Training: Finale

"Sally!" Jess screamed as she raced down the passageway. She had read enough mangas to know that when Heero uttered: "Omae O Korosu", you can count on it he would be dead serious about it.

'Darn it! Where is the clinic room?!' she thought desperately as she raced down the corridor. Being at Heero's room for the first time, Jess had no inkling how to get to the clinic room, no doubt it being the same level as Heero's room.

Craning her ears, she couldn't hear any footsteps except her own thundering ones. But Heero was trained to track people down. So no footsteps didn't mean no Heero.

'Come on . . ., someone, anyone! Save me!' she prayed silently in her heart as she ran.

Then she noticed a door at the side.

'Saved!'

Giving fervent thanks to God, she ran up to the door. Only to find there was no knob. It was electrically operated instead.

'Arhhhh!' Jess mentally screamed, clutching her head with both hands in frustration. 'Why do everything have to be technical?!'

Then she heard a sound that made her blood run cold.

* click *

The definite sound of Heero cocking his gun. Jess threw all cautions to the wind and decided to give the door her best shot.

Eyeing the sequence pad at the side of the door, she tried all her favorite numbers.

"Sorry. Numbers are wrong."

She tried another combination.

"Sorry. Numbers are wrong."

Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a shadow suddenly appear. Getting bigger and bigger as the person came closer and closer.

Desperately, she punched in another series of numbers without looking.

"Numbers are correct," the talking sequence pad suddenly said. Jess whipped back her head to look at the sequence pad, feeling her hopes spring up with life.

". . . but fingerprints are wrong. Unauthorized personnel."

That sent her new, found hopes plunging into the deep abyss. It also popped a vein in her brain. She had just spent most of her precious time on this stupid contraption, when she could have been fleeing!

"Listen you," she shouted at the pad, uncaring if that thing was battery operated without a brain, "I am on the verge of death! If you don't open this blasted door immediately, I will come back to haunt you!"

For a moment, there was no answer. Then the door slid open.

"Jess?" Quatre's head popped out, surprise all over his face. "What are you doing here?"

Jess could feel her eyes fill with tears. Right now, Quatre, peacemaker of the group, looked like an angel from heaven. With a cry of happiness, she flung herself on the blond with a muffled: "Save me!"

"Wha . . .What?!" Quatre was shocked beyond words. This was the first time he had seen her like this. Immediately, his protectiveness flared up bright within him.

"Who is bullying you?" he asked, grasping her shoulder and pulling her gently away from him. Jess pointed over his shoulder in answer.

Turning slightly around, he saw Heero standing in the middle of the passageway, gun cocked and ready.

"He said: "Omae O korosu"," he heard her shaky whisper and decided things had gone far enough.

Pushing Jess into the room, he closed the door behind her and faced his friend.

************************************************************************

Looking up from her position on the floor, where she had fallen when Quatre roughly pushed her in, she found herself staring at three pairs of surprised eyes, staring back at her.

Trowa sat in front of a table with a couple of cards in his hands. Sitting opposite him was Duo; one hand similarly holding cards, the other paused in the action of picking a card from Trowa's collection. Wufei sat at the side, between the two of them, one hand holding a book. Obviously he had been reading when she popped in.

"Look at what the cat dragged in," Wufei snidely said, throwing her a look filled with contempt when he found his voice. "Lesson finished?"

"More like terminated," she muttered in answer, more to herself than to him.

"What is Quatre doing outside?" Duo quipped, lowering his hand to rest on the table.

"Saving me."

"Huh?" they all asked in unison.

"Heero's trying to kill me."

"You've got to joking. He couldn't even kill Relena."

"He said: "Omae O Korosu" to me."

"He said that to Relena and she's still living and breathing," Wufei scoffed, turning his nose up at her. "Whatever could you have done that can be worse than her stalking?"

"I blew up his computer AND laptop."

There was silence after that statement. All the male occupants were shocked into speechlessness.

'Wonderful!' Jess thought gloomily, as she evaluated their reactions, which was basically wide-eye staring at her. 'Just peachy! Now I know he is really serious about killing me.'

************************************************************************

"Move," Heero stonily stated to his co-pilot. Quatre stood in front of the sequence pad, trying his best to block it from the Japanese boy.

