Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing
_I know it has been a long time, but part of the reason was the ffn delays. I'm sorry about the wait anyway and even if this is not everything I wanted this chapter to be the next will be better.
Memory Lapse
Chapter 6 'Mission Accepted'
~~~~~~~~~ Heero
I didn't know what was happening as the rumbling stopped and I was left unchanged from how I had been moments before. What had I done? I slowly opened the eyes that I had shamelessly closed when I pressed the button. Nothing looked different. I swallowed and opened the cockpit again to look out. It was harder than I thought it should be for me to reach a position in which I could look out the doorway and to my right. When I finally could look out I saw the Gundam's arm extended and the large…I knew what that was. I stared at it the words on the tip of my tongue as I looked at it tried to remember what it was.
"Buster Rifle." I said in a whispered rush as I looked at it. "I used it to blow up Libra…to…" It was gone. I was slightly relieved the memory had come quietly instead of the flashes that had left me almost unable to move before. This time I had seen my Gundam, yes it was my Gundam and I watched as I set it on the falling ship and pulled the trigger. Then it was over.
As I settled back into the seat I realized I would never be able to remember enough about the Gundam to use it. I had to save Relena some other way and I had to do it without the help of the others. I paused as I thought of them. They were so familiar, but so distant at the same time. That didn't make any sense but I didn't know how else to describe it. I climbed out of the Gundam and hopped onto the ground. My legs shook when I landed, but I remained on my feet. I didn't have much time and I had to think of a plan, something that would get Relena back before it was too late.
I gave the Gundam one last fleeting look before I stumbled back into the woods my mind working at a million miles a minute. My mind knew what this was. It was a mission and somehow that word meant everything to me. This was a mission and I wouldn't fail. "Mission accepted." I mumbled under my breath almost unsure of why I said it.
``~~~~~~~~~ Relena
Something cold was running down my face and across my nose tickling it and making me twitch. I felt the moisture flow across my lips and I tentatively reached my tongue out to taste it. It was water, sweet life giving water. I licked my lips greedily as I tried to get more of it to sooth my burning and dry throat. I was so thirsty. I turned to where it was dripping and opened one eye. I could see the drop was it fell for my face, but I didn't know where it was coming from. I tired to open the other eye but it refused to obey. My vision was clearing though and all at once I say where the water was coming from. A man was hovering over me his mouth opened in an obscene smile as he squeezed a wet cloth over my face.
"Thirsty Princess?" He asked mockingly and squeezed the rag a little more.
The water splashed across my face the over my right eye. I winced when I felt the cold liquid hit it. Scrambling to a sitting position I reached I reached my hand up tracing the pattern of my skin until I reached my eye. I didn't have to see it to know it was bad. I was puffy and I could feel the heat radiating from it. When I pulled my hand away my fingers were stained with a deep rich crimson.
"Are you ready to corporate?" He asked snidely and tossed the rag at me.
I reached down to pull the damp rag off my stomach and moved it to my face. I squeezed it and let the water trickle across it and down my face. I shuddered as he watched me. I knew what they wanted to know. They wanted me to tell them where Heero was at and they wanted to know everything about the Preventers and their plans. I wouldn't tell them. As I watched the soldier in front of me I knew what they would do to me and I shuddered. I wouldn't break. I swallowed and pulled the rag from my face. Chunks of dried blood clung to the textured surface. Maybe I was stronger than I thought.
"I know you heard me you bitch."
I lifted my head up to just as his foot buried itself in my stomach. I felt all the air rush from my body as it exploded in pain. My fingers dropped the rag and I gripped the grass trying to catch my breath. It wasn't coming though and I could hear him laughing over my head. He found so much pleasure in hurting me. I was seeing only white for a while and then I caught one. I could breath.
"Now you'd better answer me when I talk to you." He scolded in almost a fatherly tone of voice.
I cringed at him and nodded my head the pain in my stomach fading to a faint ache every time I breathed. "What do you want with me you asshole." I asked openly and prepared myself for another hit, but known came.
"You know what we want. And we know that you are the only one that can give us the answers." He kneeled in front of me his face only a few feet away from mine. My first thought was to spit in smug little face, but I suppressed it.
"I don't know anything that will help you." I told him.
"I don't be so modest Relena. You know far more than we do and all we want is the location of the Gundam Pilots and the Preventer's plans regarding us."
I swallowed. "Are you supposed to be my interrogator because you suck at it." I didn't know where my courage was coming from, but perhaps I believed that he couldn't kill me at least not when he still needed me.
