Chapter 4
Hilde ground her teeth for the hundredth time as she thought of how Duo walked out that morning without so much as a goodbye. She was not someone to let her anger slide away so quickly. This was all crazy, and a mess at that. One big crapped up mess. Hilde stared out the shuttle that was making its way down to Earth. She sneered at the pathetic job OZ was doing in their security with transportation. Her eyes wandered from the view of Earth to the interior of the shuttle. There were little children playing in their seats as their mother warned them strictly to be careful. An old couple sat nearby. The woman turned and smiled at her husband, the wrinkles in her face creasing and her husband responded by placing his hand casually on her own. Hilde sighed and turned her eyes back towards the Earth. It was so beautiful from there.
It made her begin to think of everything she could have or what she wanted. She realized what she wanted was only a normal life. It was driving her mad with want alone. She knew what Duo would say. It was only to protect her, but Duo couldn't protect her forever! He was just going to have to get used to it. Hilde chuckled at the huge explosion she would give him when he would state his protectiveness towards her. There would be hell to pay for it as well.
With a long sigh, she let her thoughts fall over into a deep oblivion of sleep. Duo would come soon enough, but right now, all she wanted was to roll over and close her eyes and that's exactly what she did.
The arrival on Earth wasn't easy as Hilde's head swam with the sudden pressure of the atmosphere. Slowly, she made her way from the shuttle and saw that someone was watching her. She turned and began to quickly walk towards the exit of the port. The moment she stepped outside, the sun blinded her and she found herself suddenly being shoved into a car. She wanted to scream and in fact tried, but the gag in her mouth prevented her from doing so. As the blackness settled into her mind, she vaguely heard her kidnapper's words.
"It's all right, just settle down," said the deep voice. Then there was another voice.
"Is this the one?" came a feminine voice.
"Yes… she is…" Hilde felt her mind go numb and then she was silent.
"Hilde…" That damn bright light. "Hilde…" Stop it… I want to sleep some more… "Hilde…" Leave me alone…
"All right… give her a shot of adrenaline." It was that same feminine voice. Hilde refused to respond. As far as she was concerned, she was safe in her dark world of dreams. Suddenly, her world was interrupted as she felt a prick in her arm and she was suddenly full of energy. Her eyes flew open and they shot around the room she lay in. It was similar to a hospital room, but it was more technologically advanced. Then her eyes landed on the woman.
"Where the hell am I?" she cried as she tried to sit up, but found that she was strapped down. She began to pull at them frantically, but the woman next to the bed laid a comforting hand on her wrist. She wore a dark hood, obscuring her face away from all sight, at least to Hilde.
"You're at the rebel base here in London. One of our spies identified you as a former OZ member, the one that assisted the Gundam pilot." Hilde's eyes narrowed, showing her suspicion.
"What do you want with me?"
"Well we need some help here and were hoping you could assist us in maintaining the peace." Hilde smiled a little. She had come here to find the rebels, but they seemed to have found her first.
"I am only a soldier, what do you want with me?" The corner of the woman's mouth tipped up in a hint of amusement. She slowly began to untie the bands holding Hilde down, seeing that she had calmed herself. Hilde decided it would be best to cooperate with these people.
"To use you as an example of course. If the colonies and people of Earth see that the rebels will accept anyone, no matter who they are, as long as they're fighting for the same thing, then the public would be more inclined to help us in our cause of demolishing OZ." Hilde nodded her head slightly in understanding, but her eyebrows were knit together in disapproval.
"Are you just kidnapping people for yourselves then? Is that what this is?" The woman seemed to be rather annoyed with these comments.
"No, it's not kidnapping, we're only taking in the people that would most likely want to help us and see what they want to do. They always have a choice, including you."
"How do you know that people won't get the wrong idea about you if you keep on making people suddenly disappearing?"
"Well, let's look at it this way. Why were you here in the first place? Looking for us I presume." Hilde remained silent, but nodded her head as she stared up at the woman.
"I came to find someone else as well, but I needed to locate the rebels first."
