Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing

_I got this out pretty quick I think considering how long it took me to get the last chapter out.

Memory Lapse

Chapter 8 'Rescue'

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Duo and Quatre ducked lower in the foliage and as voices reached them from the now pitch black forest. Duo turned off his flashlight and focused on the noise as he tightened his grip on his gun and prepared to attack if necessary. There was a half moon and just enough light to make a single man stumbling through the bushes. He was clutching his arm to his chest and mumbling incoherently. It was obvious even in the darkness that it was broken.

"Martin." Quatre whispered beside him and inched forward silently and looked at him closer. "That's Claven Martin. We've been trying to find him since this uprising started the base must be somewhere in these woods."

Duo looked closer and frowned. "Well it looks like he feel down a mountain or maybe ran into a tree. He's stumbling and probably near delirium from blood loss."

"Let's get him." Quatre said evenly. "If we can get him back to base we can question him later and then maybe this war will be over."

Duo nodded. "Right. I don't think this will be too hard. He's basically out of it anyway." Just as he spoke Martin stumbled forward and almost lost his balance but caught it when his good hand grabbed a tree. He breathed heavily for a moment and then slumped forward his weight making his knees sink until he was flopped out on the forest floor breathing shallowly.

"Well that was too easy." Duo mumbled as he put his gun in the waistband of his pants and stepped out of the trees and kneeled by the unconscious man. Examining the arm without lifting it Duo nodded his head. "Broken. It two places possibly. It was a pretty clean break thought looks like someone his him in the…"

"Yuy." The man mumbled and shook his head as his good hand struck the ground. "Must…can't…" He trailed off and shook as a fever chill ran through his body.

"Seems like Heero has regained some of his memory." Duo denounced as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small medkit. "Don't you think so." Duo asked as he glanced over his shoulder at Quatre.

"I don't know." Quatre said slowly. "I…just I don't know if this means anything."

"He broke the man's arm in half." Duo said pointedly.

"You and I both know that Heero's survival instincts are strong. Sometimes he can't even control them. I don't know if losing his memory would kill them completely." Quatre crouched next to Duo and pulled a syringe out of the medkit and injected it into Martin's neck. "This ought to keep him sated until we get Heero and Relena."

Duo nodded. "I was going to do that." With that said he grabbed hold of the man's arms and pulled him into the bushes. "He ought to be quiet and when we find them we can head back for him."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Relena

I was walking but I didn't know how I was making one foot come in front of the other. I so tired. My head ached where I had been struck repeatedly and I wanted to sleep. A sharp pain shot through every limb of my body with each breath I took. I couldn't remember everything the man had done to me, but I saw his blank face looking up at me in my mind. I could still see the trail of blood that ran down his shoulder. I'd never been that close to someone when they'd died. He'd actually clutched my shoulders before he fell to the ground completely lifeless. The thought of him made me shiver.

"Just a little further." He said evenly for about the third time in an hour. "Just a little further."

That's all he said to me and I had a feeling it was more reflex than anything else. Perhaps he was merely trying to drive himself along. I could still feel the blood running from his bullet wound all over my fingers. It was warm and sticky and I knew that he wouldn't last much longer if he didn't let me bandage it.

"Let's stop." I said shakily and turned to look at his face shadowed in the moonlight. His face was so pale even in the darkness and his eyes so haunting. He seemed to slump against me for a moment as if he wanted to very badly but he didn't stop walking. "

"We don't have time." He argued. "We have to get back before someone comes looking for us." He yanked me forward but with not much zeal and I planted my feet refusing to move.

"Will you stop it." I almost screamed but kept my voice low knowing any noise could alert someone to our presence. "I'm not going another step until you stop and let me help you." I noticed the way his eyes flickered for a moment and he stopped.

"It seems as if you're always saving me." Heero announced slowly and with some confusion.

I almost laughed but he seemed so serious I didn't. "I wish you could remember Heero. You saved me a thousand times." I sighed and we lowered ourselves to the ground together. I didn't know if I could stand up without his support and I think he felt the same way.

"We'll only rest for a minute." He announced slowly as he lowered himself into the leaves and leaned his back on the tree just behind us. He let out a tortured wince and closed his eyes.

I looked up at the sky listening to our shallow breathing and wondered if we would make it out of this alive. Everything seemed hopeless. I looked at his arm closely and took a deep breath as my head swam with the movement. "I'm going to rip your sleeve alright and wrap your arm with it."

