Chapter One:
"Turn around slowly with your hands up." They ordered me. I put my hands up and smirked as I turned around to face my captor. I came to face a girl about my age with long golden locks. I snickered.
"Well, well, if it isn't Goldie Locks. Where's the three little bears?" I sneered. She smirked, her dark blue eyes glowing.
"I've found one, but where are th--" She stopped mid sentence and it seemed as if a realization had taken over her. "You're Duo Maxwell." She stated more than less asked.
"That depends. Who's asking?" I replied hands still up. She put her gun away and extended her hand instead, ignoring my comment.
"Professor G said I'd recognize you by a long chestnut braid and sarcastic remarks." She gestured to my braid and I put my hands down, but did not meet hers.
"Wait a sec, you know Professor G? Who the hell are you?" I demanded. She looked at me quizzically.
"What do you mean 'who the hell am I'? I'm the back up pilot!" The girl stated.
I blinked a couple times at her. "Y-/You're/ the back up pilot!?" I asked shocked. She nodded before narrowing her eyes at me.
"Why? Don't think a girl's capable of doing so?"
"Now I never said that!" I spat.
"Then is it because I'm overweight? I'll have you know that I trained just as hard as the rest of--"
"Freeze." As the two of us had been speaking I hadn't noticed Trowa sneak up behind her with my gun outstretched. He shoved the gun into her back making her facial features contort in a grimace of pain.
"It's alright Tro," I sighed. "/She's/ the back up pilot."
"She can't be." Trowa responded in a level voice. "The back up is supposed to meet us at the supermarket."
"At the supermarket?" The girl questioned. "Why the hell would you meet someone at a /supermarket/?"
"She knows Professor G." I responded to Trowa, ignoring her outburst although that had been my initial thought when I first learned about where we'd be meeting the back up.
"She could have found out through OZ." Trowa responded, gun still shoved in her back. She held her hands up to show she had no means of retaliation.
"OZ doesn't know about the docs." I returned, though now a bit uncertain on the matter.
"They could have found out recently." Trowa asserted.
"They wouldn't be able to locate /us/ though." I replied.
"You don't know that for certain." He stated.
"True."
"Can I ask you guys a question? Wouldn't it look just a /little/ conspicuous if I-- the back up pilot I mean-- showed up a supermarket in a black Taurus mobile suit?" The girl asked looking at me since she couldn't move to see Trowa.
"She has a point." I replied scratching my head. "What should we do with her?" I asked looking to Trowa.
"I'm not sure." He replied.
"Well, we can't stay out here all night." I said, the temperature dropping by the minute. "How 'bout we take her back to the house and wait till the guys come back with the back up pilot and then question her?"
"But /I/ am the back up pilot!" The girl objected, obviously trying hard to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
"We don't know that for a fact." I said to her. "Don't worry, we won't kill you until we're sure." I winked.
"That's real reassuring." She spat before swallowing. She was nervous, that was for sure, but her reason for that particular emotion wasn't clear. Was she in fact an OZ spy and that was why she was so nervous? Or was it because an alleged comrade had her at gun point?
We silently marched her back to the safe house. She didn't protest in any way, but gave uneasy glances to me and our surroundings.
"Um, I don't mean to interrupt the silence and all, but shouldn't you hide the Taurus?" She asked suddenly, looking to me as she could still not see Trowa.
I stopped and looked to Trowa. "We probably should do that before it gets too dark to find our way back."
"Where would we hide it?" Trowa asked also having stopped.
"I dunno, with the Gundams?"
"That would be foolish. OZ's plan is probably to locate the Gundams for their own means or to destroy them." Trowa replied.
"Well, there aren't that many places to hide a mobile suit T." I responded.
Trowa sighed and looked up to the sky which was now turning violet. "If we're going to hide it we'd have to do it now."
"We kinda have to hide it, especially since it's in a clearing." I said with a sigh of my own. We stood for a few minutes contemplating our options, the girl rubbed her arms feverishly. I couldn't blame her though, it /was/ getting cold.
"Look, do whatever you want with the suit, I don't care, but can we please go inside somewhere? I'm freezing." Still, the three of us stood silent until I spoke.
"How 'bout this? You take her back to the safe, contact the guys if they're not already home and I'll take the suit... Somewhere..." I suggested. Trowa stared at me for a moment before nodding.
"Okay, we'll be at the safe then."
"Good." I heard the girl mutter to herself, slightly relieved.
The two of them continued on back to the safe house, leaving me to fend through the dimly lit forest. I sighed. How did I get myself into these things? Grumbling and grudgingly, I made my way back to the Taurus. Now all I had to do was figure out where the hell I was going to put it.
Trowa was right about not putting it with the Gundams as a precaution, but there really weren't many places to hide something this big. Nor was there enough space despite the fact we were in the middle of nowhere. As long as it was out of the clearing was good enough, I suppose. Just lie it down somewhere in the woods. If there was a cave around I could store it in there, but the only cave in the proximity was hiding Deathscythe, so...
Ah, hell, I'll just stick it in the woods. We would be leaving in a day or two anyway.