"I'm assuming that you're talking about Duo Maxwell, the Gundam Pilot you saved." Hilde blushed and nodded again. The woman smiled knowingly.
"All right, you've found us, or better to say, we found you. What do you want to do?" Hilde sat in silence for a very long time before she replied, "I want to find Duo and smack him around for a while, but until then, is it all right if I join this little example of yours?" The woman grinned and stuck out her hand.
"Deal then." Hilde stuck her hand out in like and grabbed hold of the other's in a firm grip.
"Welcome aboard Hilde Scheibeiker."
"Glad to be here…" The young woman removed her dark hood.
"Cathy. Cathy Bloom."
Hilde seemed to vaguely remember falling over hard onto the floor with shock. Cathy only smiled slyly and offered a hand to help her friend up. Before Hilde could say anything a knock at the door interrupted her and a young man walked in and saluted to Cathy, who returned the gesture.
"Excuse me Comrade Bloom, but we've found where the Gundam pilots are posted." Cathy turned to Hilde and smiled.
"And now we begin this example. Do you wish to come along for the ride?" Hilde grinned, grasping the idea quickly.
"I'd love to."
"Wonderful, I have a little surprise for one of the pilots. You may remember several other rebels here as well, or at least may have heard of them." Hilde raised her eyebrow.
"Like who?"
"Ever heard of Natria de Lowen?" Hilde's eyes bugged out.
"No! Not bthe/b Natria de Lowen!" Cathy grinned and nodded.
"The one and only. She has decided to join us."
"Wait, is this the same one who blew up one of the major OZ headquarters single-handedly?"
"Yep." Hilde whistled as if impressed. "You may also know Dorothy Catalonia."
"Wasn't she with OZ?"
"Evidently, she found that OZ was being too boring and decided to take a look at the other side of the war. Her grandfather is rather a cruel man. I suppose she also wanted to get away from him, even though she chooses not to admit it."
"Wow, it seems that you've gathered quite a show. So, what are you doing here? I didn't think Trowa would let you come." Cathy was turning away to the door and paused, but did not turn around.
"I was a sibling for a while and wish to now move on to a different level." Hilde remembered now.
"Trowa Barton's sister? But I thought you two were friends, not sib…"
"Well, I used that as a cover, so I wouldn't let him get hurt, but enough with the chitchat, it is time that we be going." Hilde nodded and gingerly got up off the bed. There was a rebel uniform located in the corner of her room and she stared at it for a moment. Cathy smiled a little.
"I take it that you don't want to wear that?"
"Not really," Hilde said sheepishly.
"I'm not surprised, neither did de Lowen and Catalonia. Do you wish to have a code name as well?"
"I don't know, does Catalonia and de Lowen have ones?"
"No."
"Then consider me to be just Hilde. Scheibeiker, if necessary."
"All right. Shall we be going?" Hilde smiled.
"Yep, let's go!"
They were all feeling rather low at the moment. Trowa was sporting a split lip, Quatre had a purple bruise under his eye, Duo was looking perfectly miserable with his black eye, and Heero was nursing a tender jaw and black eye. Wufei, on the other hand, came out of it completely unscathed, to the annoyance of his fellow pilots. He grinned across the table with a smug look on his face and Duo was secretly thinking of chucking the Chinese pilot out of the window, just to see how much damage he could cause. They were all looking at a map once again of the city. They had gotten wind of an operation that was being prepared by OZ in crushing the rebels. They were planning on letting the operation follow through, as long as no citizens were involved. The rebels were basically on their own on this one.
"So, let me get this straight. You want me and Winner to take sniper positions on outer buildings of the village in case something happens and give a signal if something is happening?" asked Duo.
"Basically," said Heero nonchalantly, wincing a little as his jaw was jarred as he spoke.
"I don't see we can't just go out there and beat living day lights out of OZ. I mean that's what our entire mission is about, right? Getting rid of OZ."
"No, on this particular mission, you are to help citizens only and no rebels at all." Duo rolled his eyes.