"Why do you care." He asked as I reached my hand out and started tearing his shirt at his bicep so not to jar his shoulder.

I look up as he turned his head toward me. His face was glistened with sweat and he swallowed hard his deep blue eyes looking at me intensely. "I don't…" I started.

"Why do you care when I have done nothing but threaten you since I've known you? Why do you care when I've killed countless people? You should be afraid of me." He hung his head and turned from my eyes as if he were ashamed to look at me.

"What do you remember?" I asked suddenly. "What made you believe that?"

"I see it in flashes." He confided shakily. "I see me pointing guns at you. I see the people I've killed. I know what I am."

"And what's that?" I asked my voice shaking as I ripped his shirt and moved my hand up to roll his sleeve back. He winced as I began prying the fabric from the blood soaked bullet hole. I could hardly see him flinch but he closed his eyes and tensed under my fingers. When I had it pulled back I began wrapping the strip tightly around the wound making a hiss escape his lips. "What do you think you are?" I asked slowly.

"I think…" he trailed off his eyes leaving the ground and staring off into the distance. "I think…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```` Heero

I didn't want to answer her. I didn't want her to say that it was true that she believed it too. "I think," I said for the third time unable to get the words out of my mouth. I let my eyes gaze into the forest and I fell silent even though I could still hear her beside me silently waiting for an answer.

"Heero?" She whispered.

I was about to turn back to her when I saw something move in the foliage. I would have gotten to my feet, but my legs didn't seem to be working. It was almost as if the blood flow had been temporally shut off.

"Heero?" She asked again a slight edge to her voice. "What?"

"Shh." I said shakily as I tried to push the both of us further into the darkness. "Someone's coming. I can hear them." I paused and grabbed hold of her arm with my good hand and pulled her to my other side. Forcing my legs to move I slinked further into the shadows pulling her with me. I could feel her body shaking her my grasp. She was scared. I knew her pulse was racing. This time I was sure I wouldn't be able to protect her. I could hardly move and the instinct that had led me all night was gone, lost somewhere in my exhaustion. I knew she was in worse shape. Her body was beaten and bloody. Bruises blanketed her once flawless skin and I couldn't help but feel it was my fault.

"I don't want to go back." She whispered against my ear as she pulled close to me wrapping her arms around me in fear. "I just want this to be over."

It felt so good to have her so close to me her fingers around me her skin against mine. For a moment I forget what I was and pulled her closer with my good hand. We both watched fear sweeping over us as the foliage opened and two figures appeared from the bushes. The both of them looked vaguely familiar. "Duo?" I asked as a name met the face in my mind and I narrowed my eyes to look closer. It was them the ones I had contacted.

"Duo?" I said louder and pulled Relena with me as moved away from the shrouding darkness and into the light.

The both of them turned toward me their faces flashing in horror. I must have looked really bad. I didn't know who they were, but for some reason I trusted them. "I've got Relena." I announced slowly as I pulled her out of the darkness and into the moonlight to stand beside me. We stood there for a few precious moments relief running through the both of us until our adrenaline disappeared our knees gave out from under us and we started falling toward the ground. Before we could hit I felt someone grabbing onto me. His fingers were digging into my shoulder unknowingly and I let out a sharp cry as a white hot pain slid through my body. Immediately he let go and I fell the rest of the way to the ground.

"Whoa buddy what's wrong?" Duo asked as he released me.

"My shoulder." I mumbled slowly. "Shot."

"I'm sorry man." He apologized as he lifted me up again this time avoiding my injured arm. "I didn't know."

"It's all right." I said and I felt the way he tensed at my words.

"So you remember who you are?" He asked as we moved forward slowly but more steadily and at a faster pace then Relena and I could go.

I looked up glancing at Relena who was almost being carried by the blond man who I had talked to earlier. His name was on the tip of my tongue, Q-Qua-Quatre. I almost smiled as I remembered it but couldn't tear my eyes away from Relena and way she was walking. She was so hurt and exhausted and I hadn't been able to stop it from happening.

"Don't worry she'll be okay." Duo said.

I glanced at him slowly and then back at her. "What's with her and me." I mumbled. I wanted to know so badly and even with my weary body didn't care for speech at the moment my heart and mind did. I wanted to know.

