THIS ONE'S JUST BEGGING TO BE PUSHED!!" Duo's braid flew around a bit as he shook his head with enthusiasm.
"NO!"
Around this time, Trowa, who had been slowly edging his way towards the braided one, punched Duo forcefully in the stomach. As Duo doubled over in pain, Trowa said simply," As Heero said 'once is once'. You annoy me, you get punched."
"Hey that rhymed!" Trinity declared overly excited by her new discovery and immediately got whacked on the back of her head by a change sock. Her combined shock with seeing Trowa punch Duo and her slight concussion made the room spin ever so slightly.
"I've got it," Wufei put in as he turned away from the computer screen in perfect sync with Heero who also got out of the chair and walked towards the middle of the room.
"Can we leave now?" Trinity was getting the jitters and a splitting headache from the change sock that had recently connected with her cranium.
Duo, who had recently pulled himself off the floor where Trowa had dropped him, turned towards Trinity as he slowly rubbed his stomach tenderly. "I'm ready to leave myself. Let's jet."
Wufei, disk in hand, was the first to stick his head out of the door; bullets flew past his head and landed in the wall slightly farther down.
"That can't be good," Duo exclaimed, his cobalt eyes widening at the sound of the bullets taking off more of the wall and parts of the door. Chunks of concrete flew into the room as it filled with dust and debris.
"Thank you again, Mister Obvious," Hannah said sarcastically as she picked a piece of plaster out of her hair.
Duo, not noticing the sarcasm over the droning sound of the guns, replied," You're welcome." The other pilots hung their heads slightly in shame.
All of a sudden, a small sphere shaped ball flew in though the doorway and landed in the middle of the room. Within moments, it was releasing tear gas onto the unsuspecting inhabitants; their eyes filled with salty tears as the gas became thicker and thicker until one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face.
"It just got worse," Duo put in, though his coughs, not sounding exactly thrilled at the recent developments.
"And Mister Obvious strikes again," Hannah mumbled, inaudibly through the haze to no one but herself.
"Ready yourselves," Heero ordered everyone as the smoke began to clear slightly. "Our best chance is to surprise them by running before the smoke clears completely so they can't see us as easily."
"On three," Trowa put in, calculating the right moment in his head. "One, two, -"
"Trois!" The two girls screamed in unison, hoping that they were pointed in the direction of the door and not running full throttle towards the wall. Six bodies burst through the gas and flung themselves into the hallway. Trowa had calculated correctly, as far as he was concerned, for none of them were critically hit at all, except there was something that he hadn't put into the equation: Hannah's hair. A bullet from one of the gunman flew through her hanging blonde hair, removing a slight bit of it which tumbled to the ground. The blonde was traumatized.
"Ne touchez pas les cheveux!!!" Hannah screamed insanely as she opened fire on the soldiers; they dropped like flies. Eventually everybody has to run out of bullets, though, and when Hannah did, there was one soldier left in the immediate hallway as the others lay in defeated, mangled heaps on the floor. Her mind went straight for the animal approach. She took care of him with a change sock to the head, and a Silence Glaive to the gut as he came flying in a last attempt to subdue the intruders. His bravery did nothing for him though, as the glaive easily pierced his skin. Deep red blood soon soaked through his uniform and dripped to the floor as Hannah ripped it out of his stomach; he crumbled to the floor, his face the whiter shade of pale.
"Who's the weak one now?" she mumbled, her eyes shifting towards Wufei who stood, his mouth hanging slightly open directly to her left. Her nerves had finally snapped, but everything that snaps, eventually turns to normal and her eyes cooled down slightly and the normal color returned to her face. Her light blue eyes focused once again, and this time on the crumpled man on the floor in front of her.
"I killed someone." Hannah whispered softly, her eyes widening at the site of the blood that flowed freely across the tile floor and towards the walls, trickling towards her shoes ever so slowly.
The tiny rivers of blood began melting into each other as Hannah's world titled on edge and was flung upside down. Her blood rushed to her head, and the world soon went black at the last reserve of nerves snapped completely, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Hannah Date fell towards her left, only just missing the floor as Wufei caught her by elbow just before she crashed head long into the tile. He slung her over the shoulder opposite of the hand in which he held the disk and sprinted over towards the others.
They all ran down the hall following Trinity towards what they hoped was the area where Quatre had docked their get away ship. More guards could be heard behind them and opened fire as they reached a fork in the hallway. Heero and Trowa, who were leading the pack, sprinted towards the right at Trinity's directions. It was just luck (Trowa's calculations had been completely thrown off by Hannah's slight "hissy fit")that a stray bullet hit Wufei's hand and knocked the disk out of his hands and into the left passage.