"We could end the war here and now."
"Just stick to the mission."
"You and your damn missions!"
"Hey, I'm not the one who gives the orders…"
"Yeah, you're doing a fine job of showing it!"
"…" Heero was ready to leap for Maxwell's throat, but Trowa intervened, not wanting another episode of the night before.
"Would you two shut up and just get ready for the mission. You two get really riled if you're away from your women." Everyone in the room was shocked at Trowa's comment. They didn't have the chance to say anything because they heard a car rolling up in front of the cabin. They all dove for their guns and ran to the windows, looking out through the cracks between the curtains. They heard the car doors slam and several figures jumped out. Four seemed to be women and one was the driver.
"Doesn't look as if anyone is here," grumbled one voice. It struck a chord in Wufei's memory. Another feminine voice came forward as well.
"They're Gundam pilots. Expect anything." Trowa's eyes narrowed, as if realizing something. Duo noticed that the women standing outside had been riding in a rebel car.
One woman went to the door and knocked lightly. Quatre went around to one side of the door as Heero stood on the other side as the doorknob began to turn as the woman tried to open the door.
"Hey, what are we planning on doing when we do meet with the pilots?" Duo's eyes widened in disbelief. No, it couldn't be… it can't be! He refused to believe it. He looked out the window and stared with his jaw falling to the floor. Hilde!
"Well, I guess we try to let them know…" Duo stormed to the door, flung it open and stamped out towards Hilde. His eyes were filled with fury.
"Hilde Scheibeiker! What did I tell you!" Natria and Dorothy had drawn their guns, but Cathy signaled them to put them away immediately.
"Duo… what…"
"Didn't I tell you to stay put?" he yelled practically into her face. It took Hilde a few moments to recover from her initial shock and her own fury was beginning to respond to Duo's tone of voice. He was the one who left without so much as a goodbye and he had the nerve to be yelling at her! Not in this lifetime!
"Did you actually think I was going to listen! I told you I wanted to help with the war you pigheaded galoot!"
"PIGHEADED GALOOT! GRR…I left without saying anything for a reason you simple minded pigeon!"
"Well, obviously you have to work on your tactics!"
"Do you want to take this outside!"
"We are outside you blockhead!" Duo looked around for a moment and frowned.
"So? What's your point?" All of the people standing within the cabin and outside, were staring on in either amusement or bafflement. It was Natria who reached forward to grab a hold of Hilde before she lunged at her roommate and the love of her life's throat. Hilde struggled to get loose, but Duo stood just out of reach, sticking out his tongue. Heero rolled is eyes and debated on telling that other woman to let Hilde go, just so Duo can suffer more than just a black eye.
"Would you two imbeciles knock it off!" cried Wufei as he emerged from the cabin. Hilde and Duo turned to give him death glares and he would have coward away, except he caught sight of Natria. His mouth seemed to drop open. Natria seemed to be all cool, but Hilde had noticed Natria's sudden death grip on her throat and arm. Giving a gagged sound, she signaled for Duo to come and get her out of the death lock. Seeing that her face was turning an unhealthy shade of purple, Duo immediately responded by yanking Hilde's arm. They both ended up tumbling to the ground, but no one noticed as another scene began to unravel.
"Natria?" whispered Wufei. She looked stoic, but her fists were white as they clenched.
"Hello, Wufei."
"I was told you were dead," he said suspiciously.
"By whom?"
"By your father."
"Well, wasn't that rather convenient that you're alive as well?"
"What do you mean?"
"I was told by my father that you had left and were never coming back."
"Well, he was lying."
"No, he wasn't. You never did come back."
"He said you were dead!"
"What kind of an excuse is that?" Natria spat in disgust.
"What was I supposed to do? Wait and see if you would rise from the dead?"
"You never waited to find out did you? Not once did you come back to our village! You never once thought of it, did you?"
"I…"
"Well, don't worry, I was hurt for a while, but it taught me not to trust men." She eyed him up and down with spite. "Men are weak." Quatre raised his eyebrows. Boy wasn't this a vice versa.