"I take as you don't remember anything." He said a slight smirk crossing his lips. "I thought you said you loved her."

I shook my head as I tried to remember saying that, but everything was fuzzy. Finally I caught hold of the memory and nodded. "Yeah, I did but that was before I remembered what I did to her. How could she ever love me back?"

"You have the same problem no matter what."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"Heero you've always had the same problem when it came to her. I think she loves you with everything in her, but you, you can't seem to see that. At least I had never heard you come close to that until this afternoon."

"But I don't deserve her." I said solemnly as I watched her stumble forward a small cry escaping he lips. "What did I ever do for her but threaten her life."

"Heero are you crazy you saved her a thousand times. You've protected her with everything you are!" Duo almost screamed in his annoyance. "You Heero have done nothing but save her."

"And kill."

"What?"

"And kill," I said again, "I saw them in flashes. I saw the people I'd killed I saw all of it. Do you know what I did back there? I shot them without a thought. How can someone with so much blood staining his hands love someone else without killing her in the end." With that I fell into silence and he didn't say anything else.

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Quatre couldn't believe how awful the both of them looked. Relena was most visibly beaten her face swollen and her eye shut and covered in dried and clotted blood that had run down her cheek. There was a large bruise across her right cheek and her arms were scratched and bleeding. He knew from her heavy step that she was completely exhausted. Heero didn't look much better though. He'd lost a significant amount of blood and the blow to his head had obviously given him a concussion and there was no telling how long his amnesia would last. To make it short the two were lucky to be alive.

Relena hadn't said a word the whole time her eyes focused on the ground as she tired her best to put one foot in front of the other. Her breathing was short and shallow and her skin cold and clammy.

"How much further?" She whispered her voice startling him.

"Not much." Quatre said. "We're going to send you and Heero back on Wing Zero and Duo and I are going after the base."

"Its back there." Relena said gasping and pointing over her shoulder. "They took me there, before, before Heero save me." Her voice trailed off as she finished her sentence and she glance tentatively over her shoulder. "Is he going to be all right?"

Quatre sighed. She always was more concerned for others than herself. "He'll be fine. He just lost a lot of blood. Once he gets back the both of you will be okay." He assured.

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They hadn't been walking long when they reached the clearing where Martin was stashed. "Duo how's he doing?" Quatre whispered quietly over his shoulder.

"Not good. He keeps loosing consciousness." Duo called back as he shook Heero's shoulder trying to rouse him.

"Can you carry the both of them?" Quatre asked, "While I drag Martin along."

Duo sighed. "Yeah just give me Relena."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```` Relena

I couldn't remember most of the trek most of it passed in a blur of leaves and dirt. I only seemed to come almost awake when Duo shook my shoulder and pointed to the Wing Zero. I almost cried with joy. It meant I as going to be able to sleep. Finally I could shut my eyes.

"Relena I'm going to put Heero in there first and then you okay. Quatre has already set it autopilot. You'll return to the base where the medical staff has been notified. It's almost over Princess." He smiled at me and lowered me onto the ground and climbed the suit next to Heero. Heero was pulling himself over it pretty well but his failing arm was making it hard and Duo had to pull him up a few times. Finally they disappeared into the cockpit and Duo climbed back down for me.

"Can you walk over here?" Duo asked as he extended his arm from the Gundams shoulder and waved at me.

I nodded and got shakily to my feet and grabbed his hand. He pulled me up and into his arms. I felt almost as safe in his as I did I Heero's. When I reached the top of the Gundam I looked down on Heero laying back in his seat his eyes closed.

"Where do I sit." I asked my vision clouding.

"There's not much room." Duo said sheepishly. "I know, but we can't risk taking one of you with us and having you get hurt worse. Just sit in his lap."

"All right." I said shakily as Duo lowered me into the seat. As I straddled his thighs and lay my head on his chest I felt his body tense and I knew his eyes were open.

"You guys will be back before you know it." Duo whispered and I could have sworn that a small smile grazed his lips as he lowered the cockpit door and moved out of the way.

I let my eyes slide shut as I felt the Gundam start to move. I was going home. Soon this would all be over. Soon the shaking stopped and I felt us smoothly accelerate. I didn't know when I started to loose consciousness but I felt Heero's arms snake around my waist after that there was nothing.

What did you guys think…. There was a little subtle fluff in there. Stay tuned for the rest!