Author's Note: Here it is: the third chapter in my little GW drama. Sorry for the massive delay, but that looming specter, the SATs, has wrung out my brains thoroughly. I'm surprised that I could even eke out this chapter for you guys. Anyway, it's the same deal this time – read, enjoy, review. It would absolutely make my day to hear some comments or feedback. As for the plot, well Relena is taking some risks, and more cliffhangers, and …(etc., etc.) P.S – an apology in advance to Fantine Kid A for sort of stealing your title for this one, but it was just too appropriate to pass up!
Iron Lung Serenade
Chapter 3 – Inertia Creeps
Alone, Relena concentrated on pressing her fingertips together before her weary eyes. Beyond her, the room was flooded in harsh white fluorescence. There was still that silly circular arrangement of chairs around her desk, and ahead of that a constant sound of ticking that dripped into her conscious. Her paranoia would scream that it was a bomb, and her logic would insist that it was only the clock. The two collided behind the empty façade of her face, and there was no resolution in sight. She was such a wreck.
Her fingers lowered to the desktop, slipping to the edges. With one fierce push, she was propelled backwards, and her chair spun and deposited her a few feet away. She took her first hesitant steps, surprised to feel her body shivering, and then her desperation and responsibility melted into a kind of determination as she gathered her things and clicked off the lights of her office. The clock read 10:55.
~
Sally felt the cold stone through the thin cloth of her disguise, but still she stayed pressed against the wall, crouching in pitch-blackness. She extended a hesitant hand to her left, brushing it against the floor as if to seek something. Finally, her fingertips grazed against warm skin, and she quietly clasped the back of Wufei's hand. It was veined and tense, almost unresponsive, but its presence gave her the comfort she needed.
With her left hand, she hesitantly brushed her fingertips to her left, exploring the damp crevices of stone. She recognized the presence of a long corridor, and realized that in their vanishing time frame, it may have been their only escape. Her fingers entwined with Wufei's as she stood, hesitantly, and edged her way to the left. Wufei, too, was awakened from his brooding stance and rose silently.
Heero stood motionless, with his muscles and posture tense from trying to listen for the progress of D'Abur's men. Apparently they had already vanished somewhere in the dark labyrinth. Flickering orange circles of light were created by their lanterns as they progressed silently and menacingly. Heero looked up, with his eyes glittering darkly, and lifted himself from the ground wordlessly.
He and Wufei followed Sally's hesitant motions as she stumbled over the uneven floor. Fighting back tears, she wondered vaguely if she would be condemned to die in this darkness – of hunger or exhaustion or at the glint of D'Abur's sword. As these thoughts swirled and clouded her spirit, she found her eyes straining on something impossible and uplifting – a wet reflection of light. Sally bit her lip and squeezed Wufei's hand tightly as she advanced on the light – a promise of either their escape or their end…
~
The wind was biting, and Relena pulled her black jacket around her more tightly as she clutched her elbows and struggled to keep her teeth from chattering. The streetlights in this district were pale and low – merely a jaded blue color against the inky black of the sky. Frustrated and anxious, Relena leaned against a brick building and tried to smooth her wind-tangled hair. Sighing, she casually glanced upwards at the towering black buildings that surrounded her. Yellow lights suffused out of a few windows, a sign that the city was still awake. The digits on her watch glowed a perpetual 10:58 as she pulled her sunglasses down over her face with a shaking, cold-stricken hand. As Relena moved, she felt the icy metal of her pistol press into the bare skin of her hip and winced slightly.
She shut her eyes briefly, only to open them again when she heard the sound of scraping footsteps nearby. Slowly stepping away from the wall, Relena set her jaw firmly and braced herself for the encounter. A young boy hobbled to where she stood, wearing a cap and carrying a false stack of newspapers at his back. He set them down carefully at the street corner, and then moved to stand directly before her with a hesitant stance and downcast eyes. Relena regarded him warily, before relaxing and crouching down to meet his eye.
"Will you direct me to where I have to go?" she asked softly, with a tinge of sadness breaking up her voice. With his face still tilted downwards, the boy smiled and asked for her hand. She carefully extended her hand, which he clasped with his own cold, bloodless ones.
"Walk ahead for two blocks and stop at the divider," he rasped in an indistinct voice. Relena swallowed her fear and nodded, standing up decisively as her long stride carried her forward, with the strange boy walking at her heels and whispering foreign words into a concealed receiver. She stopped at the divider, clenching and unclenching her fists as her hair flew across her eyes with each new gust of wind. She turned her head to seek out the newspaper boy, who was already walking down one street and about to disappear into the doorway of a seemingly abandoned building. Under the cover of her jacket, she swiftly unholstered the gun from her hip, cocked it, and slipped it up her sleeve. She also activated the command link that she had clipped into the collar of her jacket – a direct link to Duo and Trowa. Through a series of encoded notes, she had conveyed her intentions to them earlier that evening. Now her gaze swung to the left, watching as warm yellow light suffused out of the door that was held open for her. With her heart thumping in her chest and her footsteps stiff and unnatural, she approached the doorway and peered inside.
Within, there was a sparse, rectangular dinner table, where three men sat. Their faces were bearded, gruff, and indefinite. They all looked to her simultaneously, without expression. Relena sensed a trap. She lowered her eyes and ascended the steps, with her lips moving in silent and fervent prayer.
"Miss Relena," said a familiar, smooth voice. The same voice that had so thoroughly haunted her nightmares… A lithe, well-built figure blocked the light at the doorway, and extended his hand cordially to capture her own.
"I'm so glad you could make it," he continued, flashing her the white glint of his smile. She quickly released her hand from his grip, and walked past him into the room. The newspaper boy had gone to light the fireplace, and one of the strange men motioned to an empty seat for her. Locking the door, the handsome man who had greeted Relena strode across the room and pulled out the chair for her. Relena bit her lip to keep it from quivering, and quietly accepted the seat.
"What have you done to them, Sivehn?" she whispered, angry when her emotion choked her voice. The man called Sivehn carelessly occupied the seat across from her, gave her a sideways glance. A brief show of anger and frustration flashed across his sharp, clear-cut features, before he regained his composure. He leaned forward, and his short, golden-blonde hair slipped over his eyes and shone in the candlelight.
"They have stolen something that is…mine," he replied, his voice tight. He pressed his fingertips together and looked at Relena with that penetrating blue stare as he continued. "The woman in this group, she infiltrated our defenses and stole an important disk from our databases." Relena felt her wrists being handled by rough hands, and an electric belt snapped across the seat, rendering her immobile. She glared at Sivehn and spat. "What is this?" she demanded, struggling in vain against her constraints.
Sivehn only lowered his eyes and continued, "What I will require from you, Miss Relena," he said softly, "is a retrieval of that disk, before copies can be made and distributed." His eyes snapped up to hers, and his fingers reached out to lift her head to meet his gaze. She felt something hard and metallic press into the back of her neck, no doubt a tracker that would detonate if mishandled. Relena squeezed her eyes shut and gave a stifled sob. "Achieve this in any way that you can. They trust you, Miss Relena," he said, smiling sadly, "and I know that you won't fail me."
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Eeps! That was weird….Trust me all you skeptics, the plot is surely moving along now! And that promised HxR stuff that you all were looking forward to will also show up sooner or later. Well. I'm hoping for chapter updates every week or so now, but of course it partly depends on you guys and response, if you know what I mean. K