"You were the reason I believed women to be so weak! You couldn't stay alive long enough for me to come and get you!" Natria stiffened.
"I never wanted to even hear your name after I'd found out that you had left. You were the coward and weakling! Not I!" Wufei's face was turning various shades of red.
"What do you think you're doing here?" he finally asked after a few tense moments of inhaling and exhaling. Natria merely looked over her nails with no interest and then turned to look at Wufei.
"What do you think I'm doing here you moron?" she said nonchalantly. "I'm here, with rebels, with no doubt a gun, and a score to settle with someone. I should think a dolt like you could figure it out."
"Shot down," mumbled Dorothy. Quatre quickly elbowed her in the ribs. She glared at the young man, but he acted as if he had done nothing.
"You are nothing but a stupid pathetic woman and…" Cathy took a deep breath as she prepared for the explosion. She let out a growl and everything happened like lightening. Of course, he didn't have time to finish his insult because Natria jumped him and they were rolling as Natria was giving Wufei the beating he didn't receive earlier that night. A corner of Heero's mouth went up in amusement as he watched the 'weak' woman beat down his chauvinistic friend. Surprisingly, Cathy stepped forward and shoved Wufei back with a bloodied lip and Natria with smudges of dirt on her cheeks and forehead. Both were sending death looks at each other, not to mention that they were both heaving for air.
"Look, I know you guys are a little… annoyed that we girls decided to rain in on your parade, but we're not going to accomplish anything until we can all cool down and patiently sit and talk without killing one another." Cathy looked around at all the faces and saw there was no disapproval to this idea. Her eyes caught on Trowa and found that he was definitely preparing to give a good talking to her later. Avoiding that intense glare, she made her way towards the house, but was quickly barred off by Heero.
'Ah, some confidential information is in there I guess. Oh well, the porch is fine too,' thought Cathy as she sat down. The others joined her either in front on the ground or on the porch as well.
"All right, the reason we girls decided to join in this particular situation was because we saw a lot of potential danger here and we wanted to be involved in the protection of the citizens. As it turns out there have been quite a few rebels staying here as well as us. These rebels seem to be having some trouble with controlling their soldiers and we plan on stopping them." Quatre looked confused for a moment.
"I thought there was one rebel group here." Dorothy smiled a little at his ignorance.
"There are more rebel groups than you think. We're not all just one organization. We act in separate coordinated groups." She sounded as if she was lecturing a group of children and she added a sweet smile at the last, irritating the pilots.
"Look, if you think that we're going to combine forces, then…," started Wufei.
"We know that you guys work solo, but we decided that you should be aware that you are not the only ones working on this problem. We have another objective as well. That, we decided to remain our own information." Trowa glowered at Cathy, who responded by glaring right back.
"Look," stated Hilde logically. "I can see that we are all in fowl moods, so I suggest, since you guys know we're here, you get a night to think it over and…"
"A night?" interrupted Duo. "No, we don't have to think about it. You are going home this instant." Dorothy noticed how Trowa and Wufei were getting up the nerve to agree with their friend but death glares from Cathy and Natria sent them into silence. Even if they were planning on responding, they didn't have time because Hilde was responding first.
"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD!"
"If you two start this fight all over again, I swear both sides are going to be short one fighter!" yelled Cathy. Everyone was silent. "Now, I agree with Hilde. You know we're here and what our objective is and we'll leave you to think it through, but know this… You cannot change what we've come here to do. We are not leaving." With that, Cathy spun around towards the jeep once again and Hilde, Dorothy, and Natria all followed. The men sat there, staring with gaping jaws as they were completely brushed off and defied. It took them a moment to realize what had just happened and the air became tense. Heero only shrugged it off and Quatre began to slowly move away.
"Did they just…" started Duo.
"Yes," answered Trowa before he could finish.
"And we just said…"
"Yes."
"And now they're…"
"Not if we have anything to do with it," grumbled Wufei. They all decided to turn in for the night, thinking of what had just happened.