Trinity dived for the disk and was followed by Duo down the left passage. The path behind them was a cloud of bullets so Trinity exclaimed, "Let's go down this way!" And the two took off in the opposite direction rather than chance the bullets that were erupting behind them.
Wufei was slightly stunned by the gun wound and slowed his speed just enough for the soldiers to catch up with him. Their guns trained on him, he lifted his one free hand in the air, resisting the urge to drop Hannah right on her head.
"Give me the girl," A young man's voice ordered from outside of the circle. Wufei changed his weight to see that it was actually Nadir Renada standing before him.
His face grew into a scowl as he glared the object of his malice. "Come and get her." Wufei shifted his feet so he stood in a fighting stance.
Nadir glanced around at the soldiers around him and plainly said," Okay." He walked forward purposefully, plucked the limp Hannah, and flicked Wufei between his eyes right on the mark that had been left by the disk before. The blonde soldier the swiftly exited the circle and wasped down the hallway. "Someone remove his earpiece so he can't warn the others." (The Fairy wanted him to say "Someone remove his pants...etc.", but upon further thought, we decided to go with earpiece.)
***
"QUATRE?!" Duo shouted hysterically into his earphone at his fellow pilot as he and Trinity raced down the hall to who knows where in the base. Where ever it was, it was as far away from the soldiers as they could possibly get.
WHAT?" The blonde one yelled back, equally as loud into everyone's ears. He was having a hard enough time trying to direct Heero and Trowa out of the base without Trinity to guide them and the problem that he was having communicating with Wufei was causing him much strife.
"We need help! How the heck are we going to get out of here? Is there another exit?" Duo shrieked back as they turned another random corner to avoid another group of marching soldiers that were heading their way, guns in hand.
"Well, yes. We could pick you guys up in space. You need to get suits and go out one of the shuttle doors." Quatre informed them, coping very well with the situation at hand as his voice was now less strained.
"Okay! I know where to go from here!" Trinity yelled as she recognized the general area and pulled Duo down the hall. The next door on the left she knew wouldn't take them anywhere but the men's bathroom, but the one on the right was the correct way to go from where they were at. Her fingers punched in the code to open the door and the metallic barrier slide open quickly as they slipped in.
Duo started opening the random lockers that surrounded the room and tossed Trinity one of the suits and a helmet. He flung the tight, navy space suit on over his black outfit, the sides of his puffy pants showing in lumps down the sides. "These things smell to high heaven!"
"Shut up and put the suit on! It's not going to take them very long to figure out where we went," Trinity ordered in a very motherly tone as she flung her suit right after flinging off her backpack. She ran over to Duo's side and dragged him by his braid over towards the docking door that lead out into space.
"If I just had my god damn Gundam, we could get out of this thing so much easier!" Duo swore as he glanced into space quickly before attempting to find the panel to open up the door.
Trinity blinked, her black eyelashes closing and opening ever so slowly over her brown eyes as she took in what he had just said. Something clicked in her head as the information became real to her. "Gundam?" She slowly turned to face Duo. He suddenly seemed very distant from her.
It was Duo's turn to blink as he slowly turned towards her. "I mean..."
"You're the pilot with the funny band-aid on your nose band-aid on your nose that got captured at Barge aren't you?!" His face had seemed slightly familiar to her before, but now she understood why. He was one of the five Gundam pilots that the recent one year war had centered around; she had been completely clueless.
"What's so funny about the band-aid? My nose was broken!" It was the completely wrong time to get defensive on the subject so naturally Duo did just that. He rubbed his nose with the memory of the time he had spent before and at Barge. "And so you've never lied about anything big in your life!"
Trinity responded to his comment with a completely blank stare.
Just then, a big group of soldiers waltzed in through the door. They decided it would be a good idea to shoot at Duo and Trinity. (Where would they get that great idea?) Not liking it very much, the two hid behind the row of lockers which offered very little protection as they weren't a full human height. Fearing that wouldn't work for long, Duo stood up above and started shooting at as many people he could hit.
Trinity was still too frozen with fear to do anything. They are right there and I am right here. This is so not cool. Regaining composure, though still scared stiff, she got up and started wasting bullets against the inevitable. (Well, there's an unexpected twist, bummer).
Just then a well-aimed bullet smashed through Duo's helmet, throwing glass everywhere. The fragments flew all over the floor, and the Gundam pilot dropped the now useless helmet onto the ground were it rolled to a stop near Trinity's feet. For just a second, she glanced down and looked into the jagged opening.