"I'd watch it." He warned. "I know enough about you to get what I want. Despite your earlier observations I am very good at what I do."
For the first time I took in my surroundings. I was still in the woods, but the strange thing was that we were alone. It was just me and this man. The guard from earlier was gone. Gone after Heero. I swallowed hard as I thought of him tears building in the back of my throat and begging to break free. I wanted him to be all right so badly. With his memory gone there was no way he would be able to out run them.
"Princess it appears as if you are a little upset."
The sincere edge to his voice made me want to throw up.
"Do you want to tell me all about it."
That was enough I couldn't resist it anymore and I gathered all the spit I could find and turned back to look at him. I smiled defiantly and before he could move I spit directly in his eye. His reaction was immediate though not what I had expected. He reached his and up and wiped it calmly from his face.
"So you think that was funny." He asked rising to his feet and back away from me. "I just want to warn you. You can do anything you want to me, but all of it will be returned ten fold." He smiled and hovered over me. "And that pissed me off."
Maybe I had over stepped my bounds a little. I pressed myself against the tree just behind me and waited for the blow that was sure to come. This time I was right. I felt the stinging slap across my already injured eye and suppressed the scream that had risen in my still parched throat. The next blow knocked all the air from my body as he slapped in the ribs with his booted foot. I guessed it was a good thing because I couldn't scream and he didn't get the pleasure of hearing me cry out as his next blow flung me into the tree the back of my head smashing against the bark.
My brain was swimming and spinning in confusion as I watched him. He was finished the tight anger line gone from his face and his eyes had returned from the fiery blaze they had just been consumed in. "Now I hope to have a better prisoner of you."
I watched him my contempt growing with each passing second but I stayed still clutching my chest and trying to make the burning with each breath leave me. I told myself I was merely keeping myself alive that he hadn't broken me, but deep down part of me wanted him to ask me another question. That part wanted for me to give them everything I knew and I was working desperately to keep it in check. I hoped the words would never come.
"So are you ready to tell me what you know?" He asked again.
My mind sank with the words. I didn't want him to hit me anymore. I didn't want to feel the pain, but the other part was still stronger and I ignored him letting my face fall to the leaf cover ground. I breathed in deeply feeling and way my chest burning with each agonizing breath and closed my eyes. My head was still swimming and I hoped he would believe that I had merely passed out. In the few seconds that followed I might have passed out instead of just fallen asleep because there was nothing to comfort me. No dreams just an empty blackness and I had no knowledge of the passing time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~` Heero
I only had a few hours to pull this off. I had to find her and somehow I knew that she was still in the woods. Desperately I searched my mind for the location she would most likely be in. I needed to remember where we had come from. I needed to remember how to get back there. My plan wouldn't work if I didn't know which way to go. I walking idly now trying to remember something anything that would lead me to her. Maybe a trail, anything.
I was walking almost silently my feet never hitting anything that made a noise my steps were quick but seemed perfectly planned. I was silent as I moved through the woods so silent that I heard them coming before they saw me. It was a faint cracking that alerted me. Without even thinking I jumped up my hands wrapping around a branch and I vaulted myself into a tree using a flip and landed on my toes hunched over like a tiger about to pounce it's prey. I didn't know where the instinct had come from but I was only thankful it had come because the squad of mean burst almost noiselessly through the brush in front of me and I had the advantage of seeing everything they did not want me to.
"Argh!" The man in front grunted angrily and turned around the group of men he was commanding. "We need to spread out. Yuy is not going to escape us. Not this time!"
"Captain Martin." One of his team spoke up tentatively. "Perhaps if we search for the Gundam, Sir."
The Captain seemed enraged by the words. "Don't you think that's what I've been looking for you fool." The Captain snarled and turned toward two of his officers. "Each of you take three men. I'll keep Matthews and Evens with me." He pointed in opposite directions and sent everyone off including the one who had dared to question him. When all of them were gone he turned to his men. "I want you two head back for the base. I left Anderson alone with the Princess and I have a feeling that wasn't such a good idea." He paused. "Just make sure he hasn't killed her."
"Sir, but what about Yuy, Sir?" The man asked his eyes darting from side to side. "It's not a smart thing to face him alone."
"Don't worry about it." The Captain said steadily and waved them off. "Now go." Both of them disappeared quickly and Heero made a mental note of where they had gone and remembered to follow that path later, but first he had a feeling he needed to take care of this man first, but he had no clue how to do it.