Hilde ground her teeth for the hundredth time as she thought of how Duo walked out that morning without so much as a goodbye. She was not someone to let her anger slide away so quickly. This was all crazy, and a mess at that. One big crapped up mess. Hilde stared out the shuttle that was making its way down to Earth. She sneered at the pathetic job OZ was doing in their security with transportation. Her eyes wandered from the view of Earth to the interior of the shuttle. There were little children playing in their seats as their mother warned them strictly to be careful. An old couple sat nearby. The woman turned and smiled at her husband, the wrinkles in her face creasing and her husband responded by placing his hand casually on her own. Hilde sighed and turned her eyes back towards the Earth. It was so beautiful from there.
It made her begin to think of everything she could have or what she wanted. She realized what she wanted was only a normal life. It was driving her mad with want alone. She knew what Duo would say. It was only to protect her, but Duo couldn't protect her forever! He was just going to have to get used to it. Hilde chuckled at the huge explosion she would give him when he would state his protectiveness towards her. There would be hell to pay for it as well.
With a long sigh, she let her thoughts fall over into a deep oblivion of sleep. Duo would come soon enough, but right now, all she wanted was to roll over and close her eyes and that's exactly what she did.
The arrival on Earth wasn't easy as Hilde's head swam with the sudden pressure of the atmosphere. Slowly, she made her way from the shuttle and saw that someone was watching her. She turned and began to quickly walk towards the exit of the port. The moment she stepped outside, the sun blinded her and she found herself suddenly being shoved into a car. She wanted to scream and in fact tried, but the gag in her mouth prevented her from doing so. As the blackness settled into her mind, she vaguely heard her kidnapper's words.
"It's all right, just settle down," said the deep voice. Then there was another voice.
"Is this the one?" came a feminine voice.
"Yes… she is…" Hilde felt her mind go numb and then she was silent.
"Hilde…" That damn bright light. "Hilde…" Stop it… I want to sleep some more… "Hilde…" Leave me alone…
"All right… give her a shot of adrenaline." It was that same feminine voice. Hilde refused to respond. As far as she was concerned, she was safe in her dark world of dreams. Suddenly, her world was interrupted as she felt a prick in her arm and she was suddenly full of energy. Her eyes flew open and they shot around the room she lay in. It was similar to a hospital room, but it was more technologically advanced. Then her eyes landed on the woman.
"Where the hell am I?" she cried as she tried to sit up, but found that she was strapped down. She began to pull at them frantically, but the woman next to the bed laid a comforting hand on her wrist. She wore a dark hood, obscuring her face away from all sight, at least to Hilde.
"You're at the rebel base here in London. One of our spies identified you as a former OZ member, the one that assisted the Gundam pilot." Hilde's eyes narrowed, showing her suspicion.
"What do you want with me?"
"Well we need some help here and were hoping you could assist us in maintaining the peace." Hilde smiled a little. She had come here to find the rebels, but they seemed to have found her first.
"I am only a soldier, what do you want with me?" The corner of the woman's mouth tipped up in a hint of amusement. She slowly began to untie the bands holding Hilde down, seeing that she had calmed herself. Hilde decided it would be best to cooperate with these people.
"To use you as an example of course. If the colonies and people of Earth see that the rebels will accept anyone, no matter who they are, as long as they're fighting for the same thing, then the public would be more inclined to help us in our cause of demolishing OZ." Hilde nodded her head slightly in understanding, but her eyebrows were knit together in disapproval.
"Are you just kidnapping people for yourselves then? Is that what this is?" The woman seemed to be rather annoyed with these comments.
"No, it's not kidnapping, we're only taking in the people that would most likely want to help us and see what they want to do. They always have a choice, including you."
"How do you know that people won't get the wrong idea about you if you keep on making people suddenly disappearing?"
"Well, let's look at it this way. Why were you here in the first place? Looking for us I presume." Hilde remained silent, but nodded her head as she stared up at the woman.
"I came to find someone else as well, but I needed to locate the rebels first."