"Cease fire!!" The voice of Nadir Renada caused Trinity's head to shift up to gaze over the lockers at her step-brother who now stood like a wall in front of the door. The fire stopped immediately and Nadir walked in with Hannah slung over his shoulder.
"I don't feel loved here!" Hannah yelled from Nadir's shoulder. She was now very conscious and ready to kick some random ass of the man that was carrying her around the base. Being confused was one thing, but being confused and carried around on the shoulder of another stranger was completely different. Though, she was glad she didn't have to walk anywhere; she had the worst headache and couldn't really remember much of what was going on.
Nadir growled as he glared at the blond on his shoulder; she had been kicking him all the way here once she had woken up. "Shut up right now! Do you even know who you are talking to?!"
"Let her go, Nadir," Trinity's voice rang from the other side of the lockers where she was hiding, her full body crouched down so that he couldn't see any part of her. Her voice sounded much more brave than she felt at the moment. Her heart felt as if it was going to jump from her chest.
A sort of cold snicker flooded into the room as Nadir's free arm reached for his gun. "The mouse doesn't tell the cat what to do with it after it's caught."
"Okay.."Trinity blinked. Her whole body as shaking uncontrollably from where she sat on the concrete floor; her eyes scanned the area for any means of escape and landed on the form beside her. Duo, no, the Gundam pilot's eyes gleamed with anger as he balled his fists over and over again as if trying to fight back an struggle with himself.
He's not smiling, Trinity mused; time around had seemed to stop. He had been smiling before, even when the soldiers were shooting at us, what's different now? A bullet blasted through the metal lockers right between the two, bringing Trinity out of her dream world. Her eyes slowly blinked as Duo's head whipped around to look at her, cobalt looking in with brown. They were still filled with rage.
Why is he looking at me like that? Trinity's blood ran cold as she returned his stare, aghast about what was going on. She watched silently as his eyes lowered, and he fumbled around with his gun, trying to put in a new cartage of bullets before they began shooting again.
"You need to live," her thoughts had been verbalized accidentally as she whispered under her breath. "The Gundam pilots will take care of Nadir and this war. It's not my place." Duo's eyes snapped up from his weapon as she spoke, but their eyes didn't meet as Trinity was sweeping the floor with her eyes as she searched for the unbroken helmet.
It was down by her right foot.
As if in slow motion, Duo watched the brunette lean down and pluck the helmet from the floor where it lay amongst the broken glass of the other. He knew that she had to of moved very fast as there wasn't any time to even think about stopping her, let alone stop her completely, and suddenly the helmet was locked securely around his head and the gun was grabbed from his hand.
"Give Nadir a beating for me, Duo." Trinity shoved him by his shoulders towards the large space doors that stood directly to their right; her hand raised the gun up as she shot out from behind the lockers and took aim at the panel on the opposite wall that opened the doors. Her shot rang true and the panel light switched from red to green as the doors flew open, and space's vacuum pulled the occupants towards the door. Duo and Trinity were both lifted off of the ground and went tumbling through the air, Duo only yards before Trinity.
Nadir wasn't going to let his prey get off that easy though, and he too shot at the panel seconds after he realized what Trinity was attempting to accomplish. The other body that had been in the room barely made it out into space before the doors clamped shut with a large crash; Trinity ran straight into them and fell dully to the floor, shocked and confused at what had just happened. She had planned on dying in the oxygen less regions of space, but the pain in her body from landing on the floor told her that she was very much alive.
" I finally have you." The blonde psychopath leaned over his step-sister who lay crumpled on the floor, gazing up at him with horror and hatred. "Welcome home."
Hannah's blonde form that lay draped over Nadir's back started thrashing and kicking in a vain attempt to free herself form his grasp. "If you do anything to her, I'll do something...really, really bad! If I just had my change sock than none of this would have happened! I don't even know how I ended up like this in the first place!! Not feelin' the love!!"
Trinity smiled weakly at Hannah's complaining voice and stiffly straightened up to look Nadir in the eye. "You really don't look very good in that blue. You really should ask for a change of uniform, don't you agree, Hannah?" She let her fist fly right into his face without a thought about it.
The punch crashed into his jaw, but only threw his face slightly to the side before he returned the blow ten fold back in Trinity's face; the brunette's limp body flew onto the concrete floor and skid to a halt as she crashed into the side of some lockers.
One of her brown eyes opened to look towards Nadir through the haze as she ridiculed,"That was absolutely NOTHING compared to Hannah's change sock, sir. It's called push-ups. Try 'em sometime." Her world slowly folded into blackness.
***