I watched him a moment longer as he paced the forest floor still keeping as quiet as possible. Then as if by magic his head jerked upward and landed squarely on me. His eyes bore into mine. I felt a shiver run down my spine with the stare and for a moment I almost backed further into the tree, but something told me that it was useless. What was he going to do? I didn't know how to fight. There was no way I could win.
"I knew you were up there Yuy. Perhaps you are failing bit in your age. I saw you when you first vaulted up there. You didn't conceal yourself very well, but perhaps you wanted to be caught." The captain pulled his gun from his holster and aimed it at me. "Don't try to dodge. I guarantee you I don't miss."
For a second I stared at most surely was my own death. I couldn't think of a way to escape and then I remembered Relena almost like a light at the end of the tunnel and I moved. I didn't think human beings could move that fast but before I knew it I was on the ground standing in front of him my arms flying upward and punching the man in the face. My limbs seemed to move on their own accord as I watched in amazement and slight horror at what they could do. I grabbed his arms twisting it until the gun dropped from his fingers and I grabbed the wrist pulling the arm around and I slammed my upturned palm into his elbow breaking it with a dull crack.
The man screamed but somehow I knew his men were too far away to hear or even if they had this would all be over before they returned. My hand scooped up the gun that I had just pulled from my victim's hands and I stood with the barrel aimed between the enemy's eyes. I was going to shoot him. I was going to kill him. Sweat started to run down my forehead and across my lips. I didn't want to kill him. My mind was screaming at me, but I couldn't make my fingers let go of the trigger and when he moved I clicked the safety off and he froze. I looked at him. I saw the horror in his eyes as he waited for his death. I was going to take his life. I was going to kill again.
This flash was different. It didn't knock me off my feet, but it almost made me scream. I saw their faces flash threw my mind and I knew that they were my victims. I was stained with the blood of evil and the innocent. I swallowed and my hand began to shake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` Cinq Kingdom
"Well this is an interesting situation." Duo mused as he powered up his Gundam and shut the cockpit sealing himself inside the Death scythe. "Who would have thought the 'perfect soldier' could loose his memory."
"We don't know what happened Duo, but we do know we don't have much time." Quatre put in over the mike.
"So I've been told." Duo responded sourly, "and no memory or not I know Heero's not going to wait around for us to arrive. Did you see that look in his eyes? He is planning something. Even if he doesn't have it all figured out. He's not going to wait for us."
Quatre sighed and Duo shook his head as he followed his friend out of the base. "We should have stopped him when he left for Relena in the first place. We should have at least gotten a bead on where he was going."
"Wishful thinking." Duo mused. "Heero doesn't work like that. I suppose we're lucky he lost his memory or otherwise he never would have called us."
"He felt guilty." Quatre explained. "When we learned the this 'New Oz' was rising not necessarily planning to take the same path as the former but steal their name he thinks he should have know they would go after Relena."
"Yeah well there's not much they can get out of her. She doesn't know anything." Duo commented as he checked his screen.
"She's knows where we are." Quatre added. "She knows that Wufie and Trowa are on an undercover mission. She knows more than enough to please them."
Duo swallowed. "I just hope she's all right, and that Heero doesn't do anything crazy."
"Well be there within the hour let's just hope they can hold up until then."
~~~~~~~~~~~~` Heero
The bloodied images were too much and the gun slipped from my fingers falling to the soft ground with a dull thud. I couldn't do it knowing that I had killed so many before him. I could almost see the blood staining my hands. I wanted to wash them over and over again, but somehow I knew they would never be clean. I was dammed and there was no way I would be able to make up for it. In stead of shooting him I rushed forward my hand wrapping around his mouth and I ripped part of his uniform off and gagged him. That done I cuffed his hands with the cuffs sticking out of this pocket and tied him to a nearby tree with a length of rope he carried. He would get out. I knew that much, but I couldn't let my self shoot him. I didn't want to be a monster.
Giving him one last look. I plunged into the forest following the trail the clumsy soldiers had left for me. All the exhaustion was wiped from my body as I ran. I just knew that I had to save Relena and something was inching its way into my memory less mind. I didn't know if it was my memory or not, but I didn't have time to think about it. I just ran. Hoping that somehow I would reach her before it was too late.
~~~~~~~~~~`
I know that didn't really have enough of anything in it but the next is supposed to be better and hopefully now I am back on track with my writing. Thanks for the patience