"I'm assuming that you're talking about Duo Maxwell, the Gundam Pilot you saved." Hilde blushed and nodded again. The woman smiled knowingly.
"All right, you've found us, or better to say, we found you. What do you want to do?" Hilde sat in silence for a very long time before she replied, "I want to find Duo and smack him around for a while, but until then, is it all right if I join this little example of yours?" The woman grinned and stuck out her hand.
"Deal then." Hilde stuck her hand out in like and grabbed hold of the other's in a firm grip.
"Welcome aboard Hilde Scheibeiker."
"Glad to be here…" The young woman removed her dark hood.
"Cathy. Cathy Bloom."
Hilde seemed to vaguely remember falling over hard onto the floor with shock. Cathy only smiled slyly and offered a hand to help her friend up. Before Hilde could say anything a knock at the door interrupted her and a young man walked in and saluted to Cathy, who returned the gesture.
"Excuse me Comrade Bloom, but we've found where the Gundam pilots are posted." Cathy turned to Hilde and smiled.
"And now we begin this example. Do you wish to come along for the ride?" Hilde grinned, grasping the idea quickly.
"I'd love to."
"Wonderful, I have a little surprise for one of the pilots. You may remember several other rebels here as well, or at least may have heard of them." Hilde raised her eyebrow.
"Like who?"
"Ever heard of Natria de Lowen?" Hilde's eyes bugged out.
"No! Not bthe/b Natria de Lowen!" Cathy grinned and nodded.
"The one and only. She has decided to join us."
"Wait, is this the same one who blew up one of the major OZ headquarters single-handedly?"
"Yep." Hilde whistled as if impressed. "You may also know Dorothy Catalonia."
"Wasn't she with OZ?"
"Evidently, she found that OZ was being too boring and decided to take a look at the other side of the war. Her grandfather is rather a cruel man. I suppose she also wanted to get away from him, even though she chooses not to admit it."
"Wow, it seems that you've gathered quite a show. So, what are you doing here? I didn't think Trowa would let you come." Cathy was turning away to the door and paused, but did not turn around.
"I was a sibling for a while and wish to now move on to a different level." Hilde remembered now.
"Trowa Barton's sister? But I thought you two were friends, not sib…"
"Well, I used that as a cover, so I wouldn't let him get hurt, but enough with the chitchat, it is time that we be going." Hilde nodded and gingerly got up off the bed. There was a rebel uniform located in the corner of her room and she stared at it for a moment. Cathy smiled a little.
"I take it that you don't want to wear that?"
"Not really," Hilde said sheepishly.
"I'm not surprised, neither did de Lowen and Catalonia. Do you wish to have a code name as well?"
"I don't know, does Catalonia and de Lowen have ones?"
"No."
"Then consider me to be just Hilde. Scheibeiker, if necessary."
"All right. Shall we be going?" Hilde smiled.
"Yep, let's go!"
They were all feeling rather low at the moment. Trowa was sporting a split lip, Quatre had a purple bruise under his eye, Duo was looking perfectly miserable with his black eye, and Heero was nursing a tender jaw and black eye. Wufei, on the other hand, came out of it completely unscathed, to the annoyance of his fellow pilots. He grinned across the table with a smug look on his face and Duo was secretly thinking of chucking the Chinese pilot out of the window, just to see how much damage he could cause. They were all looking at a map once again of the city. They had gotten wind of an operation that was being prepared by OZ in crushing the rebels. They were planning on letting the operation follow through, as long as no citizens were involved. The rebels were basically on their own on this one.
"So, let me get this straight. You want me and Winner to take sniper positions on outer buildings of the village in case something happens and give a signal if something is happening?" asked Duo.
"Basically," said Heero nonchalantly, wincing a little as his jaw was jarred as he spoke.
"I don't see we can't just go out there and beat living day lights out of OZ. I mean that's what our entire mission is about, right? Getting rid of OZ."
"No, on this particular mission, you are to help citizens only and no rebels at all." Duo rolled his eyes.