~*~
It was pitch black, I had twisted my ankle and fallen more times than I could count. I was tired, now more sore then ever, sweaty... And damn it! I was still fucking hungry! The safe had never looked more inviting than it did right now with light emitting from the few windows. I briefly wondered if the other three were home yet, but if they hadn't come baring food and aspirin I didn't care.
I opened the door to find it relatively quiet. This was never unusual so I never knew if anyone was home or not. That could get pretty annoying sometimes, but I had grown accustomed to it. As I limped into the house I saw the girl and Trowa sitting at the kitchen table. There was no sign of Quat, Heero, or Wufei.
"They're still not home?" I grimaced as I sat on the less than comfortable couch. Trowa shook his head.
"And Quatre's not answering his phone." He added.
I sighed exasperated and leaned my head against the green couch. "That can't be good."
"Maybe it's bad reception." Suggested the girl. She seemed placid, but appeared to know her place and contently sat in the wooden chair at the small kitchen table, back facing me.
We ignored her comment and lapsed into silence for a moment or two.
"They can't /still/ be at the supermarket." I stated flatly. "There is no way they'd wait /this/ long."
"I don't know, Heero might." Trowa responded.
"Not even Heero would wait this long." I argued.
"Orders from Doctor J would keep him there." Trowa concluded.
I sighed knowing that was the truth. Heero /would/ wait this long and Quatre and Wufei would just have to wait with him until kingdom come. Though Quatre would've called us by now to let us know the guy hadn't shown up. The fact that he wasn't answering his phone either made me a bit uneasy.
"Do you think we should go check up on them? I mean Quat's not answering his cell and all..." I asked uneasy. Trowa shook his head.
"Quatre probably turned his cell phone off."
It was now my turn to shake my head. "Quatre wouldn't do that unless it was an undercover mission."
"Wouldn't you consider this being an under cover mission?" The girl asked, daring to turn a pair of light blue eyes on me.
"Shut up." I spat at her and she turned back around in her seat without another word.
"She has a point Duo." Trowa responded thoughtful. "As do you."
"So what should we do?"
"I'm not sure." He responded quietly.
I sighed exasperated before hefting myself off the couch... Or at least /attempting/ to get off the couch. I fell back onto it and clamped my hands around my left ankle as if they could dissolve the pain. I walked the majority of the way back to the damn safe house with a twisted ankle and it didn't hurt /that/ much!
"Damn it!" I cried.
"What's wrong?" Trowa asked getting up from his seat at the kitchen table. I squinted up at him.
"I twisted my ankle on the way back from hiding the MS." I managed to reply.
Trowa sighed and opened the freezer for an ice pack. The girl had long before turned to face me, but she didn't look too sympathetic. She didn't say anything either and for that I was glad.
"Here." Trowa kneeled and unraveled my fingers from their deadly grasp around the throbbing ankle and applied an ice pack. "It doesn't seem too bad. Just lay off it for awhile."
"Easy for you to say." I grimaced. "If we ended up having a mission tonight could you imagine the look on Heero's face if I said 'Sorry, I twisted my ankle so I can't come'? He'd murder me."
Trowa smiled, but whatever he had been thinking he didn't voice. That was the kind of the guy he was. He didn't voice pointless things like moi and I admired him for that. He only put input if he felt it was needed. Trowa preferred to observe than talk. It could give you the impression that he wasn't paying attention, but that wasn't the case.
Through the stillness of the house I heard my cell phone ring. Of course it was upstairs in my bedroom. I attempted to get up, but Trowa pushed me back down and rose himself.
"I'll get it." He said.
"It's on the floor next to my bed." I said to his retreating back. He disappeared down the hall and up the creaking stairs. I looked over to the girl who stared down the hallway for a moment before drifting her gaze across the ceiling, following the creaking of footsteps over our heads.
"You know, you could run if you wanted." I suddenly found myself saying. "It's not like I could stop you at the moment."
Her eyes widened in slight surprise before she smiled sardonically. "I have no reason to."
"Yeah, okay." I responded halfheartedly. Trowa returned after a minute with a somber look on his face.
"I never want to go back in there."
I laughed, "Scary, huh?"
"How does Heero sleep in there?" Trowa asked absently while handing me the slick black cell phone. I shrugged at his question before asking my own,
"Catch the caller?"
"No."
I checked the back list of calls and noted the latest one was from Quat. He left I voice message so I dialed the number to check it. Trowa raised an eyebrow at me inquiring. "Quat called." I responded. He nodded.
"Duo!" Quatre's voice whispered urgently through a staticy connection. "Orders got mixed; we've been in an OZ base the whole time! ...Fei and Heero... Separated..." As the message progressed it got harder and harder to decipher what the blonde was trying to get across, and finally the connection terminated all together.
I stared at the phone in panic. If what the first part of Quatre's message was true (which it likely was) then that meant we had been sitting ducks for the most part of the day, miles from our Gundams, in the most unlikely place for an OZ base. A supermarket for Christ's sake!
I cleared the message before looking up at two pairs of eyes watching me, solemnly. "I've got some bad news."