"Not till you tell me what you're planning to do with that gun and her," Quatre answered, steeling himself to be stubborn. He could see the determination in Heero's eyes and hoped it wasn't bent on being fatal. When Heero wanted something, whoever stood in the way was likely to be eliminated first. Nothing and no one could stand in the way of Heero and his objectives for long.

"Hn." And he pushed Quatre aside as if he was nothing.

By some skill, Quatre caught himself before he fell. The push was not at all gentle.

"Ok. Spill. What has she done to make you so furious?"

For a moment, it seemed like Heero wasn't going to answer. But then he turned his head and looked at the blond.

". . . Laptop . . ."

Quatre understood immediately. The girl must have done something catastrophic to Yuy's precious laptop and hence, the boy's frustration and anger towards her.

There was only one way out of this situation.

"I'll pay for her," he offered, hoping to sweeten the brown-haired boy's temper.

"Hn!" the boy humph, returning his attention back to his mission, ignoring Quatre completely. Obviously he didn't want Quatre to pay for the girl's blunder.

Quatre gave a sigh of regret. He really didn't want to come to this. But Heero was leaving him with no choice.

"Yuy, prepare yourself!" he shouted as he threw his full body weight at the Japanese boy.

************************************************************************

"Ok! Code Red Alert!" Duo hollered as all of them sprang into action. Trowa reached for Jess and pulled her deeper into the room. Meanwhile, Duo started doing stretching exercises.

Wufei, on the other hand, shut his book and sighed. This was before he threw her an annoyed glare.

"What's that suppose to mean?" she asked as Trowa led her past, feeling her own irritation surfaced as well. He acted like she was the bane to his existence.

"If you're smart, you will figure it out," he answered calmly before facing his back to her.

Then Trowa shoved her under the bed.

"Stay there," he commanded and then let the bed sheets down to cover her. Shortly, Wufei's book followed.

"For protection, you troublesome onna," she heard him utter before the soft padding of footsteps faded away. Then the lights went off.

Soon, the door slid open. Jess could see this by the imprint of light on the bed sheets.

"Get him!" she heard Duo yelled as he leapt out from his hiding place to pounce on the Japanese boy.

Sounds of scuffling ensued followed by uttered curses and groans of pain.

Suddenly:

* Bang! *

Heero had fired a shot.

"Darn it, Heero!" Jess heard Duo cursed him and she lifted up a little of the bed sheet to see what had happened. Heero stood there, his gun leveled at Duo who was clutching his right arm. There was blood seeping out from the between the fingers clutching the arm.

'He shot Duo?!!' Shock coursed through Jess. It was so surprising to see that Heero was mad enough to turn on his friend.

Meanwhile, Heero stonily asked: "Where is the girl?" Ignoring the painfully look on his friend's face.

Despite his pain, Duo summoned enough strength to stick out his tongue and grin at Heero.

"I ain't telling you."

"Fine." Came the curt answer and Heero walked further into the room, cocking his gun as he went.

Jess felt a strong kind of rage rise up at what Heero did. After all, the boys were only trying to protect her, not kill him! Jess gripped the book tighter in her hands and got ready.

Lady Luck must have been smiling on her for Heero came to a stop in front of the bed; turning around to face the room and it's inhabitants.

"For the last time: where is the girl?" he questioned his co-pilots again while Jess crawled out to stand behind him. No one answered; all of them were watching the girl slowly rise up behind him.

With evil glee and a wicked grin, Jess answered: "Right here, you filthy scum!"

And she brought the book down on his head again and again with all her might.

"Jess! Stop! You're hurting him!" Duo suddenly started shouting.

"Huh?"

Jess was taken aback by this undying loyalty of friendship. Meanwhile, Heero sank to the floor, unconscious.

Then Quatre stuck his head into view from the doorway. In his hand, he held out a large white card. On it, large black words read: "I want to scare Jess. Help."

"He was holding this when the door opened," Quatre explained guilty, "all the data in the computer and laptop has already been backup."

"But . . . But Duo . . ." Jess stammered, her body already going numb with shock. The book fell from her hand onto the floor, beside the prone body of Heero's.

"Just a flesh wound, a mistake!" Duo hurriedly explained, taking off his fingers to show her where the bullet accidentally grazed his arm. "He was aiming for the wall and didn't know I was about to lift my arm."

"Oh."

Then looking at Heero's still body, Duo's arm still dripping blood and the large white card Quatre still held, Jess did the only thing she was getting really good at.

She fainted.