"We could end the war here and now."
"Just stick to the mission."
"You and your damn missions!"
"Hey, I'm not the one who gives the orders…"
"Yeah, you're doing a fine job of showing it!"
"…" Heero was ready to leap for Maxwell's throat, but Trowa intervened, not wanting another episode of the night before.
"Would you two shut up and just get ready for the mission. You two get really riled if you're away from your women." Everyone in the room was shocked at Trowa's comment. They didn't have the chance to say anything because they heard a car rolling up in front of the cabin. They all dove for their guns and ran to the windows, looking out through the cracks between the curtains. They heard the car doors slam and several figures jumped out. Four seemed to be women and one was the driver.
"Doesn't look as if anyone is here," grumbled one voice. It struck a chord in Wufei's memory. Another feminine voice came forward as well.
"They're Gundam pilots. Expect anything." Trowa's eyes narrowed, as if realizing something. Duo noticed that the women standing outside had been riding in a rebel car.
One woman went to the door and knocked lightly. Quatre went around to one side of the door as Heero stood on the other side as the doorknob began to turn as the woman tried to open the door.
"Hey, what are we planning on doing when we do meet with the pilots?" Duo's eyes widened in disbelief. No, it couldn't be… it can't be! He refused to believe it. He looked out the window and stared with his jaw falling to the floor. Hilde!
"Well, I guess we try to let them know…" Duo stormed to the door, flung it open and stamped out towards Hilde. His eyes were filled with fury.
"Hilde Scheibeiker! What did I tell you!" Natria and Dorothy had drawn their guns, but Cathy signaled them to put them away immediately.
"Duo… what…"
"Didn't I tell you to stay put?" he yelled practically into her face. It took Hilde a few moments to recover from her initial shock and her own fury was beginning to respond to Duo's tone of voice. He was the one who left without so much as a goodbye and he had the nerve to be yelling at her! Not in this lifetime!
"Did you actually think I was going to listen! I told you I wanted to help with the war you pigheaded galoot!"
"PIGHEADED GALOOT! GRR…I left without saying anything for a reason you simple minded pigeon!"
"Well, obviously you have to work on your tactics!"
"Do you want to take this outside!"
"We are outside you blockhead!" Duo looked around for a moment and frowned.
"So? What's your point?" All of the people standing within the cabin and outside, were staring on in either amusement or bafflement. It was Natria who reached forward to grab a hold of Hilde before she lunged at her roommate and the love of her life's throat. Hilde struggled to get loose, but Duo stood just out of reach, sticking out his tongue. Heero rolled is eyes and debated on telling that other woman to let Hilde go, just so Duo can suffer more than just a black eye.
"Would you two imbeciles knock it off!" cried Wufei as he emerged from the cabin. Hilde and Duo turned to give him death glares and he would have coward away, except he caught sight of Natria. His mouth seemed to drop open. Natria seemed to be all cool, but Hilde had noticed Natria's sudden death grip on her throat and arm. Giving a gagged sound, she signaled for Duo to come and get her out of the death lock. Seeing that her face was turning an unhealthy shade of purple, Duo immediately responded by yanking Hilde's arm. They both ended up tumbling to the ground, but no one noticed as another scene began to unravel.
"Natria?" whispered Wufei. She looked stoic, but her fists were white as they clenched.
"Hello, Wufei."
"I was told you were dead," he said suspiciously.
"By whom?"
"By your father."
"Well, wasn't that rather convenient that you're alive as well?"
"What do you mean?"
"I was told by my father that you had left and were never coming back."
"Well, he was lying."
"No, he wasn't. You never did come back."
"He said you were dead!"
"What kind of an excuse is that?" Natria spat in disgust.
"What was I supposed to do? Wait and see if you would rise from the dead?"
"You never waited to find out did you? Not once did you come back to our village! You never once thought of it, did you?"
"I…"
"Well, don't worry, I was hurt for a while, but it taught me not to trust men." She eyed him up and down with spite. "Men are weak." Quatre raised his eyebrows. Boy wasn't this a vice versa.
"You were the reason I believed women to be so weak! You couldn't stay alive long enough for me to come and get you!" Natria stiffened.
"I never wanted to even hear your name after I'd found out that you had left. You were the coward and weakling! Not I!" Wufei's face was turning various shades of red.
"What do you think you're doing here?" he finally asked after a few tense moments of inhaling and exhaling. Natria merely looked over her nails with no interest and then turned to look at Wufei.
"What do you think I'm doing here you moron?" she said nonchalantly. "I'm here, with rebels, with no doubt a gun, and a score to settle with someone. I should think a dolt like you could figure it out."
"Shot down," mumbled Dorothy. Quatre quickly elbowed her in the ribs. She glared at the young man, but he acted as if he had done nothing.
"You are nothing but a stupid pathetic woman and…" Cathy took a deep breath as she prepared for the explosion. She let out a growl and everything happened like lightening. Of course, he didn't have time to finish his insult because Natria jumped him and they were rolling as Natria was giving Wufei the beating he didn't receive earlier that night. A corner of Heero's mouth went up in amusement as he watched the 'weak' woman beat down his chauvinistic friend. Surprisingly, Cathy stepped forward and shoved Wufei back with a bloodied lip and Natria with smudges of dirt on her cheeks and forehead. Both were sending death looks at each other, not to mention that they were both heaving for air.
"Look, I know you guys are a little… annoyed that we girls decided to rain in on your parade, but we're not going to accomplish anything until we can all cool down and patiently sit and talk without killing one another." Cathy looked around at all the faces and saw there was no disapproval to this idea. Her eyes caught on Trowa and found that he was definitely preparing to give a good talking to her later. Avoiding that intense glare, she made her way towards the house, but was quickly barred off by Heero.
'Ah, some confidential information is in there I guess. Oh well, the porch is fine too,' thought Cathy as she sat down. The others joined her either in front on the ground or on the porch as well.
"All right, the reason we girls decided to join in this particular situation was because we saw a lot of potential danger here and we wanted to be involved in the protection of the citizens. As it turns out there have been quite a few rebels staying here as well as us. These rebels seem to be having some trouble with controlling their soldiers and we plan on stopping them." Quatre looked confused for a moment.
"I thought there was one rebel group here." Dorothy smiled a little at his ignorance.
"There are more rebel groups than you think. We're not all just one organization. We act in separate coordinated groups." She sounded as if she was lecturing a group of children and she added a sweet smile at the last, irritating the pilots.
"Look, if you think that we're going to combine forces, then…," started Wufei.
"We know that you guys work solo, but we decided that you should be aware that you are not the only ones working on this problem. We have another objective as well. That, we decided to remain our own information." Trowa glowered at Cathy, who responded by glaring right back.
"Look," stated Hilde logically. "I can see that we are all in fowl moods, so I suggest, since you guys know we're here, you get a night to think it over and…"
"A night?" interrupted Duo. "No, we don't have to think about it. You are going home this instant." Dorothy noticed how Trowa and Wufei were getting up the nerve to agree with their friend but death glares from Cathy and Natria sent them into silence. Even if they were planning on responding, they didn't have time because Hilde was responding first.
"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD!"
"If you two start this fight all over again, I swear both sides are going to be short one fighter!" yelled Cathy. Everyone was silent. "Now, I agree with Hilde. You know we're here and what our objective is and we'll leave you to think it through, but know this… You cannot change what we've come here to do. We are not leaving." With that, Cathy spun around towards the jeep once again and Hilde, Dorothy, and Natria all followed. The men sat there, staring with gaping jaws as they were completely brushed off and defied. It took them a moment to realize what had just happened and the air became tense. Heero only shrugged it off and Quatre began to slowly move away.
"Did they just…" started Duo.
"Yes," answered Trowa before he could finish.
"And we just said…"
"Yes."
"And now they're…"
"Not if we have anything to do with it," grumbled Wufei. They all decided to turn in for the night, thinking of what had just happened.
